United States Ninth Circuit

In an action seeking a declaratory judgment to establish that plaintiff's sales of a "leveling" program (Glider) for World of Warcraft (WoW) did not infringe Blizzard's copyright or other rights, judgment for defendant is affirmed in part where plaintiff was liable under Digital Millennium Copyright Act section 1201(a)(2) with respect to WoW’s dynamic non-literal elements. However, the judgment is reversed in part where: 1) WoW players did not commit copyright infringement by using Glider in violation of the terms of use; and 2) Blizzard did not maintain an effective access control measure with respect to WoW's literal elements and individual non-literal elements, and therefore, plaintiff did not violate DMCA section 1201(a)(2) with respect to these elements.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/14/2010
• Published 12/14/2010

Judges

• Consuelo M. Callahan

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Lance C. Venable, Christian S. Genetski