Blizzard's Unfortunate Official Stance

http://tigs.lortrader.com

We host over 7 different diablo mods - war3 realm - counterstrike server - 1.9d diablo - 1.10 diablo - and soon to be WoW.

Does nobody still care about this issue?

I don't mean to cause an upset but, there are numerous projects that include completely original work, and you wont own it. So even if you copyright the work that goes into the map, it becomes Blizzard property. Doesn't anybody care about their art?

You'd have to contact Blizzard and ask if you could buy a licence to use their engine. They'd probbaly say no, unless you had a top team of professional games makers behind you - enough to make a worthwhile game that would interest Blizzard's wallet.

But in that situation you'd have the skill to make your own engine anyway.

yeah, you can go on computer camp, they teach you how to make one. or buy some books.
somebody told me once how o do it, but i forgot..

The way blizzard has it set up now, I can unprotect any map I download and change the title and author to me and then release it back out to the public.

But really, these rules and laws mean nothing of any significance.

When it comes down to it, me and you both know it costs more than it would be worth to protect your rights. Like if someone stole your map and made their own version of it, it would not be worth it to buy a lawyer and sue that person (assuming of course that person is eligible to be sued).

So let us stop worrying about such a meaningless topic and go on doing what we have been for the past 3 or more years.

well that's what we get for beign the last chance for the game to stay alive, we lose any right over our work, I don't think there 's anything we can do about it.

But protection maps is not the same as copyrighting, when you 'protect' a map it is actually the world editor's fault for not being able to open a map that can be played in wc3, it is the world editor's fault no ours and it is not copyrighting, it is removing files that would only increase the space of the map for no reason.

From what I got, Blizzard doesnt care. They own your work. Meaning they can use it in another game if they wanted. For all you people know, maybe Blizzard plans on simply taking all the good ideas and then selling them on a shelf in three years?

u could prolly get away with it if u called the server sumthing that didnt include battle or net in the name because im pritty sure the guys that got sued over the server thing had either battle or .net in their server name......also mods for warcraft arnt illeagal because what about that mod which is on wc3c that oone with the wood elves and stuff......if mods were illeagal these guys would have been sued allready

BLIZZARD is a company. A major gamimg company. They claim the right to call the map you make theirs, so If a map ever gets popular or recieves publicity "in real life not online". Blizzard can say the map is theirs and steal the credit. Also if your map were to make money some how, Blizzard can sieze the funds made, becuase offically you are making money off thier "property" which is your map. Protecting or not I doubt they care less, unless it your making money off the map or giving some kind of positive attention for it.

To be honest I'm more annoyed by the Blizzard perspective that they own your map and thus allow anybody and anyone to alter it. That's like saying "We're going to take your money away from you, then we're going to throw it around in the street so it's impossible for us to give it back." i.e.: Person makes map, second person edits map to put in a cheat, the edited map begins to overtake the original, etc. People hate the map because it has cheats.

Be annoyed all you want. Its the same stance taken by every company, worldwide. If you create something using their property, the created thing is also their property.

I believe you are right in a sence; almost all editors for games follow this mentality. however, you are being overzelous in saying every company follows these ideals. If this were true, then Adobe would one every piece of art created with Photoshop, and Discreet would own every model made using 3DsMax. I never understood the logic under this idea, however. If you make the product, then you should have the rights to it. If I were Blizzard, I would be honored that their software has recieved such a massive modding base, rather than attempting to rip them off.

I highly doubt, under normal circumstances, that Blizzard would actually take any action on this. Not only would this give them a very bad rep with the community, it would stifle pretty much all modding/mapping underway. No one would map for a game, when they know that all their work could be stolen at the whim of a Blizzard employee. The only way I see this happening, is if you attempt to sell the map--or something similar--in which you are definatly outstepping your bounds. However, with the auto-download feature of WC3, this is virtually non-existant.

Finally, on the topic of map protection; you are protecting nothing. If WC3 can read it, it can be edited. No matter what you do to protect a map, WC3 must be able to extract the needed information (.j file, etc)--and if WC3 can do it, any other program can. Although I avicate map protection to limit the number of "mauls" that occur (hacked/rigged/ripoff maps), you must understand, as I do, that it is not anything more than a deterent for the less-skilled (and more dangerous to a map) members of the community.

If you have read this up to this point, I must commend you. I understand that this has been a somewhat erratic, poorly writen rant; but I just wanted to state my option on the topics being discussed.

I have no objection to those who will edit maps maturely doing so, I prefer 'open source,' to a degree.

There is a line between editing a map to improve it and editing it because you want to make it easier.

Adobe and such differ in that their tools are created for the soul purpose of making and editing pictures. One key point is that Adobe cant prove if the picture was not simply edited, and also another key point is that you dont have to use Adobe, you could use another photo editing program instead. This however, is not the case for WCIII. It is a one-off program that serves a distinct purpose, i cant go and use a different game to play WCIII. I phrased that incorrectly, what it should have been was "Every company, unless they clearly state otherwise, is the same." So if your using a tool, and it dosnt state that any work created with it is by right, yours, its safe to assume that the company still owns it.

Although it's been vaguley stated the copyright still exists and will exist, the actual time frame is <life>+70 years, it's not going away anytime soon.
Also, even if map 'protection' was illegal (which it isn't), blizzard would lose money singling out people, this is why you don't see the majority of the population of a country being sued by the MPAA, only the massive distributors of stolen property.
Also, even if blizzard took your ideas, you can't really copyright a concept. Maybe they could patent some magical algorithm you made, but as we know, software patents are widely hated.
And lastly, I'm not sure why you would even want to copyright a wc3 map. You can't make money on it, and it would still be played, I know I for one make maps because I had an idea or played a map with a good concept, but it sucked; thus, I would still get to play it regardless (likely more if blizzard distributed it). Even if blizzard did snatch a map and redistributed it, you should be happy, not agitated, I'm sure by that time if the name attached to the map is even glanced at it will be known who really created it.