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On March 04 2010 14:17 Azarkon wrote: Well, first Blizzard needs to prove that they can make SC 2 the same competitive game that SC 1 was. Ret's most recent post on GG.net comes to mind. link to Ret's post?
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On March 04 2010 15:37 ShaperofDreams wrote:Show nested quote +On March 04 2010 14:17 Azarkon wrote: Well, first Blizzard needs to prove that they can make SC 2 the same competitive game that SC 1 was. Ret's most recent post on GG.net comes to mind. link to Ret's post?
Maybe he ment this?
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Words like SC2 will beat starcraft is really laughable, people keep implying that cus blizzard broadcast online blah blah. U'll be disappointed. Producers especially those with big market share always hype their goods way up before release, after that u see it die down like every product. Especially its not role playing game it will last shorter. SC:BW and WC3 actually didn't last more than 3 years in foreign scene except for the few players that play untill now. What i mean is the period every random player played. So GL trying to create world wide esports.
Removing LAN option is not a prob because hackers will find a way through for our random gamer to play on LAN, but it prevents kespa from hosting it using 3rd party programs. So a very smart tactic possibly to force kespa to buy the rights in the future. But i don't think it'll ever happen.
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How the hell is KeSPA expecting to win this war? Let's go over what each side has to lose:
Blizzard: -Tiny drop in the bucket of their vast WoW-funded treasury. Everyone will still buy it even if KeSPA cries forever. KeSPA might hurt their profit margins by 0.1%?
KeSPA: -Everything. Oh no, wait, they could try to keep going with only Korean-made games, like Sudden Attack. (LOOOOOOOOOOOOL)
Blizzard isn't going to be KeSPA's bitch over their own game.
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I can't even begin to understand what Kespa could put up with in the long run.
It's Blizzards game. Kespa has no rights in this matter, they can negotiate and try to come up with a good solution but in the end the creator of the game chooses what to do with the game. simple as that.
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it's important to know that the Blizzard EULA is based on US law. Other countries do not have to respect it when it is presented in their court. Think of the MS window license problem in EU, they were force to change what is otherwise perfectly fine in the US.
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international copyright laws still apply
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Canada5565 Posts
On March 03 2010 22:56 zatic wrote: Esport Cold War
What people need to realize is that both parties stand pretty much toe to toe in this. Both have about equal means to threaten each other it's not all like one party has the upper hand.
Blizzard could drag Kespa to court over copyright, but it's the last thing they want to do. A case like this would be dragged out for years, cost a lot, and the result would be entirely uncertain. The IP of computer game generated content has not been resolved at all in court anywhere as far as I know. Together with the production value the Korean TV broadcasts add to the product it is not at all clear who really owns the copyright to the TV rights, or who owns how much. The "best" Blizzard could hope for is shutting down pro BW after spending a lot of money and time in court - something that isn't at all in their interest. They would only lose.
On the other hand, Kespa can't continue with SC2 as they did with BW. Demanding licensing and challenging IP would be much easier for SC2 in the beginning from Blizzard perspective. However, Kespa could refuse to cooperate and use their influence over the TV stations and the teams to not give SC2 any recognition. Again, this is the last thing they want to do as well. The result would be equally uncertain as Blizzard's prospect suing Kespa. They might push SC2 in a niche, and continue to live off decreasing BW interest. But it might also create a new rival, whether this would be GOM or a completely new entity. The "best" they can hope for is destroying or hurting SC2's success while also hurting the value of their current product. They would only lose.
The two have equally disastrous means to hurt and thus threaten each other, but out of their own interest they won't do so, and both know it. So what we see are all those petty little maneuvers with which they try to demonstrate who has the upper hand. In the end, they will have to work together, or ignore each other enough that both can still do business.
pretty much sums it up.
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On March 03 2010 22:56 zatic wrote: Esport Cold War
What people need to realize is that both parties stand pretty much toe to toe in this. Both have about equal means to threaten each other it's not all like one party has the upper hand.
Blizzard could drag Kespa to court over copyright, but it's the last thing they want to do. A case like this would be dragged out for years, cost a lot, and the result would be entirely uncertain. The IP of computer game generated content has not been resolved at all in court anywhere as far as I know. Together with the production value the Korean TV broadcasts add to the product it is not at all clear who really owns the copyright to the TV rights, or who owns how much. The "best" Blizzard could hope for is shutting down pro BW after spending a lot of money and time in court - something that isn't at all in their interest. They would only lose.
On the other hand, Kespa can't continue with SC2 as they did with BW. Demanding licensing and challenging IP would be much easier for SC2 in the beginning from Blizzard perspective. However, Kespa could refuse to cooperate and use their influence over the TV stations and the teams to not give SC2 any recognition. Again, this is the last thing they want to do as well. The result would be equally uncertain as Blizzard's prospect suing Kespa. They might push SC2 in a niche, and continue to live off decreasing BW interest. But it might also create a new rival, whether this would be GOM or a completely new entity. The "best" they can hope for is destroying or hurting SC2's success while also hurting the value of their current product. They would only lose.
The two have equally disastrous means to hurt and thus threaten each other, but out of their own interest they won't do so, and both know it. So what we see are all those petty little maneuvers with which they try to demonstrate who has the upper hand. In the end, they will have to work together, or ignore each other enough that both can still do business. While it may be true for BW, I don't agree with SC2 part having the same cold war feeling.
Kespa = 0 when it comes to SC2. Money is money, if they decide their precious little teams wont participate, well, I have a feeling there's a few million South Korean teenagers who would be more than happy to take the tournament money. Then you'll see SC players(think Bisu, Jaedong, Flash) not wanting to renew contracts because there's bigger money in SC2 and they have the skill to take that money. Then you'll start seeing teams fall apart. Then the teams will start to lose sponsors. Then you'll start seeing worsening relations between Kespa and individual teams. Then you'll see Kespa die, and the infrastructure collapse.
There are more than enough TV stations ready to broadcast SC2 games if OGN/MBC don't do it. And if anything good came out of Kespa, a new organization would come to life in a matter of months and re-do the good things.
That's why Kespa will eventually bend over, and allow blizzard to take them from behind.
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On March 04 2010 19:46 niteReloaded wrote:
That's why Kespa will eventually bend over, and allow blizzard to take them from behind.
I will have my popcorn and soda ready to watch this happen.
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On March 04 2010 09:07 Liquid`NonY wrote:Show nested quote +On March 04 2010 08:54 nimoraca wrote: You all Blizzard lovers need to understand that SC2 is not the content here. Its just the software used to make the content. The content are the games being played. Blizzard has no rights to the games being played. Its like saying Autodesk or Adobe have intellectual right for the movies being made with their software. People are not coming to the matches to watch the game itself, they can do that at home. They come to watch the games, the players, the show. Blizzard has no intellectual rights for that. I have no idea how you read the EULA and came up with that interpretation. Show nested quote +EULA: You are entitled to use the Program for your own use, but you are not entitled to: (i) sell, grant a security interest in or transfer reproductions of the Program to other parties in any way, nor to rent, lease or license the Program to others without the prior written consent of Blizzard. (ii) exploit the Program or any of its parts for any commercial purpose including, but not limited to, use at a cyber cafe, computer gaming center or any other location-based site. Blizzard may offer a separate Site License Agreement to permit you to make the Program available for commercial use; contact Blizzard for details;
If something is written in the EULA, it doesn't mean it is legal.
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What i wanted to say is there were numerous situations when EULA terms were overruled by the court (in the US and Europe).
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On March 04 2010 07:11 sith wrote:
Actually, NFL is comparable to KeSPA, not Blizzard, so that analogy doesn't work. Nor does actually the one about pool. It is not clear which one would win a legal battle.
The difference between the NFL and KeSPA is that NFL is owns the entire surrounding infrastructure as related to reproducing the games they play, but nobody owns the game itself. They play football, which is not copyrighted. Their legal rights come from the fact that they create and manage these games and teams. KeSPA plays Starcraft, which is copyrighted. While similar to the NFL in that they both manage teams and organize games, they do not actually own the rights to the game they play. In fact the way they broadcast the games using the "replay" technology is provided specifically by Blizzard and any telecasts of the games are basically a derivative work (IE under copyright by Blizzard). Blizzard could shut them the hell down if they really wanted to, while there is nobody that could "shut down" the NFL for playing footbal.[/QUOTE]
Well, it seems you know more about law and the bolded part I don't know much about, so I stand corrected.
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Just to clarify, since a lot of people seem to be screwing this up [though it seems like people're screwing a lot of 'facts' up, I'm less familiar with the history of KeSPA so I'll refrain from commenting].
Activision Blizzard is -not- the same as Blizzard Entertainment.
Blizzard was owned by Vivendi Interactive, which is owned by Vivendi which is an entertainment conglomerate - It owns large amounts of or controlling stakes in Universal Music, NBC Universal and now what's now known as Activison Blizzard, among other things.
Activision Blizzard came about when Vivendi Interactive bought controlling stakes in Activision.
Blizzard Entertainment currently gets 98% of its income from WoW, with operating margins at roughly 50%. WoW, along with the CoD and Guitar Hero franchises, generate more than 2/3rds of Activision Blizzard's net profit. Blizzard Entertainment has extremely deep pockets at the moment, and gets given a lot of leeway to do their own thing, because they're making so much money.
Currently they're working on SC2 [2010], Cataclysm [2010], Diablo3 [2011], Unnamed New Franchise MMO [2011].
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On March 04 2010 11:13 Raz0r wrote: If the legal technicalities say that Blizzard is entitled to a piece of the profits that you earn from their products, then shouldn't all other companies charge other people for using their product to make something of their own? If the people already bought the game cd i dont understand why they are still entitled to more than that. For example, if someone started a sock business, do the business owners owe the the person who invented socks more money just because they are using that person's idea to expand and make their own profits?
Unfortunately, it's even more complicated than that. People need to understand that intellectual property cannot change ownership in the same sense that a sock, or a car or any other physical thing can, nor can it be bought in the same way, nor stolen. You also don't "own" the replay file (or any file on your computer for that matter), in the same sense in which you own your socks or the hard drive, on which you store your files. Legally it is a completely different matter and it's a difference that matters.
The best analogy I can think of would be a DJ, who mixes up a song with his l33t mixing skills and asks people to pay for it. He will need to pay royalties to the author of that song no matter if the people only come to watch/hear his skills, because the song he uses is not and never will be his property, but was authored by someone else. He does not require to pay royalties to, nor permission to use from the manufacturer of his mixing station, because this is his property and he can deduce different usage rights from the fact that he owns it.
Can somebody link me to a source which explains what kind of broadcast rights Kespa/OGN/MBC bought from Blizzard in 2001, cause I never heard about that before.
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On March 04 2010 21:27 Squeegy wrote:Show nested quote +On March 04 2010 07:11 sith wrote:
Actually, NFL is comparable to KeSPA, not Blizzard, so that analogy doesn't work. Nor does actually the one about pool. It is not clear which one would win a legal battle. The difference between the NFL and KeSPA is that NFL is owns the entire surrounding infrastructure as related to reproducing the games they play, but nobody owns the game itself. They play football, which is not copyrighted. Their legal rights come from the fact that they create and manage these games and teams. KeSPA plays Starcraft, which is copyrighted. While similar to the NFL in that they both manage teams and organize games, they do not actually own the rights to the game they play. In fact the way they broadcast the games using the "replay" technology is provided specifically by Blizzard and any telecasts of the games are basically a derivative work (IE under copyright by Blizzard). Blizzard could shut them the hell down if they really wanted to, while there is nobody that could "shut down" the NFL for playing footbal.
QFT. Blizzard can play the trump card, it's sad this is turning out to be a conflict. These two parties have benefited each other enormously up until now! The greed involved on, perhaps both, either side is misplaced. Negotiations over rights are bound to happen, but in the end are really just battling for who profits most. And Blizzard wins an all-out war like Squeegy says.
But Blizz is anything but a dumb company, and keeping KeSPA on their side somehow to further propagate pro-gaming in Korea, and hopefully, elsewhere all over the world (with their game as a pure profit per units sold of course) is probably on their agenda.
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Well in the end it all comes down to the fact that korea is the only country with a professional e-sport foundation. Be it the players, the stations or the fact that it's the only place where multibillion dollar companies like Samsung are willing to sponsor a team for several years and not just on a event to event basis.
What's happening here is totally crazy anyway. If you allow the football analogy. Blizzard is not just changing the color of the grass but the entire game. This might be easy to handle for basement kids, but it's something completely different for anybody else in the business.
i don't know...If it wasnt for SC2 how much presence would Blizzard show in Korea anyway?
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don't mistake KeSPA as being low on resources - it's backed by over 10 of the largest corporations in SKorea, the sponsors of the pro-gaming teams.
Also, tournament money is provided by sponsors, so if there are no interested sponsors, or no large sponsors - then the available prizes won't be attractive.
Spectator sports are about audiences and sponsorship. If a game/sport/etc attracts a viewing audience that is attractive to advertisers, then sponsors will provide the money to run leagues and tournaments. I don't think SC2, despite whatever quality Blizzard is capable of, has anything special about it that will cause it to attract an unusually large breakout audience in the west. It's just another computer/video game that probably won't have appeal beyond the game playing audience, so I really don't think SC2's pro-gaming growth will start in the west, if it's to surpass previous games like counterstrike or unreal tournament. If Blizzard's conflict with KeSPA comes to be perceived in SKorea as a nationalistic issue, then SC2's competitive scene there may end up stillborn. Plus who's to say that SC2 will even reach SC1's level of popularity even if everyone cooperated? Several games have come and go since SC1's release and none of them have developed scenes as large.
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United States33079 Posts
on a side note, thanks for reproducing without crediting, gg.net
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On March 04 2010 22:57 Waxangel wrote:on a side note, thanks for reproducing without crediting, gg.net  thats what gosugamers does, no surprise there
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