From: TruthMonger <tm@algebra.com>
Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 13:01:37 -0700 (PDT)
To: Sunder <sunder@brainlink.com>
Subject: First, they came for the morons... / Re: Blizzard Gets Sued For Snooping On Gamers
In-Reply-To: <354E42A8.6C422A1A@brainlink.com>
Message-ID: <354F70C6.4182@algebra.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Sunder wrote: 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Salvatore Denaro <sal@panix.com>
> ---  Blizzard Gets Sued For Snooping On Gamers ---
>  Game developer Blizzard Entertainment is being sued for unlawful
> business practices, stemming from the revelation that the company's
> hot-selling new StarCraft snoops through players' hard drives and
> e-mails information to the company over the Internet.
> 
> http://www.techweb.com/news/story/TWB19980430S0015

But Blizzard defends the trap door, saying it was
meant to determine if certain players unable to log
onto the company's multiplayer gaming site,
Battle.Net, were using pirated software.

  And I've got a trap door into all Government computers to
determine if they have pirated copies of my letters to mom.
Nothing wrong with that, eh?

Besides Driscoll, most players interviewed by
TechWeb said they were not bothered by Blizzard's
actions. "The only people who were affected by this
were the morons who stole the game," said Jesse
Giles, in Houston. "As soon as you steal the game,
you're committing an illegal act."

  "First, they came for the morons who stole the game, and
I was a moron with a legal copy, so I didn't speak up..."

Nick Fox, of Waukesha, Wisc., agreed, saying credit
card companies hold large amounts of personal
information without legal liability. "I believe there are
more major invasions of privacy than them finding out
our real names, and everyone should chill," he said.

  And if Dad is already bungholing you,then it's no big deal
if Uncle Bob takes sloppy seconds, eh?

  Blizzard implies that they are only sticking it in 'a little
bit, but it seems to make sense that, once they have it in, they
might want to 'wiggle it around' a bit, to find out if the user
has pirated copies of their other software. And when they get
together for drinks with their buddies at other corporations,
I imagine they share information so they can keep track of who
the real whores are. Next thing you know, they're carpooling
to gangbang the users, to save on corporate gas.
  No doubt advancing technology will allow them to build a 'profile'
of software thieves, enabling them to kick in the doors of poor
niggers and cheap Jews and take them to special camps where they
can be 'reeducated'.
  And Nick and Jesse Moron will explain to us how only people who
fit the Piracy Profile have reason to worry, and that the SoftWare
internment camps are much nicer than the Credit internment camps.

  The 'upside' of Blizzard's snooping is that if the user has their
credit card information on the computer, then Blizzard can send and
charge them for future updates automatically, saving the user from
having to waste time deciding whether or not they want it.

  I'm beginning to think that AOL is the disease, and DC is only a
symptom.

TruthMongrel