The German bot manufacturer Bossland has made allegations against Blizzard in a statement, claiming they obtained the source code for their bot for Heroes of the Storm. Stormbuddy will be discontinued.
Bots in Blizzard games are “Made in Germany,” they come from Zwickau. Bossland GmbH is apparently the “market leader.” Honorbuddy, Demonbuddy, and Stormbuddy are the “products.”
Blizzard has been pursuing legal actions against Bossland in German courts for years. Things are not going very well for Blizzard in this regard. It’s a lengthy, complicated matter through all the instances. So far, Blizzard has not been able to achieve any measurable success.
Blizzard has apparently pressured a freelancer so much that he handed over the source text
Last week, there was news that Blizzard is going against James “Apoc” Enright in a California U.S. court. He is held responsible as a private individual for the bots in HotS, Diablo 3, and WoW. From Germany, Bossland stated: That’s ridiculous; we are the ones making the bots. Apoc is a freelancer. Blizzard knows this; they are suing us.
The impression was created: Blizzard is losing in Germany and is simply starting another trial in the USA. That was the story Bossland told.
Today we received another statement from Zwetasch Letschew, the managing director of Bossland GmbH. He said: On the same day the lawsuit became known, Rod Rigole, head of Blizzard’s legal department, visited Enright and put him in front of the choice: either sign an agreement or go to court. Part of the agreement was to never touch Blizzard games again.
Bossland advised Enright to accept it. From personal experience, they believe: In the USA, the one with the bigger wallet prevails.
So far, so good, one might say. Then one less person works on Stormbuddy. But it goes further.
As Zwetsche writes in his statement, they learned today that Enright handed over Blizzard the source code of “Stormbuddy.” That was part of the deal.
Bossland discontinues Stormbuddy
Stormbuddy is (according to Letschew) a “product of Bossland GmbH that autonomously executes moves in Heroes of the Storm.”
Letschew says: “Stormbuddy has been developed for over half a year; hundreds, even thousands of developer hours have been invested to bring its artificial intelligence to a high level.”
Apoc had no right to hand over these “copyright protected works” to Blizzard. Blizzard has no right to appropriate them.
Bossland says: We are no longer the only ones who have the source code of Stormbuddy. Bossland cannot assess the impact. They are discontinuing the development of Stormbuddy and will no longer sell it.
This is not the first time that Bossland has made allegations against Blizzard. Last time, Bossland achieved an advantage in court, but afterward, Blizzard banned many users of the WoW bot “Honorbuddy.” Bossland considered this strike in the game to be a direct reaction to their court defeat.
At Bossland, the idea was raised that Blizzard has installed malware.
