Blizzard sagsøger koreanske esport-ligaer
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Allerede tilbage i april, blev der lagt i kakkelovnen til et større opgør i Sydkorea. Det er en lang og indviklet historie, men i det store og det hele, har Activision-Blizzard blandet sig i den esports scene omkring Starcraft Broodwar som i mange år har haft stor succes i Sydkorea.
Det hele drejer om Intellectual Property (IP) rettighederne. Efter at Blizzard i mange år så og sige har kigget den anden vej, i forbindelse med at Starcraft-kampe er blevet sendt i fjernsynet og på internettet, vil spilgiganten nu anerkendes for deres IP rettigheder for Broodwar, sandsynligvis pga. Stacraft 2s udgivelse.
I Sydkorea er det Esports-organisationen, KeSPA (The Korean e-Sports Association), som styrer hele Starcraft scenen, og sender kampene igennem to TV selskaber, OGN og MBC. Selskaberne der har hver deres proleague. KeSPA er samtidigt dem der tildeler licenser til progamers, en licens der er krævet for at kunne deltage i disse proleagues i Korea.
Blizzard droppede samarbejdet med KeSPA den 25 april, fordi KeSPA ikke ville anerkende Blizzards IP rettigheder.
Efterfølgende har KeSPA udtalt at Blizzards krav var urimelige, men at de vil blive ved med at kæmpe.
Blizzard indgik så en eksklusiv aftale med Gretech, der igennem GomTV nu har retten til at Starcraft. Aftalen giver Gretech mulighed for at lave aftaler med f.eks. OGN og MBC, s de kan fortsætte med at køre deres leagues, hvis de betaler, selvfølgelig.
Siden da er forhandlingerne, gentagende gange gået i hårdknude, imellem Gretech og KeSPA. Sidste nyt var at de ville forsøge at nå til enighed via en tredjepart , som var anbefalet af Blizzard.
Men nu gider Blizzard ikke mere! De er nu ved at gøre sig klar til at sagsøge både MBC og OGN, hvilket vil resultere i at de proleagues, der er i Sydkorea får dødsstødet.
Paul Sams: Welcome to Blizzcon. We are greatful for your support. I will tell you about the rumors surrounding esports today. I will set the record straight now. E sports is a very important part for us that can connect blizzard with the whole world. It is our goal to bring the competitive game to fruition worldwide. We will work so that esports can grow even outside of korea.
It is also important to protect the Intellectual Property of Blizzard. We tried to make contracts with several e sports associations but failed. The last few month we deliberated about this and came to the conclusion that legal action is the only way.What do you mean by Intellectual Property ?
Outside of the broadcasting we usually did not want to charge for tournaments. The goal was to let people enjoy the game and not making money of it. But the Broadcasting studios are not accepting the intellectual property over blizzard games. We tried to improve the relationship but they always wanted more and made the negotiations difficult. When we thought that there was a conclusion it just got delayed and delayed again and again.
In conclusion we can now only take legal action.
Does this mean no more pro leagues ?
Yes! This is our last option. We did not want this. It is against our own rules and its the last thing we can do. We only wanted to do this if we thought we were 100% right and it is our last option as i said. There is still a possibility that tournaments will be held. We want to reach an agreement. We will sue MBCgame and Ongamenet is a possibility to. but we want an agreement and we hope that it will not come to this.
The Broadcasting studios are not showing any cooperation right now though.So how will the legal action take place ?
The last conference with the broadcasting studios was at the 20th. KesPA, the broadcasting studios and gretech (GOM) took part at that conference. We did not reach a conclusion. We had a mediator but it did not bring any results. We are preparing the documents now so it is difficult to say what the further plans are. What i can say is that MBC game will be sued very soon and we have already sent a message to ongamenet to stop the current proleague. if they dont follow we will sue them too.
Did you send a message to MBC game too ?
Yes we did give them a ultimatum a few weeks ago but they did not follow. So we will sue them. The same thing can happen to ongamenet.
Ikke lige den vej jeg havde håber at det ville gå, og jeg synes det er sørgeligt for E-sporten generelt. I Sydkorea har Starcraft bevidst at E-sport godt kan slå igennem, og er jo nærmest en national sport. Nogle vil mene at Activision-Blizzard kun gør det for pengenes skyld, selvom Activision-Blizzard selv siger, at de vil arbejde for udbredelsen af Esport. Andre vil nok mene at KeSPA er lidt for stædige, og er med til at grave deres egen grav.
Jeg ved godt at det er en stor sag, og til dem som er interesseret i at vide mere, så følg endelig mine links! Men hvad mener I? Hvad tror I, det her kan betyde for e-sporten generelt hvis det “lykkedes” Blizzard at lukke ned for den etablerede progaming scene i Korea?
EDIT:
Inden det her starter (endnu) en hetz mod Acti-Blizz, så vil jeg lige pointere at Gretechs krav til KeSPA er således;The terms revealed were: Each tournament fees 1 won, broadcasting fee, 100 million won, contract validity to be 1 year, rights to the broadcasting products to be 50:50, and acknowledging the IP rights.
100 million won svarer rundt regnet til 90.000$
Så KeSPA er hellere ikke helt uden skyld imo. Jeg mener også man skal anerkende hvem der har skabt spillet, men jeg syntes også at hele forløbet har udviklet sig på en måde, mener jeg kan skade e-sporten.
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