You may recall the long running Blizzard vs. MDY battle from various reports here on WoW Insider. In short, Blizzard sued MDY, the makers of the MMOGlider bot (formerly the WOWGlider bot), claiming that the bot violated Blizzard copyright by writing portions of the game to RAM in order to work (since you only have a license to run the game files, and do not actually own them, unauthorized copies are against the EULA). They also claimed that the bot tortiously interfered with Blizzard's customer base. MDY sued them right back, claiming they had every right to sell and distribute their bots.

MDY received a crushing blow yesterday as the court ruled against them, Virtually Blind reports, declaring them guilty of copyright infringement and tortious interference (Apparently, bots stealing your kills is now a legal issue, which is sort of cool). The ramifications of this decision are still being discussed in various corners of the net and legal world.

A tipster sent in a link to this post about World of Warcraft, specifically, how to force yourself to stop playing it.

I don't know why this made me laugh as hard as it did. For starters, some of the advice is good... I'd encourage you to read a book or take a martial arts class whether or not you're going to play WoW any longer. Books are fun. I sometimes read a book while I play WoW, but I suppose that wouldn't really be what the article is going for.

Part of the problem would be that I don't want to dismiss the article out of hand. After all, "Psychological dependence does not have to be limited only to substances; even activities and behavioral patterns can be considered addictions, if they are harmful, e.g. gambling, Internet use, usage of computers, sex / pornography, eating, self-harm, vandalism or work" according to Wikipedia's article on the subject. I suppose for me it's the 'if they're harmful' qualified that gets me. So far, WoW has given me and some friends some fun times and a chance to do something as a group when we can't all get together in one place, it's allows me to make new friends who live well outside my range, and it's allowed me to work out some frustrations that would otherwise go without venting. So for me at least WoW is a game that I play and a source of fun. Clearly, for some people WoW has become a big part of their social lives. And anything you care about can become an obsession or an addiction.

But still, I cannot help but laugh when I see advice like "burn yourself out by finding ways to cheat...Find a private server to play on" or my personal favorite, "Sabotage your WoW future". I'm kind of surprised the original author didn't feel the need to add "Seal yourself in a lightless vault with only tins of tomato soup for sustenance" or "hire an angry man to break your thumbs if you go near a keyboard'". It just seems so hyperbolic and reactionary that I can't help but be amused by it. The funniest part is when he advises people to play on private servers, warms them that this may get their account banned as it is a violation of Blizzard's ToS, and then later advises people to violate Blizzard's ToS to get their accounts banned. I don't think most players have to go to these extremes, I know I don't play so much that I feel this kind of fear over it.

Have you already begun to construct your WoW-proof bunker?

Mowing lawns is so passé, delivering newspapers is totally last year. These days kids have found a new way to make money: selling WoW characters on eBay.

But how, might you ask, can they get around the fact that this is clearly against the TOS? Evidently they are posting disclaimers on their auctions, letting bidders know that they aren't selling the characters (which are the intellectual property of Blizzard,) but are instead selling the time it took to level that character.

In a CNBC segment on the topic, one kid mentioned that he gets around $400 for a level 70 character. He puts his profits right back into the business as any bright entrepreneur would, reinvesting in characters he will then level up again to sell to – you guessed it – Chinese gold farmers. Now, as much as I like the idea of news we have been writing on for weeks getting mainstream coverage, I have to wonder if this disclaimer business isn't just a loophole to get past Blizzard. What do you think? Is it breaking the TOS to sell the characters even with a disclaimer, or is this just a novel workaround enabling kids to make a profit off their play time?

[via Jane Wells]

By a show of hands (and by hands we mean clicks), you've voted on your favorite posts on WoW Insider for the month of March. Here's the list of the top trafficked posts this month:

• In Death and Taxes, pallies heal and priests DPS (vampiric embrace FTW!)
• Who can resist delicious Hordecake?
• Leaked 2.1.0 patch notes? (zomg FAKE!)
• Food on the flying mount wing (warning: cute cat video enclosed)
• Tier 6 names and bonuses -- 'cuz we all want the Professor Plums.
• Use the Armory to find WoW's worst player because they're sure to make your sorry ass look halfway decent.
• Blue Notes: Seduction, Pet Health, and Old Hillsbrad -- because "seduction" is always a popular search term.
• Instance griefing not against the ToS? -- a) we don't need Blizzard to tell us that PuGs suck; b) couldn't there be a more elegant solution to this?
• Leveling build for a Retribution Paladin -- because Retnoobs need love too.
• Armory + Signature Generator = AWESOME! (note that the original server was crushed by the teeming hordes (see what we did there?) clogging the intertubes, but the original URL will redirect you to the new signature generator).

And to level our fishing skills -- any other posts from this month you particularly enjoyed that you wouldn't want your WoW-loving comrades to miss?

Poster Gnipgnop claims he's taught his pet cat to play World of Warcraft -- and wants to know whether or not this is a violation of the terms of service. Tseric responds to the thread with a cop out answer -- but inquiring minds really want to know! I've chatted with a guildmate recently about teaching a cat to play World of Warcraft, and we feel that a hunter would be the best class. You'd just have to do some heavy keyboard remapping: bind a fourth of the keys to autoshoot, another fourth to pet attack, another fourth to tab targeting, and the rest to assorted directional movements -- combined with some cats' natural fascination with keyboards, and it could work! (Of course, you would have to take over the controls to tame new pets, sell phat lewts, etc.) So, Blizzard, intelligent people everywhere demand an answer -- is it against the terms of service to teach my cat to play?

Until I saw this article, I hadn't realized that any country with which the US had a trade embargo was prohibited from adventuring throughout Azeroth according to World of Warcraft's terms of service.  Even formerly embargoed countries, such as Iraq and Iran, remain specifically banned from playing WoW.  This doesn't mean that there are no players in embargoed countries - only that they may be permanently banned whenever Blizzard takes the time to enforce these rules.  It's an interesting look at the barricades between some players and the virtual world most of us take for granted.