Maryland police has no legal juridistiction to subpoena things from Blizzard (situated elsewhere). The subpoena is more to be seen as a kind request for information.
If the Maryland police had wanted to make more of an effort, couldn’t they have asked a court in Blizzard’s jurisdiction to issue a subpoena? (Also note that fleeing the country to avoid prosecution is a Federal crime, so the FBI could have gotten involved.)
I'm very glad the author is talking about his concern in a calm and reasoned manner, and focuses on his specific issue with reasonable clarity, rather than being sensationalist and conflating several issues together.
The specifics of the case aside, it is sort of troubling that a private company can make a decision on how to enforce a law entirely unrelated to its operations. I would have no problem with Blizzard being compelled to release private information (given due process of law). I would have no problem with them being bound not to release the information, by a privacy policy or something. The fact that they can elect to comply or not, based on their own whims, is somewhat troubling. At the least, I would like them to have a explicit and specific policy of when they will comply.
Fortunately, this is a rather strange edge case based on jurisdictions, and it's unlikely to come up in the future as awareness about this case makes people use proxies (or stop playing). But the principle should still be resolved.
It's disturbing that Blizzard will hand over a thick folder of personal information like candy on Halloween, even to (out of jurisdiction) law officers. But there's nothing very Azeroth-specific going on there -- your cellular provider could have done the same thing, basically.
The Blizzard Terms of Service note that this will happen following a request from law enforcement.
17.C Blizzard may, with or without notice to you, disclose your Internet Protocol (IP) address(es), personal information, Chat logs, and other information about you and your activities: (a) in response to a request by law enforcement, a court order or other legal process; or (b) if Blizzard believes that doing so may protect your safety or the safety of others.
If one chooses to play the game, after having agreed to have their records turned over in such a case, it seems like less of a moral issue. Another reason why people should consider actually reading their terms of service before agreeing.
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[ 5.5 ms ] story [ 19.6 ms ] threadIf the Maryland police had wanted to make more of an effort, couldn’t they have asked a court in Blizzard’s jurisdiction to issue a subpoena? (Also note that fleeing the country to avoid prosecution is a Federal crime, so the FBI could have gotten involved.)
The specifics of the case aside, it is sort of troubling that a private company can make a decision on how to enforce a law entirely unrelated to its operations. I would have no problem with Blizzard being compelled to release private information (given due process of law). I would have no problem with them being bound not to release the information, by a privacy policy or something. The fact that they can elect to comply or not, based on their own whims, is somewhat troubling. At the least, I would like them to have a explicit and specific policy of when they will comply.
Fortunately, this is a rather strange edge case based on jurisdictions, and it's unlikely to come up in the future as awareness about this case makes people use proxies (or stop playing). But the principle should still be resolved.
17.C Blizzard may, with or without notice to you, disclose your Internet Protocol (IP) address(es), personal information, Chat logs, and other information about you and your activities: (a) in response to a request by law enforcement, a court order or other legal process; or (b) if Blizzard believes that doing so may protect your safety or the safety of others.
If one chooses to play the game, after having agreed to have their records turned over in such a case, it seems like less of a moral issue. Another reason why people should consider actually reading their terms of service before agreeing.