The Gaming Police

17.C Blizzard may, with or without notice to you, disclose your Internet Protocol (IP) address(es), personal information, Chat logs, and other information about you and your activities: (a) in response to a request by law enforcement, a court order or other legal process; or (b) if Blizzard believes that doing so may protect your safety or the safety of others.

If one chooses to play the game, after having agreed to have their records turned over in such a case, it seems like less of a moral issue. Another reason why people should consider actually reading their terms of service before agreeing.

The specifics of the case aside, it is sort of troubling that a private company can make a decision on how to enforce a law entirely unrelated to its operations. I would have no problem with Blizzard being compelled to release private information (given due process of law). I would have no problem with them being bound not to release the information, by a privacy policy or something. The fact that they can elect to comply or not, based on their own whims, is somewhat troubling. At the least, I would like them to have a explicit and specific policy of when they will comply.

Fortunately, this is a rather strange edge case based on jurisdictions, and it's unlikely to come up in the future as awareness about this case makes people use proxies (or stop playing). But the principle should still be resolved.

If the Maryland police had wanted to make more of an effort, couldn’t they have asked a court in Blizzard’s jurisdiction to issue a subpoena? (Also note that fleeing the country to avoid prosecution is a Federal crime, so the FBI could have gotten involved.)