The one million gamers who bought strategy game StarCraft, the latest adventure from games developer Blizzard Entertainment, in the first week after its released appear to have received more than they bargained for. A division of Cendant Corp, Blizzard has admitted that in a bid to deter software pirates, its free online gaming forum Battle.net collected names and email addresses over the internet without players’ knowledge or permission. When the practice was revealed, the company apologized and promised not to do it again. However Donald P. Driscoll, an attorney for Californian consumer affairs body Intervention Inc, had already filed a suit against Blizzard. Intervention is seeking full refunds for existing StarCraft customers, and a new version of the game without the anti-piracy feature. StarCraft players are divided over the suit, with one posting to an online forum: What Blizzard did is nothing more than what any web page does with cookies. Is it within their rights? Yes. Could they have been a little more tactful? Yes. Should they be sued for it? NO! Attorney Driscoll says the StarCraft case is worse than the worst excesses of cookie use: Nobody has permission to upload your registry.
