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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?
I know that I always preface an invitation to dinner with a petty lawsuit. It gives us something to talk about if the conversation runs dry.
The official response comes one day after the company had video of the mod removed from YouTube, a move the company says was part of its routine procedure while reaching out to "discuss with the developer what the mod entailed."
If this is how they reach out to discuss things, I think I'd just rather have left the things unsaid.
This mod got a lot of publicity and the modder(s) will probably find a job pretty easily in the gaming industry.
FTFA:
In the meantime, a representative from League of Legends developer Riot Games has reportedly reached out to Winzen to speak "about potentially working for Riotgames [sic]."
No, their first priority is protection of their own IP which they must defend vigorously. Any unofficial "blessing" or slack with that takedown can be used as a chink in their case to retain the IP at a later legal engagement. Rather unlikely, but the law is not filled with many absolute certainties.
I'm certain that the first comment from Blizzard (and not their lawyers) to him was "We apologize for the takedown, but we have to cover our bases. Now, please tell us more about your project. We're a bit curious..." Once actual intent is discovered and identified, I'm willing to bet that they've extended a formal notice of approval to allow him to continue work, and posting videos in the future. Mark my words, in a few days that video will be back up on youtube.
Here is the full statement from Blizzard: www.GameInformer.com - Blizzard Responds To World Of StarCraft Mod
blizzard did not want the title "World of Starcraft" be associated with a product they dont have a real influence in. why should they allow such a title and then realize in 5-10 years that they want to make a new mmorpg with the same title but google searches will return links to the old sc2 mod. it's about trademark and not copyrights.
That the mod has to change name to avoid infringing on some trademark? Change art assets to avoid WoW infringement?
I mean, they never withdrew what they said first, just that they like development to continue.
If they mean that it's OK to use WoW art and music as public domain assets, that'd be news and unique for coming from Blizzard.
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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.
@Blizz in this case. Someone made an error, it got corrected. The one involved gets invited to meet the real dev-team. Seems pretty nice to me.
I think you were searching the wrong office. You probably want copyrights, not patents.
In this case, GP is likely referring to trademarks, while do require enforcement to remain valid.
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If only bnetd got this civility, perhaps there might be some redeeming quality to that company.
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What about trademarks? Note the "T" in USPTO
They're not legally required to act in this way.
As long as they take action with respect to protecting their trademarks, they are defending it; it was perfectly within their remit to open talks on a less formal basis before the heavy handed approach.
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Starcraft 2 mods are really modules made with the map editor. It is, however, very powerful, and without any form of external game modification or hack, you can make entire games that have little to nothing to do with the original RTS game.
In this case, it was basically a small scale MMORPG-like game based on the starcraft universe, heavily influenced by the WoW mechanics.
Isn't that kinda the meaning behind CEASE and DESIST?
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He's invited to meet their developers? He should be careful. The blizzard armed guards might confuse him with the ones working in the sweat shop and he won't get to go home.
In traditional /. fashion, I didn't RTFA, but I'm seeing a gross inaccuracy in almost all posts around here: Blizzard did not send a cease & desist, the guy received a DMCA takedown notice. Those could've been issued by anybody, though Blizzard's response seems to indicate it was them (be it Activision or Blizzard) after all. A C&D is a much more heavy-handed response than a DMCA takedown.
What I am really curious about is whether Blizzard's decision to invite the guy for a tour of their office has anything to do with Riot Games' job offer.
I do play wow, so what u r telling me, is they have figured out a way to create maps and content for the game engine that lets you finish quests, to level up and get gear that allows you to get further in the game and makes beating bosses (or opponents) easier...?
There's already a lot of maps that can do that for SC2 (a lot of those features are built into the engine, just not used in the campaign). So they did all that and made it look WoW-like. The map editor let you use an XML specification to redefine the UI, so its not "hard", but it still takes a lot of work.
Anyway, short answer to your question: "Yes".
Anyone have the website for this mod developer? I've tried looking, but all the search engines are chocked full of the news stories and none seem to link to his mod development site.
looks like youTube hasn't been told to restore the video yet.. but if you look at the stills on the site.. I think you'll get the picture.
worldofstarcraft.org
not sure if Blizz changed thier attitude due to the backlash, but in a nushell, they said they sent the C&D as normal procedure (BECAUSE of the name) but never intended work to stop.
but there's nothing about letting him keep the name. I guess it doesn't matter, but I would be surprised if it was released as WoSC. ...and I'd have to side with blizz on that.