The Ultimate World of Warcraft Leveling & Gold
Guide was written and published by 24-year old Brian Kopp of
Bronson, Florida.
According to his suit, filed last week in the US District Court
for the Central District of California, the guide contains tips on
how to play the game but does not contain any copyrighted text or
storyline from the video game. It also includes disclaimers stating
that it is not an official guide and noting that Kopp is not
affiliated with Blizzard Entertainment.
He has sold several hundred copies of the book on eBay, for
around $15 each, since August last year. But he says that Blizzard,
its parent company, Vivendi Universal Games Inc, and the
Entertainment Software Association (ESA) have invoked the
controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act to ask eBay to block
sales of the guide, claiming that it was in breach of
copyright.
Every time eBay received such a notification, it closed down the
relevant auction for the guide, says Kopp. EBay then suspended
Kopp’s account.
He is now selling the guide on a personal website, despite
threats that he will be sued for copyright infringement.
Kopp has made a pre-emptive strike. He is suing Blizzard,
Vivendi and the ESA, seeking to establish that the guide does not
infringe upon any intellectual property rights, to ensure that the
defendants do not interfere with any future sales of the guide, and
to recover damages for lost sales.
His case has been taken on by advocacy group Public Citizen,
which is concerned that if the companies’ interpretation of their
copyright is allowed to prevail, it would threaten the publication
of future how-to guides about any subject and a wide variety of
other speech that merely comments on a copyrighted work.
“Copyright laws are designed to promote creativity and
innovation, not squelch it,” said Greg Beck, the Public Citizen
attorney representing Kopp. “A video game is copyrightable just
like a book, and just like a book you should be able to comment on
it, create new works inspired by it, teach about it in classes,
write newspaper articles about it and so on.”
“By claiming that mere publication of a how-to book about its
game infringes its copyright, Blizzard has interpreted its
intellectual property rights in a way that would prohibit
legitimate commentary that is protected by the First Amendment,” he
added.
