Copyright, Moral Rights, And Warcraft III Reforged: A Legal Look At Blizzard's New Modding Policy

Published: Jan. 29, 2020, 4:44 p.m.

"Warcraft 3 Reforged TOS requires handover of the "moral rights" to any custom map", Reddit thread declares! But what are "moral rights"? What is Blizzard asking for here? Why does it apply to more than just Warcraft III? And why are some of the complaints probably justified...but pointed at the wrong thing? The opposite of moral isn't immoral...in Virtual Legality. CHECK OUT THE VIDEO AT: https://youtu.be/rN3pYr0IgsQ #Warcraft #Blizzard #MoralRights *** Discussed in this episode: "Some fresh virtual legality material: this time it's another EULA confusion..." Tweet - January 29, 2020 - @Nikrandos https://twitter.com/realNikandros/status/1222481676665851905 "Warcraft 3 Reforged TOS requires handover of the "moral rights" to any custom map" Reddit Thread - January 29, 2020 - u/Man_Eating_Boar https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/evitu7/warcraft_3_reforged_tos_requires_handover_of_the/ "CUSTOM GAME ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY" Blizzard - Updated January 21, 2020 https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/legal/2749df07-2b53-4990-b75e-a7cb3610318b/custom-game-acceptable-use-policy "BLIZZARD END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT" Blizzard - Updated June 1, 2018 https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/legal/fba4d00f-c7e4-4883-b8b9-1b4500a402ea/blizzard-end-user-license-agreement "Authors, Attribution, and Integrity: Examining Moral Rights in the United States" - Abstract US Copyright Office https://www.copyright.gov/policy/moralrights/ "Authors, Attribution, and Integrity: Examining Moral Rights in the United States" - Full US Copyright Office - April 2019 https://www.copyright.gov/policy/moralrights/full-report.pdf "CUSTOM GAME ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY" Blizzard - Archival Date October 9, 2019 https://web.archive.org/web/20191009004733/https://www.blizzard.com/en-us/legal/2749df07-2b53-4990-b75e-a7cb3610318b/custom-game-acceptable-use-policy *** FOR MORE CHECK US OUT: On Twitter @hoeglaw At our website: https://hoeglaw.com/ On our Blog, "Rules of the Game", at https://hoeglaw.wordpress.com/