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It's a long post, so bear with me.
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Gretech has announced their stance in regards to the recent, problematic IP rights negotiations.
GomTV has posted "IP rights negotiations and GomTV's stance" through GSL community homepage in 16th. Right now, there has been a lot of interest in what Gretech will do from now on, after the announcement of Shinhan Proleague 10-11 season.
Gretech stated, "To this day, we have been very careful in what we state in open, but it appears our silence is causing more confusion for the fans. So today, we are going to state our stance in the IP rights negotiations currently in progress."
GomTV has denied the opinion that they wish to wholly own and control the license to Blizzard games. GomTV said, "The goal is to further increase the size of e-sports, as well as to make it more active through our involvement. To do this, it is important to create a strong relations with the players, teams, other broadcasting stations, and other partners, not just GomTV's own tournaments."
GomTV continued, "Our ultimate goal, is to provide a way to enjoy e-sports broadcast for those who enjoy StarCraft the most in the world, Korean gamers."
We also confirmed their stance in the IP rights negotiations. GomTV started by stating the IP rights and its protection worldwide, "GomTV is not looking to take just the money from Korea e-sports scene through the license. It's to protect the IP rights, which is a very important right for the content businesses, as well as their right to keep it."
GomTV also revealed some of their requests. GomTV said, "It is not normal to openly reveal all of the negotiation and what we requested, but to relieve of all the misunderstanding, we will use the following requests. They are same for all e-sports groups interested in StarCraft tournaments and broadcasting."
GomTV has said the following for their negotiation requirements:
First is the fees. GomTV stated, 'Each tournaments will cost 1 won (ed. That's not a mistranslation, it really said 1 won), and broadcasting fee is 100 million won'. The reason for the broadcasting fee is to have only the corporations who are capable planning a high-quality e-sports tournaments, broadcasting, and provide high-quality broadcast for the players and the viewers. In addition, GomTV stated, 'For this Proleague, we plan to donate all of the negotiation fees to a scholarship entity.'.
The re-negotiation, assuming in good faith, is once every year, and the rights to the broadcasting materials are 50:50. As for the IP, "We are trying to say that license is needed to broadcast games, and acknowledge that Blizzard owns IP rights to all Blizzard games."
As for the sub-licensing, "With this right, the rights holder will be able to select and negotiate a broadcasting station for a tournament or leagues. GomTV has the right to assign the sub-licensees, but we will not abuse it." At this point, GomTV stated, "For Proleague only, we are willing to allow OGN and MBCGame to broadcast without any additional negotiations."
Also, GomTV stated that whoever has the sub-license will be holding onto entirety of sponsorship money, and has revealed that they can state how to use GomTV logo, StarCraft logo, and Blizzard logo to be used in tournaments and broadcasts.
Lastly, GomTV said, "Through this article, we hope it has alleviated some of the worries and curiosity of the fans. GomTV's doors are always open to anyone who would want to cooperate for the e-sports business."
(I omitted long original article posted at GomTV website)
Edit: Since people seem to think this means GomTV won't file a lawsuit, here is a part of the translation from original GomTV article by Enigmatics:
I'm afraid but I have to say : there are few misunderstandings about this issue - Gretech is preparing legal actions and is appealing to the fans that it is inevitable, neccesary action.
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스타크래프트는 공공재가 아닙니다. 이것은 블리자드가 시간과 자원 및 인력을 투자한 결과물이며, 곰TV는 한국에서의 블리자드 공인 파트너로서 국내 스타크래프트 리그가 합법적인 방식으로 지속되도록 국내 파트너와 계약을 진행하고자 많은 노력을 기울여 왔습니다.
Crude translation :
Starcraft is NOT AN PUBLIC GOOD. It resulted from resources and manpowers that blizzard had invested, and GomTV, as the official partner of blizzard entertainment, has taken enourmous efforts to make contracts with the domestic partners, for that make it sure SC:BW leagues is legal.
곰TV는 최악의 상황을 피하기 위해 아직도 주어진 시간 내에 합의에 이를 수 있도록 최선의 노력을 기울이고 있습니다. 그러나 저희의 이러한 노력에도 불구하고 최악의 상황이 발생한다면, 앞으로 저희가 취할 수 밖에 없는 후속 조치에 대해 이해해주시기를 부탁 드립니다.
Crude translation :
GomTV is doing its best efforts to achieve mutual agreements in the given time limit in order to avoid the worst scenario. But if, regardless of our efforts, the worst happens, please understand that we will be forced to take 'extra action'.
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스타크래프트는 공공재가 아닙니다. 이것은 블리자드가 시간과 자원 및 인력을 투자한 결과물이며, 곰TV는 한국에서의 블리자드 공인 파트너로서 국내 스타크래프트 리그가 합법적인 방식으로 지속되도록 국내 파트너와 계약을 진행하고자 많은 노력을 기울여 왔습니다.
Crude translation :
Starcraft is NOT AN PUBLIC GOOD. It resulted from resources and manpowers that blizzard had invested, and GomTV, as the official partner of blizzard entertainment, has taken enourmous efforts to make contracts with the domestic partners, for that make it sure SC:BW leagues is legal.
곰TV는 최악의 상황을 피하기 위해 아직도 주어진 시간 내에 합의에 이를 수 있도록 최선의 노력을 기울이고 있습니다. 그러나 저희의 이러한 노력에도 불구하고 최악의 상황이 발생한다면, 앞으로 저희가 취할 수 밖에 없는 후속 조치에 대해 이해해주시기를 부탁 드립니다.
Crude translation :
GomTV is doing its best efforts to achieve mutual agreements in the given time limit in order to avoid the worst scenario. But if, regardless of our efforts, the worst happens, please understand that we will be forced to take 'extra action'.
