Comments on: Blizzard finally flexes some NDA muscle

By: spinks

spinks — Thu, 13 May 2010 05:21:55 +0000

I’m not so much talking about the legal side of it here, as the NDA phase being a part of development. It’s the pre-beta where people who share goodwill towards the company just agree not to talk about it.

By: Arcsin

Arcsin — Thu, 13 May 2010 04:53:47 +0000

My understanding is he never signed the NDA, therefore it doesn’t apply.

Instead, he is simply *distributing material under copyright*. Amazingly, still illegal, as the MPAA or RIAA will be happy to tell you.

By: SlikRX/Balthazario

SlikRX/Balthazario — Thu, 13 May 2010 00:51:58 +0000

Here’s the thing, an NDA is: a non-disclosure AGREEMENT.

Agreement implies (actually requires) that both parties have signed a legally binding document. I don’t recall seeing/reading/hearing that MMOc had signed any agreement with Blizzard regarding the alpha.

If that is the case (that nobody at MMOC signed anything) then the NDA that Blizzard has with someone has ZERO bearing on MMOC.

Let’s say that MMOC signed nothing, but I did, and I somehow got into the alpha. I then give the info to MMOC. The only person that is legally at risk by the NDA would be me.

Now, let’s say I gave MMOC the kernel for the torrent, which they then used to obtain the software, break it apart. Then MMOC published that info, then there is the possibility of theft and of copywright infringement issues.

However, if someone at MMOC *did* sign something, that’s a whole different ball of wax…

By: Tesh

Tesh — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:08:03 +0000

Tim Howgego has an interesting article up on the leaks:

http://timhowgego.com/a-strange-game.html

By: Stabs

Stabs — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:57:23 +0000

any legal action is going to ask, “how much damage in $$$ did this leak actually do”

I think the usual court procedure is to look at the earnings of the person infringing the IP rights. If MMO Champions makes £400 this year and leaking the Alpha is deemed to be 25% of the value of the site this year (based on hits etc) then Blizzard would be entitled to £100.

There’s also malicious damages but clearly MMO Champion did not leak this to be malicious.

I’m sticking to my theory that Blizzard actually quite likes this hype-storm.

By: Canazza

Canazza — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:00:22 +0000

Having been under several NDAs myself I’m quite surprised that MMO Champion actually broke it. When they released all that information I naturally assumed it was because there either a) was no NDA, b) They had special dispensation and were allowed to release certain bits of information (IE they weren’t allowed to release quest information, mob info, raid info, instance info etc, just maps, screenshots and the unfinished talents)

I honestly hope that they’ve had their Beta privileges removed or atleast suspended otherwise the NDA isn’t worth the tubes it’s sent down