Jagex has announced today that after a two year battle with the developers of iBot, they've secured a victory which orders Impulse Software to pay damages, in addition to adhering to a newly placed injunction which prevents them from ever developing botting software for any Jagex product in the future.
Jagex has had multiple legal battles over the past couple years in answer to the rampant botting and gold farming that was present in RuneScape. The adverse impact these illegal activities have on the game and community is tangible, and this victory could set an important precedent for future legal cases regarding this category of abuse towards many games and their companies.
Mark Gerhard, CEO & CTO of Jagex, stated: “We began the legal action against the Snellmans over two years ago as a part of our ongoing commitment to ridding RuneScape of bots and gold farmers. Faced with this significant challenge we have continued to demonstrate that we will never shy away from difficult battles, we don’t compromise on taking the right course of action and, regardless of the time, money or effort involved we always do what it takes in order to protect our community”.
He went on to say: “We have spared no expense fighting this case, as demonstrated by the seven figure bill this action has cost, but the point of this and other cases of its kind, is that we will continue bring to justice those who set out to harm the game or our beloved community. We are delighted to say that we have convincingly neutered them after a very long battle.”
“Technically speaking this is a veritable arms race, there is no permanent triumph in cyber security. The only serious long term strategy is to ensure you continuously innovate well ahead of the challenges faced today; that way you should hopefully always be a few steps ahead in the future. I’m happy to say 1337 Ninja’s are already well underway with “Optimus” Jagex’s next generation obfuscation and encryption framework which will be released shortly.”
Speaking about the Bot Nuke, Daniel Clough, VP of RuneScape said: “Jagex have been working on anti-botting and gold farming measure for a very long time and have continually been ensuring that the games integrity and community are protected. This action has been central to both our longevity and success over the years and I’m sure it will put us in very good stead for the years to come. We launched ‘Bot Nuke Day’ in October and instantly wiped out 98% of all the bots in the game. We are delighted with the results of our efforts so far and are pleased to hear the positive comments from our players. The economy has settled down over the past few months, the game has truly been flourishing since then and as a result the team and I are all looking forward to a great 2012 for RuneScape.”Gerhard concluded with: “The result of this case against the Snellmans should serve as a serious deterrent for anyone who continues to be involved in developing botting software or scripts or even maintaining or supporting those involved.”
RuneScape is a fantasy browser-based MMORPG, in which players travel throughout multiple kingdoms, regions, and cities by teleportation spells, devices, and public transportation. Battle monsters, complete quests, and gather resources alongside an immense community made up of over 156 million registered accounts!
Visit http://www.runescape.com/ for more information about the game, and be sure to drop by http://www.zybez.net/, the best source of Runescape news and content!
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