It is important for everyone to read the Terms of Use upon every new patch!

[*NEW* Update:]
The Terms of Use has been updated as of January 11, 2007. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html

The excerpt of Section 4, A has been removed. Please refer to the newly updated (not replaced) -Section 16, F-:

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Q u o t e:
Those who choose to access the Service from locations outside of the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, or New Zealand do so on their own initiative contrary to the terms of this Agreement, and are responsible for compliance with local laws if and to the extent local laws are applicable.

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Blizzard is not seeking out of area, contract abiding players. Players in unsupported regions will, currently, not cause an account to be actioned just for playing in said region.
This change in the Terms of Use is specifically meant to stop abusers from harming the game and its mechanics because they have a new way of tracking these violators (See Section 14, B). The change in the Terms of Use allows Blizzard to take action against them.

There are no plans to allow transfer from US to Europe servers due to differences in hardware, network, and Authentication Keys.

Also, as suggested the Website has update the Terms of Use.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html

*If you are planning to leave the area, it is always good to let the Account Administrators know so they don't flag your account for suspicious activity.*

Thanks for your patience everyone. :)

I wish they would post a "changes" section somewhere like with patches. Are people going to be grandfathered or our Aussie/UK/Eu friends going to get the boot?

Doh, accidentaly included aussies, I read it upsidedown.

Australians can still access the game. Dunno what's going to happen with the rest, though.

I can't tell you anything until I recieve some hard evidence, but I'll tell you what- I'll see if I can get some information on providing access to those who are out of territory. Perhaps they will have a form or process required to allow it. Send your questions about this to wowaccountadmin@blizzard.com, I believe.

The worst part about this change is that it is not yet reflected on the WoW website.

However, you can view the most current version of the ToU on your computer by going to the following path (windows path -- not sure of mac): C: --> Program Files --> World of Warcraft --> Data --> enUS --> tos.html

If this is for real, Blizzard will lose about 30-50% of all its costumers, as it's not only those areas that play wow

It's for real...but to what degree will it be enforced? That's the question right now.

Keep in mind that that notation comes from the US version of WoW, and does not cover the EU version.

Okay, I contacted my favorite billing agent; I'll let you know what I find.

Looks like we need to rename the game

United states, canada, singapore, New Zealand, Australia Of Warcraft

The word "World" is more like a joke now.


Honestly Blizzard, why kick the other countries away from something good?

Guys, I was military too, and guess what? This term does NOT apply to you being out of country.

In fact, ALL United States Military Bases are considered part of the United States by the United States government itself. It is a territory of the U.S., it is owned by the U.S., the personnel on said base pay taxes to the U.S.

So REJOICE! You are not violating the Terms of Use by using this in Okinawa(or wherever else you feel the need to within the confines of your base).

I, too, would like to know how strictly this will be enforced: In July, I will be moving to Japan for a 3 year tenure teaching English, and I fully intended to continue playing WoW while I was over there. It would be a huge disappointment to find I have to abandon my favorite game to follow my dream =(

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Q u o t e:
Guys, I was military too, and guess what? This term does NOT apply to you being out of country.

In fact, ALL United States Military Bases are considered part of the United States by the United States government itself. It is a territory of the U.S., it is owned by the U.S., the personnel on said base pay taxes to the U.S.

So REJOICE! You are not violating the Terms of Use by using this in Okinawa(or wherever else you feel the need to within the confines of your base).

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__This is not an attempt at a troll__

We have seen blizzard accidentally ban people for playing on the wrong operating system. How can you be so sure they won't ban people based on IP address and neglect to check whether the person is technically on US/Australian soil?

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Q u o t e:
Guys, I was military too, and guess what? This term does NOT apply to you being out of country.

In fact, ALL United States Military Bases are considered part of the United States by the United States government itself. It is a territory of the U.S., it is owned by the U.S., the personnel on said base pay taxes to the U.S.

So REJOICE! You are not violating the Terms of Use by using this in Okinawa(or wherever else you feel the need to within the confines of your base).

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The barracks in misawa japan uses the Local japanese ISP, even though we are on base, our service is not provided by the base and blizzard will not be able to distinguish between my barracks and the local japanese population.

I certainly hope blizzard can recoginize this before they shut my account down.

Can we get a blue response as to how this will actually be enforced? If I am going to have my account banned because my job required me to move to Japan for a year then I'll be expecting a refund for the 6 mo subscription I just renewed in December. Oh, and a refund for the BC:CE which I pre-ordered a few months ago.

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Q u o t e:



The barracks in misawa japan uses the Local japanese ISP, even though we are on base, our service is not provided by the base and blizzard will not be able to distinguish between my barracks and the local japanese population.

I certainly hope blizzard can recoginize this before they shut my account down.

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This is true. Also A good number of people live off base and those that don't tend to go out to an internet cafe off base (such as myself). Even on base your connection shows that you are in Japan even if you do use the connection there (thusly some sites will load in Japanese when you visit them). Some people also play during port visits to other countries as well.

Blizzard will lose many customers if they actually go through with this.

Again, as mentioned previously. Blizzard has stated that you will only be red-flagged and under watch if your connection changes drasticaly location, otherwise they don't really mind.

Ie
3:00am, login California.
3:10am, login Japan
3:45am, login Korea
Etc etc etc

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Q u o t e:
Again, as mentioned previously. Blizzard has stated that you will only be red-flagged and under watch if your connection changes drasticaly location, otherwise they don't really mind.

Ie
3:00am, login California.
3:10am, login Japan
3:45am, login Korea
Etc etc etc

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After playing during a couple of port visits while on deployment me and my friends on the ship that play WoW probably have a location log that would look something like that. Except there the times would be a few weeks apart rather than minutes.

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Q u o t e:
Again, as mentioned previously. Blizzard has stated that you will only be red-flagged and under watch if your connection changes drasticaly location, otherwise they don't really mind.

Ie
3:00am, login California.
3:10am, login Japan
3:45am, login Korea
Etc etc etc

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I would like to point out that Blizzard made that particular statement BEFORE the changes were made to the ToU.

Now the ToU specifically state (as Sonic quoted) that playing from anywhere other than the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or Singapore is a breach of contract and breaches of contract will get you banned

I agree this is a stupid idea, however... Thats what the policy is now.

I assume that there is some way of telling where the computer is that you are logging in from?