Blizzard has started legal proceedings against Michael Donnelly and MDY Industries, developers of WoW Glider, a program that Blizzard claims helps players break the rules of the game.
In fact, Blizzard claims that WoW Glider helps players violate their End User License Agreement by allowing them to cheat. The WoW Glider website describes the software as working like a regular player since it, looks at your health, mana, energy, etc. It moves the mouse around and pushes keys on the keyboard. You tell it about your character, where you want to kill things, and what to kill. Then it kills for you, automatically. You can do something else, like eat dinner or go to a movie, and when you return, you'll have a lot more experience and loot.
The possible sore point is that WoW Glider also comes in the... Full Version variety which will set you back USD 25 and promises to ...help lower your risk (of detection) by... providing better control of and reaction to changes in the game's detection software.
Blizzard have announced that they are demanding all rights to the software and website while they are also asking for all profits derived from the sale of the software as compensation for any legal costs involved. Blizzard's main point claims that WoW Glider is at fault as it bypasses the game's protection by not loading it through its official launcher. Additionally there is the ethical question regarding making a profit from someone else's IP.
A first glimpse at the documentation of WoW Glider would suggest that it will be hard for its developer to argue a case. The software's website does argue that, While Glider does not violate any of the terms listed under Blizzard's "Client/Server Manipulation Policy", it is still a third-party program and their Terms of Service are very open in what falls under that definition, meaning they can find you in violation for pretty much anything they want. This statement however, implies that WoW Glider accepts that Blizzard can challenge its existence.
We await Michael Donnelly's response and that of the WoW community in general.
