Mythic Entertainment is named as the defendant in this case filed on Febuary 5th 11:50AM involving various anti-trust, copyright, and anti-competitive issues. BlackSnow Interactive (BSI) is a group of individuals that play, buy, and sell in various Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). Growing from only one person nearly two years ago, to seven full-time people, this group has successfully developed a market in which they are able to supply players with gaming currency, items, or characters at competitive prices. Mythic wants BSI to cease all sales immediately.
After entering the DAoC market, shortly after its release, BSI created a website and began listing their sales on various auction sites, such as Ebay. BSI’s Director of Sales, Lee Caldwell, was quoted as saying, “What it comes down to is, does a MMORPG player have rights to his time, or does Mythic own that player’s time? It is unfair of Mythic to stop those who wish to sell their items, currency or even their own accounts, which were created with their own time. Mythic, in my opinion, and hopefully the court’s, does not have the copyright ownership to regulate what a player does with his or her own time or to determine how much that time is worth on the free market.“
Caldwell goes on to say, “Mythic’s attempt to stifle competition in their own game makes it possible for only full-time gamers to succeed in the game and most MMORPG players can’t compete on that level. The person that plays just a few hours a week, can’t put in the time required to build their character or collect the items needed to join others in the online battles. No one has stood up to any of these software giants, until now.”
If you would like to take a look at the actual court document, please visit www.camelotexchange.com.
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