Blizzard's Unfortunate Official Stance

I download mp3s of music licensed and produced in Japan, the RIAA cannot sue me for it and it's not illegal. Eat me.

Exactly= Blizzard can't and wont do shit about it.

And why the fuck do you care? (And Star, get over it, theres no vulgarity rules, and dont go singling me out.)

Such rude comments are not acceptable.
Please try to keep the discussion on topic, otherwise I'll have to close it.

It's better to do some censorship since I think this is a good discussion, so closing is not an option.

Other than that it is quite easy to sum up the whole problem: Unless you sell something for money Blizzard won't do anything about it. What they also don't like are alternative networks like Bnet (as mentioned before).

If they really wanted to ban map protecting they would have changed the way WC3 reads maps so that you can only play unprotected maps.

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, so do not take my advice or beliefs as legally binding or anything like that. =-)

Its a good things most maps don't use blizzards' artwork at all. They do make reference to it, but they don't contain it and that is all that matters for copyright. Well, that and derivatives - if you edit one of blizzards models or artwork without permission then you are breaking the law in the US at least, but most maps don't do that AFAIK.

Not to mention that map protection and copyright are entirely unrelated. Protected maps are distributed nearly as freely as normal maps, and the only people that prevent them from being distributed just as freely are those that are anti-protection, so it would seem they are the ones trying to control distribution. In that case, it is those anti-protection people that are violating blizzard's wishes that maps be distributed freely.

Nobody is preventing people from editing protected maps, though I do ask those capable of creating an unprotector to keep it to themselves. I have edited protected maps myself, so I definitely know it is possible. It isn't difficult at all to get into a protected map and make changes if you're willing to spend a few minutes reverse engineering the map format or at least read the work of somebody else that did (as I studied and reverse engineered what zepir did so I could learn how to make my protector).
As I said, I ask people not to release unprotectors to the general public, because that would undo the little that protection does (keep lazy n00bs out), but my pleading does not in any way force them to comply.

To put it simply, blizzard has very little say on the matter, and copyright isn't involved. They could make it involved, by modifying their license agreement (to say that their editor may not be used to create maps that will then be altered externally or somesuch, just like id software won't let you use their tools to make maps for your own games that load their format), but then any maps made before the change would still be perfectly legal and protectors would still be legal as well.
You'd just need to use a different map editor, which would be a pain since afaik only zepir has made one and his was far from complete the last time I used it. You'd have to do all scripting directly in the .j file manually, which again eliminates n00bs making ripoffs.

I haven't read the license agreements for the latest version, but I'm pretty sure they haven't made the neccessary changes since I did read it, so it is highly likely there is nothing wrong with protecting your map from a legal perspective.
I'm sure that if there was, they would have contacted me and instructed me to remove it from my site. It would be easy for them to do so since my email (for extprotect related things at least) is posted all over the internet, including on the very page where you can download it. I've had people not related to blizzard tell me it was illegal, but I've never gotten an official response. If somebody believes my protector violates US law, I ask that you report it to blizzard so they will email me and instruct me on the proper actions I can take to avoid trouble.

Yup I didn't wanna take up all the quote space, but I agree.


Yes, they are.

Second, we are on discussion, I'd like to know why he started this thread.

Phoenix, is there something you don't get.

When it expires... is sometime after we are all dead.

Blizzard owns copyright to the maps, and yes, we can still 'damage' them (it's not illegal, since if they allows us to make them then we can make it damaged.)

But I see some of the artists here haven't spoken about it. You do realize that copyright is an extremely important part of intellectual property, and that it defines the ownership of intellectual property. That Blizzard can blatantly say "we own the copyrights to all these maps" is outrageous due, at least in part, of the fact that so much original effort goes into these maps. Yes, we use their models, their skins, but copyright is both micro and macroscopic. Copyright can be as finely tuned so as to protect every second letter of every third word in a sentance, and that is legal. Copyright can be applied to the footnotes that exist on pages of a novel. Copyright can be applied to a portion of a greater project, allowing a design firm to license works from another, but copyright the end result. Copyright is flexible, but Blizzard has decided that all your artwork which goes into maps, all your original thoughts and ideas, are copyright towards them. Is this fair? Is this right? I don't believe so, but I guess you will be the ones who decide that for yourselves.

The blizzard representative I spoke to has denied any further comment on the issue. If you want to be able to copyright your maps, please send them emails! It is the only way!

Why would you want to copyright the maps? The only real thing it would give you is the right to control distribution, which would mean you could say people can't give out your map. Why would you want to do that?

Well, you could also prevent derivatives (works based on yours), but really map protection does that to an acceptable level already (as long as no unprotectors that convert jass to GUI triggers are not made public).

Even if you had copyright, though, it would cost you a LOT to actually control anything since you'd have to sue everybody that violated the license you published, and it would be pretty damn hard to track since battle net has an auto transfer system built in.

If you're an artist and making extremely original art for a map (so original/unique that you want to copyright it and control distribution) then you're in the wrong business - find a programmer or learn to program and make your own game. Truely, it is not that difficult if you're dedicated, and you could make quite a bit more money off a small game($0+) than you could off a warcraft map ($0.00).

JASS really isn't anything more than any other scripting or programming language.

whoa... so basicly Project Revolution is owned by no one??? they only own the names of the logos and memerabilia? whoa. so that technically means that if Blizzard didn't like what and mod on this site was doing they couldn't do shit about it??? and while im on that topic wouldn't blizzard be baffled and would consider it a compliment that so many people are working round the clock to create something that they hadn't thought of or that they started with and didn't take it to the next level? wouldn't they be so flattered by the work these people have done that they might even pay them to make more????????? Dawn of Chaos and related works would be famous! i'd really like explainations because its all so confusing.......

i read that someone had made a underground Bnet???

lol if you do it the right way they cant do shit to you.
well in my country they cant do shit.(Privacy law they cant go in my pc)

ever wonderd how sites like www.gamehacking.com en such stay alive??
well they use protections. like whne you donwload something they arnt responsible of EVRYTHING you do with it.

you can apply alot of theys tricks when you make your own Bnet.
i have done it with a few games(westwood games) but i never liked it much. Re-making servers from scratsch is really hard (super hard when you suck in c++)

but if you want to make your own bnet you only have to change a really small thing in wc3 you just have to change the IP it logs into.

then the hard parts begins. how to receive messages/packets and deal with it.
if you want to learn to do this i would advice you to learn C++ and concentrate on Internet stuff.


if you want to see the biggest NONofficial Westwood server check out
olaf van der spek his server. (he only made it)
forgot the url. ill send it later (or search for his name on google hes kinda populair.)

Why would anyone do anything anyway, to work on a technicality makes you a jerk (not you Kam bu ones who would). on top of the fact that blizzard is pretty fair and they arent out to stop you from 'protecting' the files any way.

Well, actually, you (the modder(s) own all things made specifically by you and your team, such as any models, skins, custom code, logos, whatever.

Incorrect. Blizzard's stance is that upon creating the map with the World Editor, the map and thus everything therein is owned by them.

Maybe you'll be a little angrier about their stance now, hm?