Fear of copyright law

[BranHUN]

Hello there!

I am a writer, and I want to create a story in a custom campaign for Warcraft III. This is a story that I also plan to release in a book - and it's completely separate from any intellectual property made by Blizzard, except for the fact that I wish to create a campaign "edition" of the story in the Warcraft III World Editor.

Now, my question is - who does this story belong to? Supposedly, based on the "Custom Game Acceptable Use Policy", any and all property in a custom game (and I guess, custom campaign, too) belongs to Blizzard, and Blizzard is free to use it in any way it wants to.

As a developing writer who wishes to publish and earn money with this future book, I am afraid that this law will give too much control over my intellectual property to Blizzard.

What happens, if my book blows up in popularity, and somebody wants to make a television series about it, for example? Like Game of Thrones. The book itself will be different from the game, of course. But just because I create a campaign now with the same character names and the same general plot of the story, will this mean that in the future Blizzard can just say that "it's not your property anymore", and they can take control over the television series and leave me out of it all completely?

Am I the only one who sees multiple problems with this? This stops me from starting the whole editing and creating the campaign, because Blizzard will just swipe it away from me, no matter what I say or wish, because I would agree to a contract. But who would ever agree to making something great, and then not even getting some credits - not to mention revenue?

Reading the Custom Game Acceptable Use Policy made me want to stop writing my story alltogether. I envisioned it perfectly in the world editor, and how the book would differ or be similar to it. But now, I feel like I just want to stick to the book, and not make any sort of campaign, because my writing work will just go down the bin, since, at any moment, Blizzard can just ask me to hand it over.

I guess I could (theoretically) make it for myself in secret, but then what's the point?

I feel like, as modders and world editors, this is an issue that can trouble all of us, this whole site.

What do you guys think about this? Is there any way around this, so I can protect my creative rights?

 

[deepstrasz]

To stay safe, especially if you expect to make money out of it, you should keep it away from the World Editor.
If you have the urge to though, you could post the story before the campaign so that you'll have a sort of proof that it does not actually belong to Actiblizzard.
I think chances are quite slim for your campaign to be so important or known that the company would even want to consider even at least showcasing it on their official website.
They can't take your stuff though because that would mean they could steal anything you put in the editor like someone else's music.

In conclusion, write the book first, publish it and then make the campaign if you really need to.

You should read more opinions on related threads:
Reforged - Dont make mods, boycott Reforged [EULA Update]
TOS explanation and myths

 

[BranHUN]

To stay safe, especially if you expect to make money out of it, you should keep it away from the World Editor.
If you have the urge to though, you could post the story before the campaign so that you'll have a sort of proof that it does not actually belong to Actiblizzard.
I think chances are quite slim for your campaign to be so important or known that the company would even want to consider even at least showcasing it on their official website.
They can't take your stuff though because that would mean they could steal anything you put in the editor like someone else's music.

In conclusion, write the book first, publish it and then make the campaign if you really need to.

You should read more opinions on related threads:
Reforged - Dont make mods, boycott Reforged [EULA Update]
TOS explanation and myths

Thanks for the answer! Yeah, I agree, I will leave modding and editing behind for a while. But this is a very sad state right now... I hope that Blizzard will feel the pressure and return to their original licensing...

 

[The_Messenger]

Starting with the release of Reforged everything made by fans in the World Editor belong to Blizzard. A lot of people are annoyed by this new policy but Blizzard isn't backing down since I'm fairly certain they want to avoid losing another potential market explosion like DoTA was and how they had to fight with VALVE over it (technically the authors of the map were recruited by VALVE and planned to port DoTA as a whole, but Blizzard didn't want that and even attempted to cut off the authors of the map at some point)

So if you plan to publish your story as a book, and somewhere down the line it becomes recognized and you monetize it, the best thing you can do right now is to keep it for yourself and work on the actual book rather than make a campaign version of it in the World Editor and then find yourself in a pinch with Blizzard later on.

Personally, I tried to create a custom campaign about a story that I've been brainstorming for a while and I was pleased with the results. I was willing to do the groundwork for the campaign (build the maps, decorate/populate them, search for all of the custom things needed to breathe in more life) but since I couldn't find someone to help with the scripting and cinematic sides of the story (and my work in real life started to get harder) I decided to cancel the project. I deleted everything I posted and decided to write a book about it instead (it's almost done, I still need to work on the last 4 chapters).

On the other hand, you can always remove the campaign from HIVE's files some time later should you want to make your book, that way people won't be able to get it anymore and it would be like a "one time thing". For example the most popular story on the HIVE right now is Legends of Arkain, the author of the campaign series (SharDundred) hasn't written any books, there's no TV show (except a few knickknacks here and there) and despite its popularity I haven't seen Blizzard chasing after the campaign author to recruit him for various reasons (he did a great job with the series so far and he's probably one of the most talented people on HIVE).

 

[disruptive_]

What you are all fearing is that by virtue of a contract you are all giving your IPs (ie. copyright) to Blizzard and for free. "Giving" an IP (ie. you voluntarily lose your IP while another person claims it) is called "assignment". Simply authorizing someone to do things that are protected as IP rights (ie. distribute a program to the public), all the while keeping the right (ie. not losing it) is called "IP license", and most of the time so to confuse people, "license".

The way around knowing the real extension of such clause is reading your Copyright law and inform yourself about 2 things atleast:
1. What your rights are.
If you have an express right to a due remuneration in your law, then the "de facto" assignment you must do to Blizzard must have a payment as antecedent. Right to due remuneration also applies to simple licensing.
If you don't, you can see your system jurisprudence relating the right to remuneration. I would say that if you law doesn't expressely says that you have that right, then most of the time the jurisprudence will articulate it on a case by case basis therefore "creating" such right.
Why? Because copyright law hates free riders, people that "reaps the fruits of others", being the actual reason this system exists. This clause becomes a free riding clause should you are obligated to give your copyrights for free.
Also note that moral rights (ie. the right to being recognized as the one and only author) on most systems can't be even assigned inter vivos ("inalienable") or renounced (the contract uses the word "waive"). At most, these rights will pass mortis causa to your heirs. If a contract says otherwise, then that conctractual disposition returns null.


READ THIS
2. The fact that, unless your law says otherwise, all copyright rights born in favor of the material author of the work (ie. the person that created the work). So search in your law for the cases when this rule doesn't apply. Most exceptions, which is to say de facto assignment of rights by virtue of a just accepting a contract, are work contracts (copyrighted works made by a worker on its functions are reputed assigned to the employer), programming services contracts, and other services contracts (the same but here the contractor gains those rights even if the contratist did the actual work), basically, work made for hire exceptions. This EULA is not a work-made-for-hire or anything like that. We are not getting paid, we are not Blizzard subordinates, we are not doing "modding services", etc.
READ THIS


Because of this, a contract you accepted before these rights even have born, won't affect your copyright rights on a de facto fashion like most people, and even some dudes that actually know law, say.
In the end, this clause says that should you create something worth of intellectual property (ie. copyright, trademarks) you have the contractual obligation to THEN assign/license those IP to Blizzard. Again, if you have the right to due remuneration (which you have) then, naturally, you must be getting paid. Also note that the assignment doesn't specify that it must be free of charge (which they can't because of your rights). Then also note that a copyright assignment is on most cases a formal act (ie. it recquires the presence of a notary or that the assignment itself must be registered), which is to say, should Blizzard insists that just accepting EULA itself gave them your copyrights, a simple "piece" of digital paper, then they must fuck off first and comply with the those formal recquisites.
If you don't do those acts (ie. because you assigned them to another person or you renounce them to the public domain) then you are breaching the contract and they could actually sue you. You could atempt to void that clause (consumer law, copyright misuse). In the end this clause is something like giving Blizzard a contractual right to be the first person to negotiate for and "buy" your IP, something very reasonable.
Also note that contracts as a general rule, even if they are adhesion contracts, are ENFORCEABLE. You can't just say to the court that the EULA is injust, leonin or shitty, and proceed to win. Alleging that a clause is unenforceable is equal to say to God that Jesus smoked pot, but regarding to the legal system. God/the system will not believe you at first. To make a clause unenforceable you need a very experimented lawyer (ie. such lawsuit will cost you a lot of money) that knows, ie. all the fucking jurisprudence relating to the topic, and aspects of contract and consumer law such as the one below.


As i said, you could also read your Consumer law to search for the catalog of clauses that might lack application (void/null/rescinded/etc) because they constitute literal power abuse by the provider when drafting their adhesion contracts (ie. EULA). In my system these are called abusive clauses and there are some very extensive cases (ie. if the clause is "contrary to the good faith", but again, your lawyer must know what he is doing).

Stop fearing and start learning. Blizzard is clearly fearing its demise or the lose of profits, that's why they are so protective about their interests and its becoming contraproducent for them. Modding could be viewed as an opportunity for them but instead they are holding on to what they call "rights". A right will not replace the potential of awesome games.

 

[BranHUN]

All these replies are very great! It's good to see people also having problems with this, and even better to see your understanding.

I think that I am agreeing with The_Messenger's opinion, and staying away from the World Editor for a while. I will, however, keep a close eye on the development of Warcraft III, and keep working on my novel as hard as I can. Who knows? Maybe, I will have it in a few years, and then I can safely create any mod that I want about it.