Blizzard's Unfortunate Official Stance

in other words they cant say "We own the maps" but they can say "We own the only way you can use said maps"

really useful.

That is correct. So, basically if someone made a completely different editor and then imported all the models and made it be able to read WC maps then they could say it was theirs and screw Blizzard.

nope, cause they imported all the models, if you make a completly new editor, remade all the models + skins and sounds, this includes the models used for terrain and doodads then you could go to court with a small chance of winning, but you'd probably lose because Blizzard owns the copyright on using their units, so you could make a new editor, make entirely new models, units, physics system and just make a new game altogether, the only thing you can use is the data of the maps themselves since bliz owns all the models and skins.

How useful, i can make a game from scratch and call it my own.

@Kam: In which countries does this law apply? If it's an US law, it is only applicable within the US.

Other than that it would be completely pointless by Blizzard to include all this "all media created with the editor belongs to us" stuff if it is useless. So there has to be more behind it.

And about your speculations: Blizzard knows that no one will try to fight their copyrights.

What speculations? BTW they have not renewed the copyright on the WE. You can see this because when you open it at the bottom is says copyright 2000-2003. It is now 2004.

who cares! All that means is you can use the program, all the models, sounds ect that are part of WCIII, NOT the WE is still copyrighted, so its still useless!

Pheonix-IV- can you find that working GA thing pls? :>

Copyright lasts over 110 years.

It doesn't have to be 'renewed.' It simply exists.

no it offically has to be renewed when it expires.

Intellectual property laws state that anything created by you is automatically copyrighted to you. You can pay a small fee of around $50 to register a copyright with the copyright board, in which case you get a certificate that says its copyright (so it's easier to defend it in court, but either way its still copyrighted to you.) Either way, after 70 years OR the copyright holder dies, the copyright expires and it goes into public domain. You DO NOT have to renew anything, and there is no way to re-copyright it or make it last more than 70 years.

your assuming of course that blizzard created everything used in WCIII themselves.

Fuck em, what the hell can they do about it? Nothing, thats what.

the fact is, who cares if theres copyright on WCIII or the Editor or not?

I agree. I say who gives a fuck if you own it our not, you can't sell it.

Despite all I've read on this thread the truth of the matter is in this example. Its like downloading MP3's people do it even though they know its wrong and illegal in most cases. Just like people protect their maps whether Blizzard likes it or not and if this turns out to be dare I say illegal odds are many people will continue business as usual. I can understand Blizzards stand even though I don't agree with it since JASS is "their" scripting language and the WC GUI generates JASS whether you know it or not.

But I don't believe that you don't have a right to your intellectual property I don't care what Blizzard made just because an artist uses a canvas made by a company it doesn't mean that they own the portrait you painted :\ its your property. Well maybe that was a bad example since you own the canvas and you don't "own" software you only "own" a licence to play Warcraft and the World Editor and are bound by that licence agreement no matter how stupid but you know what I was getting at.