Are some of the Warcraft races copyrighted (or protected by some sort of law)

[Hantoo]

There are alot of fantasy races uses in many stories, games, and movies
The most distinct and the most iconic ones are dwarf, Orc, Elf, Goblins and all those.

While in different stories they have different characteristic but usually are still in a certain stereotypes.
Now I have a question about races that are more exclusive to blizzard.

Eredar and some of a few races are probably invented by blizzard, But what I'm interested most is Warcraft trolls, Im not sure about this but Warcraft trolls are different from other trolls in other stories, and it is Warcraft Troll is the "Default" troll when I think about trolls, but trolls varies very much, from the Dreamwork Smurf-like trolls, to more "Traditional" Troll which is pretty much like ogres. (And I take the ogrelike trolls are the "original" trolls)

Now am I violating any laws in terms of copyright or whatever (I dont understand anything about those fields) if I lets say create a new game or make a story with the same appearance design with warcraft troll but with totally different "Culture" or "backstory" or anything like that? (The tall Mohawk Orc+Elf's appearance)

and, can the concept of "a race of creature" can actually be copyrighted or something like that.

 

[Kaijyuu]

Trolls are notoriously varied in media. In contrast to, say, dwarves, who are the same everywhere.

If you take the warcraft trolls and mix them up a bit I don't think you'll get in any trouble. Only if you start referencing Vol'jin, or very blatantly rip off some of the more detailed troll designs from WoW.

And don't feel ashamed of it either; creativity thrives on borrowing ideas from others. Warcraft itself was a pretty blatant ripoff of warhammer when it first came out, and only distinguished itself later.

 

[Alexandru3090]

All the "original" Blizzard races are fully copyrighted (Eredar, Tauren, Draenai, Nathrezim, etc). Dwarves, Trolls, Orcs, Elves, etc are not, but their Blizzard appearance and lore are. In other words, you can use the names of those non-copyrighted races to create your own original versions of them, but you can't use Blizzard's versions of them. For example, you can create your own race of Orcs, but you can't make your Orcs green-skinned shamanistic-warriors from another planet. You would have to alter their backstory, culture and appearance considerably to have little or nothing in common with the Warcraft Orcs.

So yeah, if you feature Warcraft Trolls or obvious ripoffs of them (tall, bluish and elf-looking with giant tusks and mohawks) you'll probably get a cease and desist letter from Blizzard or even a lawsuit in case your story/game comes to their attention. Blizzard is notorious for suing everyone who borrows from them, which is ironic since Warcraft and Starcraft are both shameless ripoffs of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 respectively.

If you wanna feature Trolls in whatever medium you have to make sure they're merely "inspired" by their Warcraft versions, but not replicas or ripoffs of them. It doesn't really matter if you change the culture and backstory as you've said, if they will have the same appearance as Warcraft Trolls. You have to change everything.

 

[stein123]

All the "original" Blizzard races are fully copyrighted (Eredar, Tauren, Draenai, Nathrezim, etc). Dwarves, Trolls, Orcs, Elves, etc are not, but their Blizzard appearance and lore are. In other words, you can use the names of those non-copyrighted races to create your own original versions of them, but you can't use Blizzard's versions of them. For example, you can create your own race of Orcs, but you can't make your Orcs green-skinned shamanistic-warriors from another planet. You would have to alter their backstory, culture and appearance considerably to have little or nothing in common with the Warcraft Orcs.

So yeah, if you feature Warcraft Trolls or obvious ripoffs of them (tall, bluish and elf-looking with giant tusks and mohawks) you'll probably get a cease and desist letter from Blizzard or even a lawsuit in case your story/game comes to their attention. Blizzard is notorious for suing everyone who borrows from them, which is ironic since Warcraft and Starcraft are both shameless ripoffs of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 respectively.

If you wanna feature Trolls in whatever medium you have to make sure they're merely "inspired" by their Warcraft versions, but not replicas or ripoffs of them. It doesn't really matter if you change the culture and backstory as you've said, if they will have the same appearance as Warcraft Trolls. You have to change everything.

Well, Kingdom Rush's orcs and trolls are pretty similar to the Warcraft ones :v

 

[Alexandru3090]

Yes, but KR doesn't have a fleshed out universe. It's a mashup of references to iconic games and movies.

 

[Rui]

and, can the concept of "a race of creature" can actually be copyrighted or something like that.

The first thing to know is that whether you get sued or not depends on many factors: how much success your creation has, how much of a copy it looks like, and whether people are in good or bad faith. For good or ill, that's how things work. There's not exactly a formula that yields yes or no.

However, if you copy the appearance and change the backstory completely, you probably get sued. And if you copy the backstory and totally change the appearance, you still get sued. If you change a little of both, it might work. It becomes subject to interpretation of how similar/different are yours to theirs. At the end of that spectrum is a race with completely different appearance, culture and backstory, and that's obviously something completely different, which obviously does not get you sued.

In direct answer to your quote, yes. I reckon almost everything that is the result of intellectual effort is “copyrightable” — and, in my opinion, rightly so.

 

[pyf]

[...] Now am I violating any laws in terms of copyright or whatever (I dont understand anything about those fields) if I lets say create a new game or make a story with the same appearance design with warcraft troll but with totally different "Culture" or "backstory" or anything like that? (The tall Mohawk Orc+Elf's appearance) [...]

Why not ask Blizzard directly?

 

[Kyrbi0]

This is a good question, because Warcraft Trolls are best Trolls.

 

[pyf]

@Hayate: any news?

 

[SMBComix]

Tauren are minotaurs, I doubt they're copyrighted.

 

[Sieben]

Tauren are minotaurs, I doubt they're copyrighted.

But the name "Tauren" surely is though

 

[SMBComix]

But the name "Tauren" surely is though

Well yeah, obviously. You can't use that.

Besides, "minotaur" sounds cooler. Why the hell did they have to pick "tauren?" Or "worgen" instead of calling them werewolves?

 

[Diegoit]

"Culture" or "backstory"

Example? I just want to know what kind of culture can be added to this race.
(off-topic)