11 Video Games That Led To Lawsuits

Anyone who's spent any time immersed in a World of Warcraft chat room knows that there's some pretty questionable people roaming Azeroth. In 2010, Blizzard set their sights on one person in particular, who wasn't even a part of any regulated, approved chat.

Alyson Reeves was the owner of Scapegaming, which made its millions hosting a private WoW server. Subscribers could pay for everything from free levels to free gear and endless rare items, and they could pay hundreds of dollars for access. The private servers skirted Blizzard's own servers, along with their EULA and all the other rules and regulations that goes along with doing things the legit way.

Blizzard's inevitable lawsuit featured a huge list of charges that ranged from copyright infringement to getting around subscription fees. Those subscription fees alone would amount to no small pile of gold, as there were around 427,000 people on Scapegaming's server at the time of the lawsuit. When Reeves (who operated out of the country of Georgia) didn't show up for court, the ruling automatically went in favor of Blizzard. But they weren't just awarded the win — they were awarded the mind-numbing amount of $88 million.

That's not a typo. The court decided that Scapegaming needed to pay $64,000 in attorney's fees, $3 million in disgorged profits, and a further $85.4 million in statutory damages, a number based on the members of the community, multiplied by $200 for each offense. It's highly unlikely Blizzard will ever see more than a fraction of that amount, but humiliating Reeves and forcing her servers offline forever is probably more than enough of a victory.

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