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Report: Blizzard and KeSPA StarCraft hostilities ending
by Alice O'Connor, May 09, 2011 7:10am PDTThe hostilities and legal battle between Blizzard and the Korean eSports Players Association over StarCraft broadcasting rights are seemingly drawing to a close. Fomos reports that Several members of the body, the self-declared representative of South Korean professional gaming, are soon to settle with the maker of the StarCraft series.
South Korean television networks and KeSPA members Ongamenet and MBC Game broadcast competitive StarCraft games without the licenses or fees demanded by Blizzard. The companies respectively had hosted the OSL and MSL, two astonishingly popular leagues for the original game, for years and felt Blizzard had no right to demand these fees. It also seemed a little cheeky that Blizzard waited until they, with other companies, had helped make StarCraft hugely successful in South Korea. Unsurprisingly, and justly, Blizzard was somewhat displeased by their refusal to play ball and called in the lawyers.
The trio were due in court on May 13 but this has now been postponed, as Fomos reports Ongamenet and MBC will be signing up for StarCraft licenses. This'll allow them to host tournaments, broadcast StarCraft series games, and get up to other things they've been doing for yonks anyway. Licensing fees of an undisclosed amount will be paid annually, and Blizzard's logo featured in their content.
In May 2010, Blizzard granted South Korean licensing rights exclusively to Gretech-GOMtv, meaning Ongamenet and MBC would have to sublicense from GOM. This was a bit of a slap to the face for KeSPA, as many of its members had shunned the online broadcaster and the league it hosted for the original StarCraft.
GOMtv went on to host an excellent StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty competition, the Global StarCraftII League (GSL). However, SC2 has yet to reach anywhere near the same level of popularity the original had in South Korea, due in part to the GSL being the only big league in town.
Hopefully the agreement will see the hosts of the OSL and MSL using a little of their muscle to give competitive StarCraft II a helping hand.
Comments
Blizzard and the Korean e-Sports body's legal battle is drawing to a close as members are set to sign SC2 licensing agreements.
Blizzard and the Korean e-Sports body's legal battle is drawing to a close as members are set to sign SC2 licensing agreements. : Shacknews
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 26 replies.
He basically accuses these broadcasters as "repackaging" starcraft and then reselling it.
The broadcasted games are on legal copies of Starcraft, and if watching Starcraft being played on TV makes viewers want to own the game as well, they will go buy legal copies of starcraft, not Starcraft : KeSPA edition.
Why don't they go after people like HDStarcraft or HuskyStarcraft or any other livestream/youtube broadcasters? Those guys make money by commentating starcraft games, and hosting tournaments.
What happens next when Husky gets sued for hosting tournaments when he starts pulling in lots of cash?
What if he got so big that he had to host his own website instead of using youtube? Would Husky be "repackaging" starcraft and selling it as his own?
No, these are the people that make Starcraft successful and breath fresh life into the game over the long years, the same way korean broadcasters have. Now blizzard is just getting greedy and wants in on the broadcaster's pie.
If I had people making my product successful, moving copies of my product on store shelves, I wouldn't charge them a goddamn penny.
But you know what, let Blizzard kill themselves on their own hubris. Its decisions like these that will lower their own popularity and ultimately allow for stronger competition in their dominated genres.
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