Glider v Blizzard && SC2 Lan incoming

[via EFF]

Were we to hold otherwise, Blizzard — or any software copyright holder — could designate any disfavored conduct during software use as copyright infringement, by purporting to condition the license on the player's abstention from the disfavored conduct. The rationale would be that because the conduct occurs while the player's computer is copying the software code into RAM in order for it to run, the violation is copyright infringement. This would allow software copyright owners far greater rights than Congress has generally conferred on copyright owners.

[ MDY v Blizzard Ninth Circuit Decision ]

In other news [surely to make Blizz QQ moar], the development of SC2 Lan is still silently continuing in the backdrop. Proof of Concept shots were just released courtesy of our close affiliate MysT_DooM of DarkBlizz.

"Private sources have informed me of a SC2 Lan still being worked on and near beta release. The beta will only support 1on1 and then soon melee, and then later on custom maps. The servers will be hosted in Russia so it's going to be hard for Blizzard to go after this project. This is legit and verified from the author himself, being a close acquaintance of mine also Stay tune for more information!"

Santa's elves are working hard to tidy and finalize the released beta.

Diablo III Closed Beta: May-ish

Sources indicate that there is a planned announcement for the closed D3 Beta coming toward the end of May. Originally, this is when the beta was supposed to begin, but at this time it may just be an announcement of the next date. Let's just say the source is from ActiBlizzard themselves.

Update: This information is still good. May 9th is still the planned date for the conference. There may not even be an announcement that day, but you should definitely expect something. I would still predict a closed beta gone public no later than June. They have progressed quite a bit with the game.