A federal court in California has ruled in favor of Blizzard Entertainment in a two-year legal battle with Ceiling Fan Software regarding World of Warcraft bots. The court has also awarded Blizzard a $7 million judgement.
Blizzard filed the lawsuit against Ceiling Fan in December 2011 for developing bots which allowed users to automate aspects of World of Warcraft.
The court agreed that Ceiling Fan knowingly sold software that violated World of Warcraft‘s terms of use, and therefore constituted interference with contractual relations under California law. According to one of Ceiling Fan’s co-owners the company had generated revenue of over $289,000 by 2013 and approximately 1,400 World of Warcraft players had been warned, suspended or banned by Blizzard for using a Ceiling Fan bot.
The court has also granted Blizzard a permanent injunction against Ceiling Fan which will prevent the company from selling, licensing, operating and allowing others to use their bots.
“We are very sorry that we can no longer offer our products and we understand that you may be concerned about this result,” co-founder of Ceiling Fan Josh Becker said in a statement on the company’s website.
(via Polygon)