Blizzard Prepares to Sue Over Illegal StarCraft TV Broadcasts
- Thread starter Tom Goldman
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Yeah not to jump on you like everyone else, but while I never thought it's something I'd do I've recently started getting into youtube casts of high level starcraft games. For me it wouldn't replace my real sport (Hockey), but Starcraft 2 can actually be a pretty fun game to watch once you give it a chance even if you don't have the game... or basically while I played the Beta I've been too poor to pick up Starcraft 2 yet, so to fill the need I started watching a few youtube channels. Basically the game picks up fast, can be unpredictable with lots of back and forth action, very easy to follow along, and only lasts from a low of 10 minutes to a high of 40 minutes. Usually games they cast are between 15-30 minutes though, so it's easy to fit a game in here and there.mattttherman3 said:
IP rights and Patents are a big issue with the Eastern World, and one of the big things that I feel makes a global war along East Vs. West lines inevitable. Stealing from the western world generally seems to be viewed as A-Ok especially in nations like China. The arguements from Korea about this being public domain shadow arguements being made by China in the case of various patent violations and it's "Robber Economy". The war being inevitable because all comments about business preventing war aside, the issue simply comes down to the fact that if this continues it's going to destroy our businesses, development, and production, and if it doesn't continue the economies of nations like China which are booming due to theft and knockoffs, turning them into increasingly strong global powers are going to crash and boom. China is crawling out of the ghetto (while still having tons upon tons of impoverished people) and say preventing them from knocking off drugs like Viagra, counterfeiting clothing, pirating games, duplicating electronics, and tons of other stuff would wreck them. "The World Court" has not made rulings largely because any desician on the matter is going to result in a global bloodbath, the current limbo being what is preventing that powder keg from igniting. Trade is one of the major reasons for wars, right up there with politics and religion. People tend to forget that.
At any rate, the big question here is whether or not the US is going to be willing to violate Korea's national sovreign status to enforce this. I think like many similar cases this is going to quickly come down to their domestic laws against our laws, and arguements of what they may or may not have agreed to nationally. It simply seems possible to deal with this legally because South Korea is an ally.
To put this into perspective, for us this is a business matter, for them it's a cultural matter. I'd imagine that for many down there it burns that one of the most major aspects of their culture is owned by an American corperation and dependant on it. Sort of like how people in large, powerful, and productive nations tend to not 'get' how so many countries can get a complex when they realize that pretty much everything they have or want was created or conceived somewhere else.
Business arguments aside, the basic arguement seems to be that Korea is claiming Starcraft has grown to the point where it's too big for any owner. Sort of like how no individual or company can claim say Soccor (or Alien Football >
) as their specific creation and collect money from all the players, teams, and leagues globally. Nobody walks into say Brazil and shakes down kids for the right to play the game, or demands the entire nation basically pay a company from another nation for one of their major pre-occupations. Indeed I think most major sports have their orgins kept deliberatly ambigious for this reason, allowing them to be global property. Even if the universal rules for Soccor used today are an English creation (as I remember reading, established in the 1800s) the game is far older. Korea seems to be argueing that "Starcraft" has become akin to Soccor or other sports and the property of the world so to speak.
So the big question here might very well come down to (when the legal wrangling is done) whether or not the USA is going to just walk in against the will of their legal system, and basically kidnap the people involved to suffer penelties in the US. If it goes there and we do it, it's a diplomatic nightmare, if we don't do it, it's a massive blow to IP rights and international trade because not being willing to stand up for our businesses this way is simply going to encourage various nations to declare anything they want public domain and/or steal it or knock it off.
At any rate, the big question here is whether or not the US is going to be willing to violate Korea's national sovreign status to enforce this. I think like many similar cases this is going to quickly come down to their domestic laws against our laws, and arguements of what they may or may not have agreed to nationally. It simply seems possible to deal with this legally because South Korea is an ally.
To put this into perspective, for us this is a business matter, for them it's a cultural matter. I'd imagine that for many down there it burns that one of the most major aspects of their culture is owned by an American corperation and dependant on it. Sort of like how people in large, powerful, and productive nations tend to not 'get' how so many countries can get a complex when they realize that pretty much everything they have or want was created or conceived somewhere else.
Business arguments aside, the basic arguement seems to be that Korea is claiming Starcraft has grown to the point where it's too big for any owner. Sort of like how no individual or company can claim say Soccor (or Alien Football >
) as their specific creation and collect money from all the players, teams, and leagues globally. Nobody walks into say Brazil and shakes down kids for the right to play the game, or demands the entire nation basically pay a company from another nation for one of their major pre-occupations. Indeed I think most major sports have their orgins kept deliberatly ambigious for this reason, allowing them to be global property. Even if the universal rules for Soccor used today are an English creation (as I remember reading, established in the 1800s) the game is far older. Korea seems to be argueing that "Starcraft" has become akin to Soccor or other sports and the property of the world so to speak. So the big question here might very well come down to (when the legal wrangling is done) whether or not the USA is going to just walk in against the will of their legal system, and basically kidnap the people involved to suffer penelties in the US. If it goes there and we do it, it's a diplomatic nightmare, if we don't do it, it's a massive blow to IP rights and international trade because not being willing to stand up for our businesses this way is simply going to encourage various nations to declare anything they want public domain and/or steal it or knock it off.
People that think KeSPA is good for Korean Starcraft e-sports have no clue.
In case you didn't know, KeSPA kinda ripped of their players (who required a "pro-gaming" license in order to play and was after nothing but profit (which is why they keep fighting against Blizzard like complete retards).
Did you know that a lot player of the Starcraft 1 teams (not necessarily the very, very top but the b-teams) were forced to play for 12+ hours a day and if under a certain age weren't allowed to leave the training house for weeks if not even months?
Oh boy, even Koreans are happy about KeSPA breaking down (if it will, which is unlikely because they're backed up by the fucked up government and yeah...)
In case you didn't know, KeSPA kinda ripped of their players (who required a "pro-gaming" license in order to play and was after nothing but profit (which is why they keep fighting against Blizzard like complete retards).
Did you know that a lot player of the Starcraft 1 teams (not necessarily the very, very top but the b-teams) were forced to play for 12+ hours a day and if under a certain age weren't allowed to leave the training house for weeks if not even months?
Oh boy, even Koreans are happy about KeSPA breaking down (if it will, which is unlikely because they're backed up by the fucked up government and yeah...)
KeSPA made a statement about their disagreements with Blizzard leading up to this.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=173841
KeSPA sounds like they have good intentions but ignoring many requests from Blizzard and continuing to broadcast without a license brought this upon themselves.
Also if you know about the Starcraft pro-scene you know that KeSPA's annihilation is a good thing.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=173841
KeSPA sounds like they have good intentions but ignoring many requests from Blizzard and continuing to broadcast without a license brought this upon themselves.
Also if you know about the Starcraft pro-scene you know that KeSPA's annihilation is a good thing.
I don't really have anything to add to your quote, I'm just padding your record for "most times quoted in a single thread ever" You must find it very annoying by now. You're welcome.mattttherman3 said:
Anyway, I think Blizzard is completely justified
Guys blizzard is in the right here. It is a group selling their product for money with out any gain for Blizzard. If a TV station started bring in their own cameras to NFL games and they released the videos on their own stations they would get the living hell sued out of them.
" "Korea is the only region in the world where we have had to resort to litigation to protect our IP rights." "
That wouldn't be because Starcraft is only broadcast in Korea?
That wouldn't be because Starcraft is only broadcast in Korea?
Word. Some people just don't have respect for IP. Hopefully the 'big blue' doesn't lose face for having to take this kind of action. There's a lot of people out there who would side against Blizzard even though they're just protecting their work.Igen said:
Welcome to Korean sports.mattttherman3 said:
http://www.cracked.com/article_18763_5-insane-true-facts-about-starcraft-professional-sport.html
The company broadcasting the games is making money by charging for commercial slots during the event. Hence the liscencing fees for other broadcasters. It would be bad form to charge one company the fee to broadcast, while ignoring a company doing it regardless of contract. Youtube doesnt insert commercials during your video. (another reason youtube was a huge issue a few years back, and companys can and do request their product videos to be removed all the time from youtube)Garak73 said: