Shortly after suspending or banning some 5,000 players for cheating on StarCraft II, Blizzard has sued individuals responsible for creating the hacks. The company has filed suit against three programmers known by the handles "Permaphrost," "Cranix," and "Linuxawesome," accusing them of developing and selling hacks for StarCraft II in violation of license agreements and copyright law.
Blizzard's suit claims that the defendants developed, marketed and distributed a variety of hacks for StarCraft II only days after launch – though we imagine most if not all carried over from the beta. "On the very day that StarCraft II was released, representatives of the hacks Web site advised members of the public that 'our staff is already planning new releases for this game'," said the filing.
Besides the obvious violation of Blizzard's user agreements, the company accused the defendants of inducing copyright infringement. "When users of the Hacks download, install and use the Hacks, they copy StarCraft II copyrighted content into their computer's RAM in excess of the scope of their limited license, as set forth in the EULA and ToU, and create derivative works of StarCraft II."
Blizzard claims the harm from the hack creators is "immediate, massive and irreparable," damaging the value of StarCraft II and wrecking the fun of legit players. That apparently translates to lost sales, especially in future content, such as the two upcoming expansions for StarCraft II. We're not sure how much Blizzard seeks in compensation, but the company bagged $6m in a similar WoW suit.