Publisher takes swipe at StarCraft II game mod
Fan hit by Blizzard
Activision has lashed out at a fan-made massive multiplayer online (MMO) game in development called World of StarCraft. YouTube has removed a video of the game mod's work in progress after the StarCraft II publisher claimed the clip infringed its copyright.
The MMO was being produced with official Starcraft II editing tools which are comprehensive enough to create games in genres other than the title's real-time strategy (RTS) approach.
WoS lead modder Ryan had a little rant on his forum and posted the removal notice sent from YouTube, together with a link to Blizzard's copyright policies.
Ryan argues he wasn't violating anything. Quite the reverse, in fact: "You [Blizzard] created a tool that allowed us to do anything with your assets… You encouraged us to use your assets and were eager to see what we might come up with. You had to have seen this coming."
Activision own Blizzard Entertainment, the developer that created StarCraft II.
Perhaps Activision's issue is the title, rather than the project itself. It hasn't yet explained its actions. Meanwhile, WoS development will still go ahead, but a name change is almost certainly on the cards. Good bit of publicity, though - Ryan and co. can't complain too much. ®
COMMENTS
New name
Starcraft is sort of related to earlier Warcraft.
So new name can be WarStars
or Starwars
Oh
Half-right
@Michael C - as far as i understood he does not intent to profit from it. He says as much in his post.
The real problem (as i understand it) is that the EULA (if enforceable) gives Blizzard ownership of anything created with the tools, so, if they throw their toys out of the pram they can simply claim ownership of the mod and then stop distribution that way.
My guess is they realize the WoW cash cow isn't going to last forever and they are planning a WoS game within the next 5 years or so, so if this mod becomes a polished product it will hurt their business.
My take: Sorry Bliz, this guy is out-innovating you, and rather than compete, like many companies you turn to the law to stop competition.
Scum of the earth
Yet again the News Corp / Rupert Murdoch of the gaming world spits its dummy out again.
God I hope this company goes the way of the Dodo but unfortunately with the stable mate of COD under its wing its not looking likely.
slowly
very slowly iirc from when i last checked their site, its a lot of work they have to do though. i think they went with not using any stuff from HL2 etc specifically to avoid legal problems.
though stupidly there are a bunch of different teams doing the various different HL1 mods with no cooperation between them even though it would save them a ton of work.
Re: BS
Infringement on the StarCraft name would be Trademark infringement, not copyright. Even if they called it Blizzard's Starcraft and made it look identical to WoW or SC... it wouldn't matter, it's just a friggin Youtube video - the actual (potential) infringement would be in the distribution, not screenshots or videos.
Still, we're talking about a mod built with tools Blizzard provided and, AFAIK, requires you to have purchased a copy of StarCraft - so there's really no such thing as cannibalizing in this situation either is there?
BS indeed
