Vivendi Universal is not doing its customer base any favors, yet again. Vivendi legal counsel server Internet Gateway, a St. Louis-based ISP, with papers demanding the removal of the bnetd gaming server on their network. So Vivendi is not just concerned with alleged piracy of their artists’ music, but now they are setting their lawyers on innocent webmasters and the ISPs they reside on. And once again, the DCMA’s meaning is being stretched.
Vivendi is claiming copy-protection infringement on games like “Diablo II” and “StarCraft” that bnetd host on their own server. Vivendi offers their own official gaming server, but it’s supposedly plagued by network problems and gamers felt forced to find other gaming community sites for the Vivendi games.
Vivendi claims that bnetd encourages games to use pirated software. But the owners of bnetd stated the obvious when they said that they have no control over what version of the gaming software the gamer has installed on the gamer’s own local PC. Vivendi wouldn’t release the copy-protection verification code to bnetd, so Vivendi did not help themselves there.
Why should people be held accountable for things they cannot control, especially when the intent was honest? What is it going to take for the general public in this nation to finally realize the judicial reform that needs to take place in order to prevent life from being one gigantic lawsuit and our losing the right to do anything?
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