EPT
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April 25th - Blizzard ceases negotiating with KeSPA
Blizzard announced the fact that their intellectual property rights were not respected was why they had to stop trying to negotiate with KeSPA, and that they are looking for a new partner in Korea.
May 4th - KeSPA responds about the negotiation breakdown
KeSPA revealed the laundry list of demands Blizzard required of them, declared them unreasonable.
May 27th - Blizzard and Gretech sign a contract where GomTV has exclusive broadcasting rights for Korean tournaments
Updates
KeSPA Press Conference Q&A
Regarding Negotiations and Sincerity of Negotiations
Q: Blizzard's Mike Morhaime, in his last letter, said that KeSPA has violated Blizzard's intellectual property rights by selling broadcasting rights without consulting Blizzard, and that they have attempted to converse with KeSPA and claimed that KeSPA refused to recognize Blizzard's intellectual property rights and negotiate only half hartedly. What is KeSPA's stance on this issue?
- KeSPA, as the instrument representing Korean eSports, has tried its best to create a contract that fosters the growth of eSports.
- Since Blizzard asked for negotiations in 2007, Blizzard has only conducted 3~4 basic meetings and was not very enthusiastic about the negotiations. On June 7th 2009, with Starcraft 2 coming out soon, Blizzard and KeSPA delved into negotiations fully. However, the release date was pushed back, and the negotiations quickly became very vague, and soon after on April of this year, Blizzard announced that they would no longer be negotiating with KeSPA.
- Although Blizzard came and shook the eSports market by brandishing "intellectual property rights", we question if Blizzard even wanted to have sincere negotiations regarding these rights.
Q: There are a few fans who believe that KeSPA did not try very hard negotiating and thought of the issue too simply.
- We regret at the misunderstanding, as KeSPA has put in significant amounts of effort into negotiations. We furthermore regret that we did not enthusiastically try and connect with the fans.
- We will humbly accept all criticisms of KeSPA, and will apply any good suggestions into our organization and have it reflected in ourp olicies. We will also be more enthusiastic about connecting with the fans about KeSPA's actions so we can be an organization that works for the fans.
- I hope that the fans will look at the situation warmly, and hope that a contract that will satisfy players, tems, and the fans will be constructed.
Regarding Intellectual Property Rights
Q: Blizzard claims that the usage of games in leagues is not a communal right but within the realm of intellectual property. What do you think about this?
- While the game is owned by the company, the game is not eSports. eSports only has game as the subject matter, smf it does not evolve around just the players but as a spectator sport, a culture that needs many workers's effort and skills. Starcraft was already recognized in China as an official sport, and last year in the Asians games it was recognized as an official event, and so it is something that is evolving as a sport globally
- Sports is not just for/owned by the "Manias" (T/N: Fans really involved in it. Think "Otaku") or special organizations. It has a communal property where normal spectators can watch and be involved in.
- If eSports is not a communal property and belongs to an international company called Blizzard, then the entire eSports industry in Korea and the existence of KeSPA becomes fundamentally wrong from the beginning. All recognition and gains as a culture and sponsorship from Airforce and such disappears.
- Sports need to guarantee Public Viewing, and so it has a communal property. eSports cannot just be approached simply through Blizzard's promotion logic.
- There are many examples such as the CGS event that shows that no matter how much you invest, if it's done for personal gain then you cannot succeed
%%CGS Event: Refers to Championship Gaming Series created by Direct TV where they hired many players , but upon discovering that it was not profitable, dropped support and many players were left unpaid.
Q: Does KeSPA does not recognize Blizzard's IP rights at all?
- Fundamentally Sports are not something to be tackled using Intellectual Property. Does Adidas, who makes Soccer balls, demand usage fees from the World Cup? Similarly, car companies do not ask for usage fees from racing car contests.
- Without considering IP rights, Blizzard has been one of the greatest benefactors from growth of Korean eSports. Through Korean eSports, Starcraft 1 sales went up considerably and the product life cycle lengthened, and Blizzard gained many other many benefits. The game leagues operated by KeSPA uses official products.
- Even with all this, KeSPA has announced from the early days of negotiations that we wish to recognize the rights of Blizzard due to Starcraft and has made it clear that they would pay a modest game usage fee to Blizzard.
Q: To KeSPA, where are the boundaries of IP rights?
- IP rights are there as the basic rights of Game Creation companies.
- But Blizzard demands that organizations get permission for contract time needed for a safe operation of eSports, Sponsor and Marketing plans, Broadcasting plans, and royalties from broadcasting and sponsorships which is beyond game usage fees, and sub license fees.
- KeSPA believes that this is an unjust interference with operations, and also an unbeneficial negotiation setting as this goes beyond the scope of IP rights, and can see it as a poisonous article that shrinks the investment by corporations.
- While the situation already seems like it's about IP rights, but rather than a problem with IP rights, Blizzard shows extreme greed that is beyond common sense and in order to accomplish this Blizzard is shaking the future of Korean eSports.
Q: Didn't KeSPA also seek profit seeking activities such as selling broadcasting rights?
- KeSPA did not earn any profits from broadcasting rights. KeSPA is a cultural nonprofit corporation so it does not make profits. Any broadcasting fees are reinvested in whole to the operations of matches.
- Every year KeSPA submits accounting reports to board of directors, and can make public any accounts regarding complete reinvestment of broadcasting fees.
- Fundamentally there needs to be a little bit of industrialization so that the players can show good matches, by solving their needs similarly to that of a profession.
- The 12 gaming teams invested a lot of money every year, and KeSPA puts effort into reinvests every cent made by broadcasting fees to create new broadcasts and game organizations.
- Events like the world cup and Olympics and other big sports events are impossible without efforts like these.
Relationship with GomTV
Q: Blizzard has currently given all rights within Korea to Gretech, and Gretech has shown interest in creating a sublicensing contract with KeSPA. Is KeSPA interested in negotiating with GomTV?
- The first thing to settle is to have a proper relationship with Blizzard. The important problem is to establish an important rule through negotiations with KeSPA, who represents the 12 teams, and Blizzard that transcends monetary issues and affects the development direction of Korean eSports.
- Once this condition is met, then we are willing to discuss with not just Gretech but any other company for the development of Korean eSPorts
Q: KeSPA is known to be in a rather awkward relationship with Gretech due to the "GomTV Classic" event. If negotations happen, then what can KeSPA offer, and what does KeSPA seek to gain?
- When there was discussion regarding broadcasting rights in the past, there was a lot of argument with the broadcasting stations, but now we have a good partnership.
- We can work together with Gretech anytime for the development of Korean eSports
- But as we said before, a proper relationship with Blizzard takes priority.
Operations of Starleagues and Responses
Q: Starcraft 2 is set to be released on the end of July. Are there plans to continue to operate a Starcraft 1 league? What are the plans for Starcraft 2?
- Starcraft 2 is a game that has not been released yet so it is a bit too early to talk about it. In the end it will depend on what the fans choose. KeSPA and the progame teams will choose in the direction of the fans.
Q: If Blizzard continues to ignore KeSPA, how will you deal with this?
- KeSPA and the gaming teams wishes for a logical and sensical resolution with Blizzard as a given
- KeSPA and the gaming teams are continually thinking about what is the best decision for the development of Korean eSports, and to create this environment, we will seek the opinions of fans, the players, the government, and gaming companies, and will decide on a series of actions based on this.
Q: If Blizzard requests negotiations, will you immediately accept?
- As said before many times, KeSPA is always ready to converse with Blizzard
- As a given KeSPA and the 12 gaming teams does not wish to ostracize Blizzard. We hope that Blizzard enthusiastically join the development of Korean eSports as an important game company. However, we will partner in a logical, sensical form that allows contribution to growth of Korean eSports, rather than just show extreme avarice.
Role of KeSPA in the growth of eSports
Q: eSports grew completely around Starcraft 1. Wasn't there a lack of effort regarding developing other eSports games?
- The fan's choice and love is very important for the discovery and growth of eSports events
- While KeSPA has attempted many times to promote various events, but there weren't any cases where it grew as a title event through the love of the fans
- KeSPA will continue to try for diversification of gaming events.
Q: What does KeSPA think of the criticism that KeSPA only concentrated on proleagues and did not work on developing the amateur scene?
- It has only been a few years since Korean eSports has finally looked like a sport.
- KeSPA has visions and plans regarding Amateur contests and as a school sport, but nothing can happen all at once.
- It takes a little bit more time for eSports to have a foundation where Pros and Amateurs can develop at the same rate.
Source: http://www.fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=107304&db=issue&cate=&page=1&field=&kwrd=
Gretech: "Let's quickly set up the tables for negotiations"
Gretech revealed their position that they wished to negotiate as soon as possible. Bae In Shik, representative of Gretech, said that "While there was no mentions of negotiating with Gretech, we will interpret the press conference as a wish to negotiate related information", and added that "We wish to negotiate as soon as possible"
He then emphasized that "We want to serve our fans "legal" eSports content that will no longer be played by Intellectual property rights.". He then added that "While we gave a grace period to August for Proleagues, but we know that the individual leagues will be beginning soon. Whether it be KeSPA or the two broadcasting stations, they wish to quickly set up a place for negotiations and quickly service content to the fans"
Source: http://www.fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=107300&db=issue&cate=&page=1&field=&kwrd=
Blizzard Responds to the 3 Questions
Blizzard, regarding the questions asked by KeSPA and the progame teams, said that "we have nothing to say", and added that "We have made our stance clear on the 27th when we announced our contract with Gretech regarding events implied in the press conference."
Source: http://www.fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=107299&db=issue&cate=&page=1&field=&kwrd=
Blizzard Responds to the Non-Disclosure Agreement
While KeSPA has claimed that a NDA agreement does not exist, arguing that "KeSPA has never agreed to a NDA with Blizzard, and only kept the contents silent due to respect", and added "Blizzard criticizes KeSPA for breaking the NDA, but if there was an NDA, please reveal it to the public".
Upon investigation, it was confirmed that KeSPA and Blizzard did sign a NDA agreement, signed by the previous Chairman of KeSPA. It is the situation where Blizzard owns the actual NDA document."
A Blizzard Korea official stated that "We have NDA agreements even when we have press conferences. It makes no sense that we didn't have an NDA on such an important negotiation. We have NDA documents signed by the previous KeSPA chairman "
Source: http://www.thisisgame.com/board/view.php?id=404547&category=102
KeSPA held a press conference on May 31st to address the developing situation.
In response to Blizzard and their dealings with GOM TV, KeSPA asked 3 specific questions.
1) Even though we, the twelve progame teams, have stated that we would pay royalties for the use of the games to respect Blizzard as the original creator, Blizzard continues to claim that their intellectual property rights are not being respected. We want to know if Blizzard believes that their rights would only be respected only if the following conditions are met
- Ownership of everything authored by the players, progame teams, and the broadcast stations
- Royalties regarding game use combined with a portion of profits from all tournaments and broadcasts and a royalty for sublicensing
- To check and decide on everything regarding things created by broadcasts, sponsorships, and all other marketing activities and the right to audit
If not, we want a clear statement regarding Blizzard's position on the matter. Furthermore, we believe that this is just a ploy to increase Blizzard's profits, therefore we wish to know how this relates to advancing eSports in Korea.
2) In 1998 when Starcraft was released, Hanbitsoft, the company that had the rights to publish the game in Korea, was the first chairman of KeSPA and registered and approvedStarcraft as an official game (T/N: Category for eSports). Even back then the concept of eSports was still very vague, and thus Hanbitsoft, who held publishing rights in Korea, recommending and approving of the game supports the case that KeSPA did not illegally use Starcraft 1. In addition, Blizzard was aware of that these contests were being held and even supported it, only to find themselves years later claiming that Korea has illegally used Starcraft 1 and that their intellectual property rights were being violated. We wonder if this violating of intellectual property rights have hurt Blizzard in sales, and we want to know why Blizzard did not mention Intellectual property rights up to 2006 even though they were aware of such events.
3) Han Jung Won, Blizzard Korea's representative announced during this press conference that Blizzard would negotiate with KeSPA but not the Executive Office of KeSPA, does that mean Blizzard will only negotiate with specific progame teams and broadcasting stations? Is there evidence for why Blizzard does not trust KeSPA and the progaming teams discussing together in negotiations? We want to know when KeSPA and Progaming team representatives both come to the negotiation tables together, if Blizzard would agree for negotiations.
Original:
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1. 우리 12개 게임단이 원저작자에 대한 존중으로 이미 게임사용료를 지불하겠다는 입장을 밝혔음에도 불구하고 블리자드 측에서는 지속적으로 지적재산권을 인정받지 못했다고 주장하고 있다. 블리자드에서는 ▲ 선수와 게임단, 방송사가 만들어내는 2차 저작물 소유권 ▲ 게임사용에 대한 로열티와 함께 대회 및 방송을 통한 모든 수입의 배분 등 서브 라이선스에 대한 로열티 ▲ 방송제작물과 스폰서 유치 등 모든 마케팅 활동에 대한 사전 검열과 회계장부 검사에 대한 권리 등 모든 요구사항이 다 수용되어야만 지적재산권이 인정받았다고 생각하는지, 원저작자의 지적재산권 범위에 대한 입장을 밝혀라. 또한, 이러한 태도가 블리자드의 과도한 이윤 추구이지 한국 e스포츠 발전과 무슨 관계가 있는지 밝혀달라.
2. 1998년 스타크래프트가 출시되었을 시 국내 판권을 가지고 있었던 유통사인 한빛소프트는 e스포츠협회의 초대 회장사로서 스타크래프트를 공인종목으로 등록, 승인한바 있다. 이 당시만 해도 e스포츠라는 개념이 정착되지 않았으므로 국내 판권을 가지고 있었던 한빛소프트의 대회 개최 추진과 승인, 정식 발매된 패키지의 사용은 협회가 스타크래프트1을 무단 사용하지 않았음을 뒷받침한다. 게다가 블리자드에서도 이러한 대회의 개최에 대해 인지하고 있었고 심지어 장려하기까지 하였는데, 뒤늦게 스타크래프트1에 대해 한국이 무단 사용함으로써 그들이 지적재산권이 침해되었다고 주장하고 있다. 과연, 지적재산권 침해로 블리자드가 매출 등에서 손해를 본 바가 있는지, 그리고 지난 2006년까지는 모든 스타크래프트 대회를 인지하고 있었음에도 불구하고 지적재산권에 대해 묵인한 까닭은 무엇인지 밝혀달라.
3. 블리자드 코리아의 한정원 대표는 기자회견 시, 한국e스포츠협회와는 협상할 것이나 협회 사무국과 협상하지 않겠다고 밝혔는데, 이는 방송사나 개별 게임단과만 협상할 여지가 있다는 의미인가? 협회와 12개 게임단이 지속적으로 협상 과정 전반에 대해 논의하고 공유하며 협상에 임하는 것을 신뢰하지 못하는 근거가 있는 지, 만약 협회와 게임단 대표가 공동으로 협상에 임할 시에는 응할 의향이 있는지 밝혀달라.
2. 1998년 스타크래프트가 출시되었을 시 국내 판권을 가지고 있었던 유통사인 한빛소프트는 e스포츠협회의 초대 회장사로서 스타크래프트를 공인종목으로 등록, 승인한바 있다. 이 당시만 해도 e스포츠라는 개념이 정착되지 않았으므로 국내 판권을 가지고 있었던 한빛소프트의 대회 개최 추진과 승인, 정식 발매된 패키지의 사용은 협회가 스타크래프트1을 무단 사용하지 않았음을 뒷받침한다. 게다가 블리자드에서도 이러한 대회의 개최에 대해 인지하고 있었고 심지어 장려하기까지 하였는데, 뒤늦게 스타크래프트1에 대해 한국이 무단 사용함으로써 그들이 지적재산권이 침해되었다고 주장하고 있다. 과연, 지적재산권 침해로 블리자드가 매출 등에서 손해를 본 바가 있는지, 그리고 지난 2006년까지는 모든 스타크래프트 대회를 인지하고 있었음에도 불구하고 지적재산권에 대해 묵인한 까닭은 무엇인지 밝혀달라.
3. 블리자드 코리아의 한정원 대표는 기자회견 시, 한국e스포츠협회와는 협상할 것이나 협회 사무국과 협상하지 않겠다고 밝혔는데, 이는 방송사나 개별 게임단과만 협상할 여지가 있다는 의미인가? 협회와 12개 게임단이 지속적으로 협상 과정 전반에 대해 논의하고 공유하며 협상에 임하는 것을 신뢰하지 못하는 근거가 있는 지, 만약 협회와 게임단 대표가 공동으로 협상에 임할 시에는 응할 의향이 있는지 밝혀달라.
Source: http://www.fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=107294&db=issue&cate=&page=1&field=&kwrd=
Rough summary of other events going on.
- The 12 Progaming teams to come together to "strongly oppose" Blizzard
- KeSPA: This is an situation where Blizzard fundamentally ignored the existence of the fans, the players, and the progaming teams and the effort, toil and passion poured into eSports.
- KeSPA: Through the Starcraft Leagues Blizzard gained an increase in sales and worldwide reputation. Even though Blizzard has been the greatest beneficiary from eSports, Blizzard has never supported eSports. The biggest reason why negotiation did not work out was because Blizzard suddenly pushed forth "Intellectual Property" and claimed ownership of games produced by the players and commentators, demanding information about KeSPA/auditing abilities, demanding that every league operations get permission from Blizzard and other rights that are outside common sense
- KeSPA: KeSPA's and the gaming team's situation is that they wish to have a logical and sensical discussion with Blizzard to negotiate, and that they wish that Blizzard would join the development of eSports as an important game creation company. If Blizzard throw away their domineering attitude and greed and wishes to renegotiate, then KeSPA will help Starcraft 2 and other games to be established as eSports.
- KeSPA: The most important part about eSports is the rights of the fans
(Rough summary of a few things I read. Most articles seem to have pieces of what they have said and I guess we should expect a complete statement to come up soon)
Sources:
http://www.fomos.kr/board/board.php?mode=read&keyno=107290&db=issue&cate=&page=1&field=&kwrd=
http://spn.edaily.co.kr/plus/life/NewsRead.asp?sub_cd=DH33&dirCode=0030305&newsid=01928646592974496
http://www.asiae.co.kr/news/view.htm?sec=it2&idxno=2010053110454346924
