Consequences for bnetd? [LWN.net]

Consequences for bnetd?

Posted Oct 7, 2004 9:22 UTC (Thu) by rwmj (subscriber, #5474)
Parent article: A busy week for the courts

Thanks for the excellent description of the bnetd ruling.

However, I'm confused here: what exactly are the consequences for the bnetd developers? The code is, presumably, "out there" and it still works and people can still play the games with the alternate servers. The developers can still work to improve bnetd and there seems very little that a court could do to stop that, bar putting them all in prison.

So someone please tell me what's at stake here.

Rich.

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Consequences for bnetd?

Posted Oct 7, 2004 17:29 UTC (Thu) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link]

It doesn't mean a whole lot for us individually; it only keeps us from
developing or distributing the code. That was already the status quo since
the takedown notice was sent and during the trial so things haven't changed
much. We worked out a deal with Blizzard a while back which prevents any
monetary liability on our part in exchange for settling Blizzard's
copyright and trademark claims, and promising not to work on bnetd after
the trial no matter what the outcome.

So there is no possibility of us having to pay even $10 in damages, let
alone millions (which is what Blizzard was asking for). The partial
settlement felt somewhat like caving in, but it preserved the important
questions for the court and at the same time it removed any possibility of
monetary liability to Blizzard.

As for the general impact, I guess the software is in the same boat as
DeCSS now.

Consequences for bnetd?

Posted Oct 14, 2004 6:47 UTC (Thu) by flewellyn (subscriber, #5047) [Link]

And if, on appeal, the ruling is overturned? What then? Will the partial settlement be abandoned?

Consequences for bnetd?

Posted Nov 1, 2004 23:21 UTC (Mon) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link]

No, I don't think the status of the partial settlement would be affected
by what happens in appeals.