I am sorry if i do made a awakening post title. I am currently studying in law sector and might want to gave a... well, a friendly warning before proceeding with anymore further progress in this game.
My Question is : Does the team have an acknowledgment from Blizzard Entertainment® before using their model(s) and such because under the Copyright Law, It is illegal to do so if you didn't obtain an acknowledgment. Under Copyright Law : It protects not only the actual text of a novel or code of a computer game, but the characters, plot points, and other creative expressions within.
I am just concern about this project being sued for trying to copy the works of World of Warcraft.
Please do everyone a favor by creating a thread in the "Introduction" with a screen-shot of the Letter (No E-mail is allowed as it must be in Black & White) indicating the approval by Blizzard Entertainment®.
As of right now World of Starcraft is completely non-profit making it exempt from any violations of copywright law. That's not to say that in the future, when Blizzard opens up its Premium Maps section inside battle.net we won't attempt to do so.
I'll educate you a little bit on how this map system works. We upload maps through Blizzard's battle.net server. Blizzard retains every right to ban and knock any map off their server that they want. They will also reserve the right to crush any map that someone tries to make premium.
I am completely 100% at the mercy of Blizzard and their good graces to allow this project to continue. Getting in touch with a high ranking Blizzard official is not an easy task so I am waiting until they contact me.
I am slaving day and night on this project and I'm not making a single penny off of it (right now), therefore I am in violation of no laws at this present time.
If Blizzard wants me to stop advertizing this as World of Stacraft and go with another name, that's fine, but I will wait until they contact me directly and give me the common courtesy of a lengthy conversation about it since I have invested months of time in their program to get this far.
I am not here to discourage you with my this little post i had created a few hours ago, but i am here to advice you on the legal side of the law... maybe i do sound like your old grand-dad. I just hoping that all your efforts won't go to waste when Blizzard Entertainment came to know about this and sues the team. I am just a guy studying law, and i hope you won't get into trouble with law film.
Haha.. I'm 25 too... and if Blizzard wants to sue me.. that's fine. They can have the 1500 dollars I have saved in the bank and my 95' chevy lumina. lol
PS. Your post actually made me think a bit so I created a forum section just for Blizzard.
I don't think Blizzard wants your 1500 only.... but once they sue you and won over the case, you are filed for bankruptcy....
But just to be safe for now... If you haven't... Please do sent a Letter printed and signed by you to Blizzard Entertainment... Please do include your intention etc... I got to go off now... All the best !
Posted by Dasius on Jan 18, 2011, 7:55pm
I don't think they are going to sue Ryan right off the bat.. They will most likely ask him kindly to shutdown the site and discontinue making the mod. If he rejects then they might seek other action. Which in the end could be legal actions. I can't imagine it being as excessive as him being sued. He's not really stealing anything or changing anything beyond what has been allowed.
Well, I just hope everything works out for you Ryan and this mod.
Posted by stargunner on Jan 18, 2011, 9:54pm
no need to worry about getting sued. blizzard obviously allows these custom models to be used in their map editor for a reason - they WANT stuff like WoSC to be made, because it keeps the community alive. if they didn't want there to be custom content like this to be made, they wouldn't have made a map editor tool with the ability to do such a thing.
obviously they have complete control over its distribution with bnet, too. so it's not like they have anything to worry about.
Posted by Izman on Jan 19, 2011, 12:29am
Wow waiiittt a second. This is a map right? and Blizzard gives the right to use their models for use in THEIR map. So what law is he breaking? He's following the ToS on the Starcraft 2 Map Editor as far as I'm concerned.
It's probably the name "World of Starcraft," I'd attempt a different title. (other than that I've seen WoW clones in SC2 before, none of which got hammered)
I would side to somewhat of what guest123 is saying... I guess in the ideals of "Due Diligence" you should contact Blizzard (first) rather than wait for them to contact you.
you could make a posting on the Blizzard forums asking for help/advice on further developing WoSC and you could send an email to blizzard customer service asking saying what your doing and asking for any technical/legal adivce?
Its 10min of you life...
I posted this in over in another topic but I'll add it here as well:
ok, so chk it.. i dont' see any reason why you would be sued, just like izman mentioned, you can create the maps/campaings that you can with the tools that were given to you with the game that was purchased!!
as xnobody mentioned, the name maybe could be a possible issue, if it is the named that blizzard is the used for their MMORPG for starcraft... were they to create one.. *FNGRS XXX*** so .. in that particular cz.. even if..
i .. and im sure you and all others would RUN to buy the game.
if they even called it world of starcraft..
i don't see why it wouldn't though.. i would say. ... possible worlds of starcraft.. since there are galaxys to be explored.. a single map/campaing. would not do it even one bit to wat blizz could do!! .. NO OFFENSE HOMIE!! i can't wait to play ur mod!!
wat i am trying to say i guess is.. that.. this is exactly as Ryan said, blizz new this was coming, as in the mod, but it's, i'm sure, nothing to what they may have in plan for us!!!
There should be no problem whatsoever with the use of Blizzard models, sounds, and anything available through the Galaxy Editor, as long as they are being used in a map created through that editor.
The only potential issue would be the name of the map. If Blizzard objects to that, I seriously doubt that they would sue the map maker. The worst that would happen is that Blizzard would ask for the name of the map to be changed.
Suing a map maker for what is obviously a normal map project with no blatant attempts of any kind for copyright or trademark infringement is not something that would happen. It could be a different story if this project were being attempted outside the map editor, but that is a completely different situation.
Posted by Hermes Birkin HandBags on Feb 29, 2012, 2:55am
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