Continuing their no-tolerance stance against cheaters, Blizzard yesterday closed a large number of Starcraft, Warcraft III, and Diablo 2 accounts, all of which were found to be using cheating and hacking programs. Using such programs is a serious breach of the end-user agreement for Blizzard's games. Here's more info on the announcement:

A number of additional accounts and CD Keys have been tied to the use of a hack or cheat program while playing StarCraft, Diablo II, or Warcraft III on Battle.net. In keeping with our aggressive stance against cheating, we have permanently closed 276,000 StarCraft accounts, 86,000 Diablo II accounts, and 41,000 Warcraft III accounts. We have documented all of the CD Keys that were used with these accounts. 14,000 Warcraft III CD Keys have been banned from ladder play for one month and 2,000 CD Keys are banned from ladder play permanently. Repeat offenders risk having their CD Keys disabled, which will result in the permanent removal of the respective copy of StarCraft, Diablo II, or Warcraft III from Battle.net.

We have also identified the Diablo II accounts with which a "map-hack" program is being used. Diablo II map-hack programs give players who use them an unfair advantage over other players. As with any third-party program, using a map-hack affects play over Battle.net and violates our End User License Agreement. Diablo II accounts that continue to be used with a map-hack program are subject to closure and the CD Keys with which these accounts are being used are also subject to being disabled.

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