Honestly, I don't feel pity for the pirate. He even made money with it.

Bah, I don't know.... Piracy in this case is flagrant, but the money awarded to Blizzard is awfully excessive.
And by the way, private servers (support) are the only way if we want to preserve MMORPGs from the oblivion as abandonware websites did way before GOG and Steam and whatever started to profit by old games again....

How did they get this information?

This is exactly the kind of thing that publishers should be attacking. True, the sum in question is ludicrous. Especially given the actual amount Reeves made. But then her belief she could do something that stupid and get away with it is equally ludicrous.
Unfortunately the logical approach Blizzard have taken here doesn't seem to have stopped Blizzard from taking the illogical approach of attacking their paying customers too.

Maybe through a court order. It doesn't specify. Financial institutions have to provide account information in criminal trials. Given that this is a criminal matter and not a civil one (she was making money from it) it shouldn't have been too difficult for Blizzard to get that information.

Based on the comments on the slashdot posting, it seems that the judgement and amount was pretty much predetermined because of the fact it wasn't contested.

Really, you think so? It wasn't a criminal case, but a damages lawsuit. You think blizzard is going to bother and try to get her back to USA? You can't just send bounty hunters after her, and you can't depend on local police because you have no criminal conviction, oh and you can't extradite anyway. Don't bother, I say. 3 mill Is a lot, but she won't live in luxury.
Except... If they send out their minions, the wow players. Find out where she is, then put up a bounty to... terminate her. The winner gets a special epic mount or something. This plan is flawless.

Hey, I'm up for it. Special epic mount, :woot:! :p

Damnit, if the defendant was a man I could make a prison rape joke using "epic mount" as a euphamism

Guys, she had the $3 mil in a PayPal account, not liquid. There is no way those assets weren't frozen and aren't now either in Blizz's possession or on their way to being in Blizz's possession. If Reeves did flee the country, it was only with whatever money she was able to stash away before this lawsuit, which might have been significant, but certainly was not the full $3 mil.

I'm just stunned someone had 3 million in a PayPal account. That doesn't seem like the smartest action you can take.

link please
thanks

http://kotaku.com/5613687/hey-dont-run-unauthorised-world-of-warcraft-servers-ok

I'm with Blizzard .

Works for me, regardless of gender!

Where did you find information that the $3M was still in the PayPal account? The article only said that the account had received payments totaling $3M, not that that money still remained in the account (and if she had left $3M with PayPal then she's an incredible idiot). I also highly doubt that any of the assets (if traceable) were frozen, as this is a pretty extreme step that you don't usually see with simple civil cases. If Blizzard actually wants any of the money they were awarded they'll have to go through the standard debt collection channels (in pretty much all civil cases getting the judgment is only half the battle, actually collecting it is a battle in itself).