EPT
KeSPA and the 10 Progame Teams: "We're disappointed by Blizzard's Interview that devalues the efforts of the organizations that had developed eSports for 10 years"
KeSPA found that there were misunderstandings regarding the current situation regarding negotiations and the conflict points in Paul Sam's press conference, and thus, they are releasing an official statement that aims to straighten many of these misconceptions.
▶ KeSPA and the 10 Progame teams acknowledge Blizzard's IP Rights.
KeSPA and the negotiation team have recognized Blizzard's intellectual property rights from the beginning of the negotiations as Blizzard is the original author. This agreement regarding recognizing Intellectual Property rights was something that was agreed upon even within the negotiations, and this was also the reason why negotiations were possible to the present, and KeSPA and the negotiation team had sincerely applied themselves to the negotiations.
But because recognizing the IP rights shouldn't be a chain that constrains the organizations involved via license fees, demanding complete ownership rights to derivative works, and to even demanding auditing rights to KeSPA, KeSPA has repeatedly been in discussions to try and reach a common ground where both sides can agree with with regards to IP rights acknowledgement.
▶ The misunderstanding behind the "Communal Property" Comment.
The comment that caused many misunderstandings that implied that Starcraft and other games involved in eSports are communal property is a comment stemming from an misunderstanding within communication process. KeSPA had only meant that eSports is within the realm of sports where many people watch and enjoy, and Sports needs to guarantee Public viewing rights to the audience. KeSPa will now make it clear that the remark did not intend to imply that "eSports games are communal property".
▶ The extreme amount requested by Gretech will put the eSports market under trial.
While Blizzard has mentioned that KeSPA had made 1.7 billion won in the three years KeSPA had run a licensing business, and that the amount Gretech requested is only 1/5th of the amount taken in by KeSPA, but in reality, the amount requested by the Gretech amounts to 700 million won a year minimum if you combine the Proleague and both Individual Leagues. This amounts to far more than 2 billion won even through a simple calculation. Furthermore, because Gretech continues to push for year long contracts, we don't know how much they will charge for extending the contract after the first year.
KeSPA is a nonprofit organization that grows and supports the eSports industry, but in order to create a stable environment for eSports and to promote eSports within Korea, KeSPA is allowed to pursue businesses that generate revenue.
Currently, KeSPA's main source of revenue are the membership fee, the Proleague sponsorships, and the Proleague licensing revenues, and these revenues are completely reinvested into operating the Proleague and to grow the foundations of eSports.
The Proleague licensing business was started with the purpose of creating an industrial framework so that many more people could watch eSports and Proleague through many more platform channels that arose from changes in the media industry.
From this, KeSPA completely reinvests the Proleague licensing revenues so that contests on the scale of the Proleague will continue to operate, which allows for maintaining and expanding a market where many teams and players can be active. KeSPA also covers up the deficit created by operating these leagues, and they are covered in part by the membership fees.
Even up to today, Korea's eSports market, unlike other Pro Sports markets, has difficulty stably operating and creating profits. The licensing fees charged by Blizzard and Gretech in the name of "only companies with a certain level should participate in the eSports industry" is at a level that can shake the foundations of the current eSports market in Korea.
▶ KeSPA and the Progame teams are doing their best to guarantee the rights of the players.
Blizzard has commented that KeSPA and the Progame teams restrict the freedom of the players, and that Blizzard would renovate this system by raising eSports and the players in the proper way.
But, KeSPA and the Progame teams do not restrict the freedoms of the players themselves. Every player enters the Progame team only after plenty of negotiations with a contract that is unique to the player, and the player himself has complete freedom to choose where he wants to go. The Progame team provides the player with a moderate salary that follows from their contract and a stable environment where they can practice.
Furthermore, KeSPA, through negotiations with colleges, is trying its best to renovate the player's education environment, and even created the Ace Progame team so that good players could maintain their skill. The progame team also offers ways in which the retired players could work as a team coach, and also provides opportunities to be recruited into certain corporations.
Blizzard needs to think once again how much effort that went into the last 10 years by the many players and participants to create a stable Progame team system via corporate sponsorships.
▶ The records and accomplishment of players are history.
It's quite different from Blizzard's accusations of removing NaDa's rights as a player and deleting his records and accomplishments. NaDa, after his contract ended with his team, has expressed desire to retire. All that happened was his retirement went through, and there wasn't an incident where his accomplishments were taken away or deleted [T/N: This refers to an incident where NaDa's records got deleted for a few hours on KeSPA's site. KeSPA has said it was a computer error]
▶ Blizzard should not ignore the accomplishments and the efforts by the organizations that have advanced eSports for the past 10 years.
Blizzard said that because players and audiences have a right to demand and enjoy high quality eSports broadcasts, and said that they need a broadcast license fee so that only companies that reach a certain standard can enter the eSports industry.
But in the last 10 years, the broadcasting stations and the Progame teams, KeSPA, and other organizations had worked together to create the foundation and the model of an eSports industry, and it's becoming the standard of worldwide eSports. Many organizations around the world took interest in the growth of Korea's eSports scene and introduced it to the world, and many countries are using Korea's eSports system as a model to develop an eSports market in their country.
In order to develop Korea's eSports market, over the last 10 years the Progame teams invested billions of won every year. The government, civilian organization, and KeSPA has also continued to put in many costs and effort to expand the base of eSports in Korea and to enhance the status of Esports internationally.
Thus, Blizzard's argument about "License fee to have a high quality eSports broadcast" is a statement that ostracizes the broadcasting companies, the progame teams, KeSPA, the government, and all other involved organizations, while ignoring the efforts and accomplishments of these organizations in the past 10 years, and we express extreme disappointment regarding this statement.
▶ KeSPA and the 10 Progame teams all want the negotiations to be resolved quickly.
KeSPA has put together a negotiation team and met around 10 times now and continued to advance the negotiations. Through negotiations and by narrowing the difference in opinions, there was a complete agreement with the exception of 2~3 articles, and in reality negotiations were very close to being settled. However, in this past November 25th, Blizzard and Gretech has suddenly announced that if KeSPA does not agree to Blizzard and Gretech's original demands regarding the ownership of derivative works [T/N: Before this, KeSPA offered 50/50 and Gretech seemed to have agreed considering their previous statement, but it looks like they took all of this back to that point where Blizzard owns 100%?], then negotiations regarding license fees will be impossible.
The negotiation team, even after this statement where all the negotiations done before where thoroughly ignored, had made queries regarding the this remark and is currently waiting for a response. Even though KeSPA and the negotiation team has approached the negotiation with sincerity, Blizzard and Gretech had made a sudden statement revealing that they are preparing a lawcase, leading the negotiation to a stop. We are curious about Blizzard's real intentions and doubtful about Blizzard's desire to settle the negotiation.
However, even through all this, KeSPA and the negotiation team, and the Broadcasting station that has a lawsuit awaiting them, will always be willing to sincerely reenter negotiations for the growth of eSports in Korea and the rights for eSports fans to watch games.
On December 06 2010 11:15 Selith wrote:
Seems KeSPA posted additional information yesterday. This new information includes more detail on the actual KeSPA's income from licensing fee and what they did with it.
So here you go:
Source is: http://www.playxp.com/sc2/news/view.php?article_id=2416325
Hmm.
Korean netizens in general saying the same thing you've heard that they have been: "lol kespa"
Seems KeSPA posted additional information yesterday. This new information includes more detail on the actual KeSPA's income from licensing fee and what they did with it.
So here you go:
Source is: http://www.playxp.com/sc2/news/view.php?article_id=2416325
Hmm.
Korean netizens in general saying the same thing you've heard that they have been: "lol kespa"
