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Blizzard Won't Stop World of StarCraft Mod
On Wednesday we discussed news of an impressive-looking mod for StarCraft II that transformed the game into a WoW lookalike, which quickly drew a copyright infringement warning from Activision Blizzard. The company has now released an official statement green-lighting the mod for continued development.
"'It was never our intention to stop development on the mod or discourage the community from expressing their creativity through the StarCraft II editor,' Blizzard said in a statement. 'As always, we actively encourage development of custom maps and mods for StarCraft II, as we've done with our strategy games in the past.' Blizzard went on the say that it's looking forward to seeing development of the mod continue, and that it has invited Winzen to the company's campus to meet the game's development team."
Blizzard first gets you intimidated by their figurative muscle, before the Don walks up to you, making you an offer you can't refuse?
Basically Activision Legal fires off the first shot before people with real brains realize the potential for something like this. The people with the brains probably did not know this existed before the C&D became news.
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Still wrong. The C&D was only ever over trademark issues, not over the mod itself. Which should be bloody obvious if anyone on the internet would stop long enough to read or think things through before making up conclusions.
I think more than being concerned about the game mod per se, they were really mostly concerned about a semi-viable product using Starcraft in its name. In other words, more trademark concerns than copyright.
Okay, this is very simple. Blizzard, your process is messed up. If you're looking at mods as being possibly infringing, you should have a customer liason to handle that. Hell, someone whose job description is working with the modder community. When dealing with competing companies, legal notices are routine. When you're dealing with your own loyal customers, and they happen to be stepping on your toes, the first people they hear from should not be your lawyers.
Sample response:
"Hey, this is Anaximander from the Starcraft II community support team at Blizzard. I saw your video on YouTube for the mod you're calling World of Starcraft. It looks pretty sweet, I've been showing it around the office. Great job, guys, can't wait to play it.
Unfortunately, there's a problem with the name you're using. Essentially, while the mod itself is fine, we don't want other people using the name World of Starcraft. (Can't speak on whether we're working on one of our own.) We'd like to ask that you change the name of your mod before continuing to distribute it. We're also asking that you remove the current YouTube video that advertises under the name World of Starcraft, until you guys can get it changed to something else. (I'd suggest something, but I'm terrible at picking names.)
Please understand that we value the work that you've done, and that we think mods like yours are one of the best things about things about the Starcraft II community. We'd like to work with the community, which is why you're hearing from me right now instead of our lawyers.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at: anaximander@blizzard.com"
If they're blatantly infringing on your trademarks and saying, "neener neener neener," or if they're dragging their heels, then a formal C&D is in order. But it seems like if Blizzard had gone through that process, this wouldn't be a story at all.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
This is not a tarnish on the guy's career. This is a major advertising event which could potentially get him noticed and get him a great job and a big gaming studio.
How you can compare one polite warning (not even a charge) - quickly retracted no less - to shooting someone or putting them in prison, I don't know.
which is totally what she said
I think more than being concerned about the game mod per se, they were really mostly concerned about a semi-viable product using Starcraft in its name.
Yeah, a Starcraft mod with Starcraft in the name is a dangerous thing that should be stricken down with no mercy.
Seems it's more the "World of" bit that's the issue here.
which is totally what she said
This is not a Chinese company selling pirated copies or anything, but a community member using Blizzard tools to create content. How that would ever warrant a C&D is beyond me and I have a hard time believing their legal monkeys don't know that difference.
Trademarks must be vigorously defended in the United States or you risk losing them. Not copyright, copyright you retain regardless of your desire to use it.
In this way, Trademarks are actually a bit more sane as they require the company to invest a little bit of effort and time in order to maintain them. Let it sit on a shelf, or be neglectful and you lose your right to it if someone else starts extracting some value from the item. It is this way because you can Trademark some seemingly generic terms and keeps people from just trademarking everything in the dictionary (for what, $200 registration?) and then suing everyone.
So, back to Activision.
They own trademarks on Starcraft, and World of Warcraft. Someone comes along and makes a game called World of Starcraft. A mashup of two trademarks which is built on products sold by the company that owns the aforementioned trademarks.
It is incredibly easy to imagine that if a person were to come across this mod or its website that someone would consider the connection between the brand Starcraft, and the brand Warcraft. In fact, that WAS the literal intention of the creator of this mod. His goal in choosing the name was to link Starcraft, and World of Warcraft.
So, in this legal system where you have to vigorously defend your trademark or lose it. You have someone which clearly used two trademarked names in the promotion of his product. If the lawyers DIDN'T respond to this they wouldn't be doing their jobs.
Now, perhaps they could have been a bit more clear in their C&D, but that would open them up to liability. How you ask? What if they said:
"Stop using these trademarked terms until you get permission to use them"
A hell of a lot nicer yes? Except that it could imply that they might be granted permission. If they go through the hassle of trying to request permission, only to find that there is some policy in place that prohibits granting permission to use the trademarks to entities such as themselves then they may have grounds, however slim, to suggest that Activision was simply dicking them around and wasting their time/money. Waste someone's time and money like that and you have the potential for a lawsuit.
So, A Cease and Desist letter is a perfectly reasonable thing to expect when using trademarks in an unauthorized fashion.
Had they called their mod "Our New MMO" and they received a Cease and Desist, I'd consider it outrageous, but as it is, they should have expected one.
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