Bnetd
From OSSWiki
- The title of this article should be bnetd. The initial letter is capitalized due to technical restrictions.
| Publisher: | bnetd | Version: | 0.4.25 | |
| License: | GNU General Public License | Release Date: | ||
| Website: | http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~owend/free/bnetd.html | Filesize: | 3.7 MB | |
| Status: | Ongoing | |||
| Supported platforms: Independent | ||||
| Categories: Games | ||||
bnetd is an open source software package, released under the GNU General Public License, that provides a complete emulation of California based Blizzard Entertainment's battle.net service. The software allowed users to create and play on their own set of servers, instead of relying on Blizzard's official servers. This became a benefit to players who wanted to play their Battle.net capable games online without encountering increasing lag and Internet bot usage. bnetd was reverse engineered from its Battle.net cousin, but unlike Battle.net, it lacked the ability to check clients for valid CD-Keys. This enabled players running pirated, stolen, or illegal copies of Battle.net capable games to access full multiplayer functionality.
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Vivendi Universal v. Jung
In February 2002, Blizzard threatened legal action against the developers of bnetd. Blizzard filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, alleging violations of their games' End User License Agreement (sometimes referred to as a clickwrap license), as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), in what would become an important test case for portions of that law. The Electronic Frontier Foundation mounted a defense, but the court granted Blizzard a summary judgement. On appeal, defendants argued that federal copyright law, which permits reverse engineering, preempts California state contract law, upon which the clickwrap prohibition on reverse engineering is grounded.
In September 2005, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the defendant's argument and affirmed the lower court's decision. "Appellants failed to establish a genuine issue of material fact as to the applicability of the interoperability exception [of the DMCA]. The district court properly granted summary judgement in favor of Blizzard and Vivendi on the operability exception." The appeals court further ruled that bnetd circumvents copy protection in violation of the DMCA. (Eighth Circuit 2005)
As a result, the bnetd.org domain was transferred to Blizzard's control pursuant to the consent decree entered during the trial. As recently as March 2006, the domain was being redirected to Blizzard's battle.net website. Although Blizzard won the case, the lawsuit did not stop the continued distribution of bnetd's open source, nor of derivative projects such as PvPGN. Other hosts were quickly set up by third parties in countries where no anti-circumvention legislation equivalent to the DMCA exists.
Criticism
Critics of the decision claim Blizzard violated its own license's forum selection clause, and forum shopped to keep the case out of the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit, which includes California, has declined to enforce contracts similar to clickwraps in several cases.
Critics also dispute the CD key's function as a copy protection. Since the CD key does not prevent bnetd emulated games from being copied, installed, or played offline, it can be said to be merely a battle.net key. Further, battle.net administrators regularly disable CD keys to block suspected cheaters, not suspected copyright infringers, from the service. It could therefore be argued that bnetd does not circumvent a battle.net key's purpose, since bnetd allows access to emulated battle.net servers, but not to battle.net itself.
Sources
- United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (2005). Davidson & Associates DBA Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.; Vivendi Universal Inc. v. Jung et al., 422 F.3d 630 (8th Cir. 2005). Accessed online on March 22, 2006. [1]
