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+--- Thread: Blizzard knows where you live druggies. (/showthread.php?tid=21338)
Blizzard knows where you live druggies. - Zalfor - 2010-01-05
So, on my continued campaign on highlighting strange events that happen in the world daily, today it has popped up that Blizzard Entertainment has successfully jailed a drug dealer that had a warrant out for his arrest in Kokomo in Indiana, but that drug dealer was actually in Ottawa, Canada. But I'll let you see the story(which also includes other tidbits of companies exerting their "rights of agreements" on the populous). Be wery afraid people be wery afraid.
Internet witches and warlocks help nab US drug dealer
Tue Jan 5, 1:31 PM
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A popular online game featuring witches and warlocks has helped US law enforcement to track down and detain a fugitive wanted for drug dealing, news reports said Tuesday.
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Police in Kokomo, a town in the midwestern state of Indiana, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Chicago, tried to serve a warrant on Alfred Hightower last year for drug dealing but were told he had fled the United States and was believed to be in Canada.
"I put that information in my pocket and continued to gather evidence, and one day I got information that this guy was a regular player of an online gaming system, which was referred to as 'some wizards and warcraft' game," sheriff's deputy Matt Roberson told AFP.
"I knew from the description that he was playing 'World of Warcraft.' I knew because I used to play it," Roberson said.
Blizzard Entertainment -- the company that developed and publishes World of Warcraft -- was subpoenaed and several months later sent the deputy "a package of information" on Hightower, including the fugitive's IP address.
"I popped it into an IP address search and was able to locate the guy in Ottawa, Canada," Roberson said.
The US police contacted their Canadian counterparts, and Hightower was arrested and deported back to the United States. He was due to arrive back in Kokomo on Tuesday and was expected to appear in court by week's end, said Roberson.
If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison, the deputy said.
Blizzard Entertainment was not immediately available for comment about whether Hightower's arrest was the first made with the help of the witches and warlocks of World of Warcraft -- or if the company had previously provided police with details of users of their gaming systems, including an IP address.
But law enforcement officials are entering the online world on a regular basis to nab criminals.
The New York Post reported in December that police were able to recover a stash of stolen goods after a "kid whose Xbox was stolen ... noticed that someone was playing online with his game system and told his parents."
The parents told the police, who tracked the IP address to a home in the Bronx, where a suspect was arrested.
Police in New Zealand last year arrested a man who tried to break into a safe in a pub after posting a still image of his face, which they got from closed-circuit TV inside the site of the attempted burglary, on Facebook.
And in Massachusetts last year, a police officer and fire chief used a young girl's mobile phone and Google Streetview to track her after she was taken from her legal guardians by her grandmother.
The girl and her grandmother were eventually tracked to a motel in Virginia -- around a 10-hour drive from Massachusetts -- where the grandmother was taken into police custody. The young girl was returned to her legal guardians in Massachusetts.
Roberson himself was able to nab another drug dealer in Kokomo on Tuesday after tracking him down on social networking site Facebook.
"I knew the guy's name but I had no idea what he looked like. So I plugged his name into Facebook and there he was -- along with incriminating messages on his wall and a picture of him in a motel with a stack of money and some marijuana," Roberson told AFP.
Link: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100105/technology/lifestyle_us_crime_internet_games
So, what do you think? Does Blizzard overstep their bounds by doing this, while fully knowing it infringes on certain rights? Or does the drug dealer have no rights and thus is free to be targeted by any company that could legally track him and send him to jail? It's just this entire government vs. company vs. privacy thing I hate about these stories, no matter how stupid some criminals are lol.
Blizzard knows where you live druggies. - Zephyr - 2010-01-05
Serves em right? i don't see the problem here, besides the violation of his privacy, but lol privacy these days (?)
Blizzard knows where you live druggies. - IllegallySane - 2010-01-05
It's Blizzard. Therefore, they are awesome. It'd be stupid not to at least apprehend the suspect. This is also why you don't flaunt your crimes.
Blizzard knows where you live druggies. - DarkPwnage - 2010-01-06
Blizzard got supoenaed for the information. If they didn't give it up, they would have been fined or something for it. And his Facebook is public anyway =P
Blizzard knows where you live druggies. - TøbiasBlack - 2010-01-06
DarkPwnage Wrote:Blizzard got supoenaed for the information. If they didn't give it up, they would have been fined or something for it. And his Facebook is public anyway =P
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Blizzard knows where you live druggies. - butterfλi - 2010-01-06
So Nexon, when are you gonna step up your game? Hmm?