Blizzard Entertainment is a video game developer and distributor U.S. Known for great hits with the Warcraft sagas, Diablo and StarCraft, as well as the MMORPG World of Warcraft, becoming a benchmark in the real-time strategy3 and MMORPG genres.
Of these, Warcraft III became one of the most popular and from which various mods arose, that developed fans of the game. From these mods a very particular one called Defense of the Ancients (better known as Dota) which would later be acquired by Valve which in his time he had a confrontation against Blizzard Entertainment for the rights of the game.
In this scenario Blizzard totally lost and the best he could do is reach a 'mutual agreement' with Valve regarding the 'DOTA' trademark and also reserve the right for fans to use the trademark in a non-commercial way, but he will renounce the DOTA name for his official variant.
All that fuss was quiet for many years, but now Blizzard Entertainment has decided to take action again on the matter, although not directly against DOTA nor does it have in mind to re-appeal what was decided several years ago.
In contrast, became known in a post recent Blizzard, which filter that the publisher wants to make sure that they now have full rights to other games derived from modifications to their titles.
This is how a last update of the editor's use policy emerges, which is essentially detailed in the text that
“Custom games are and remain the exclusive property of Blizzard. Without limiting the foregoing, you assign to Blizzard all of your rights, title, and interests in and in all Custom Games, including, but not limited to, the copyright in the content of any Custom Games.
If, for any reason, your ability to assign rights to custom games to Blizzard is prevented or restricted, you grant Blizzard an exclusive, perpetual, worldwide, unconditional, royalty-free, and irrevocable license that allows Blizzard to make full use of it. of the Games customized (or any part thereof) for any purpose and in any manner.
You further agree that if Blizzard decides this is necessary, it will execute any future assignments and / or any related documents upon receipt of such request from Blizzard to fulfill the intent of this paragraph.
To the extent that you are prohibited from transferring or assigning your moral rights to Blizzard under applicable law, you waive, to the extent permitted by law, any moral or similar rights you may have in all of these custom games, without compensation. . »
Although this Blizzard policy change, It can be a pretty weird move, the truth is that it can be a movement Preemptive due to Blizzard recently releasing Warcraft III: Reforged and you are taking steps to prevent the same thing that happened to you from DOTA from happening again.
Finally, Blizzard's new policy change is not strict when it comes to, as it allows fans to make mods of their work (although yes, in exchange for everything being owned by Blizzard). But Blizzard has shown to be understanding and admits that work done by others not be in vain because these they can finance their projects with donations.
In what basically Blizzar, in case of detecting any success with a mod, this prevents another developer or any other company or person from buying the rights to it.
Unless authorized by Blizzard in writing, developing Custom Games for profit is prohibited. In addition, only Blizzard may sell, rent, or license a Custom Game, and the Custom Game may not contain features that support transactions to purchase any material or immaterial content.
Blizzard recognizes that creating a Custom Game can take substantial time and resources, and therefore allows developers to finance their development costs through donations.