4 ms·

Blizzard makes the most money as the copyright holder. They can shut down any of the casters streams whenever they so desire.

mcantor 16y ago
Maybe I'm having a brain fart, but... under what legal auspice could Blizzard force them to shut down the streams?
- richcollins 16y ago
  Copyright law. They already sued Kespa into submission. I'm guessing at some point that they will anoint a company with exclusive rights to broadcast SC2 and start suing everyone else. http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/3171 http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/3171
kjr 16y ago
Wouldn't it be better if Blizzard employed them? Set up internal league systems and actually embraced e-sports as a revenue generating area? I think the next evolution of e-sports will be a big name company actually doing the above. Problem is it is pretty risky to do. Games with huge fanbases and legacies of e-sports like starcraft/counterstrike are probably the only ones were it would work right out of the gate.
hartror 16y ago
Really? I would have thought it is fair use, but I guess no Machinima producers have true tested the law in this regard? Certainly Blizzard attempts to control the use through the TOU and restrict derivative content to non-commercial use only.
- baddox 16y ago
  In the USA, fair use legal precedent has mostly been superseded by laws such as the DMCA. I don't agree with it, but that's the legal situation we're in these days.
  - TeHCrAzY 16y ago
    I wasn't aware that fair use was superseded in any way by the DMCA. Cant you explain how that works?
- mcantor 16y ago
  But it's not Machinima... it's just a broadcast of their product being used exactly as it is intended. Wouldn't that be like a baseball bat manufacturer telling someone to take videos of their Little League game off of YouTube?
  - ohashi 16y ago
    Well, they are adding commentary(audio) to video from in-game. To me that seems like machinima.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

mcantor 16y ago

Maybe I'm having a brain fart, but... under what legal auspice could Blizzard force them to shut down the streams?

richcollins 16y ago
Copyright law. They already sued Kespa into submission. I'm guessing at some point that they will anoint a company with exclusive rights to broadcast SC2 and start suing everyone else. http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/3171 http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/3171

kjr 16y ago

Wouldn't it be better if Blizzard employed them? Set up internal league systems and actually embraced e-sports as a revenue generating area? I think the next evolution of e-sports will be a big name company actually doing the above. Problem is it is pretty risky to do. Games with huge fanbases and legacies of e-sports like starcraft/counterstrike are probably the only ones were it would work right out of the gate.

hartror 16y ago

Really? I would have thought it is fair use, but I guess no Machinima producers have true tested the law in this regard? Certainly Blizzard attempts to control the use through the TOU and restrict derivative content to non-commercial use only.

baddox 16y ago
In the USA, fair use legal precedent has mostly been superseded by laws such as the DMCA. I don't agree with it, but that's the legal situation we're in these days.
- TeHCrAzY 16y ago
  I wasn't aware that fair use was superseded in any way by the DMCA. Cant you explain how that works?
mcantor 16y ago
But it's not Machinima... it's just a broadcast of their product being used exactly as it is intended. Wouldn't that be like a baseball bat manufacturer telling someone to take videos of their Little League game off of YouTube?
- ohashi 16y ago
  Well, they are adding commentary(audio) to video from in-game. To me that seems like machinima.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]