Rick's Stories - or Skafloc if you prefer

[Natasha]

Hi everyone,

As I said, I visited our lawyer this afternoon. He is going to put me in touch with an Entertainment Lawyer here in the city. I'd like to know if anyone of you can say whether Blizzard Entertainment would have to be involved in this at all. Do the characters of Skafloc, Nouri, Chauncey, and Lupa in anyway belong to Blizzard? I just really need to be careful about this.

Thanks you guys. Enjoy your evening.

[Xenorin]

The written aspect of the characters do not belong to Blizzard as far as I know. The "races" and "terminology" of the Blizzard own games, such as "Blood elf" or various locations in game may be what could cause a tie up with the whole thing. I know someone mentioned that things may have to be altered to take out Blizz owned material.

I think someone was trying to contact Blizzard Entertainment about this to make sure. If no one has, I can shoot them an e-mail and see what classifies as unpublishable. Though, if it is for a charity, things could roll in a good direction, if Blizzard Entertainment is willing to endorse it.

God only knows. Let me know if I need to write something to them to find out all the little details.

[Nymare]

I think it may be in the Terms of Service (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html) (ToS) or End-User License Agreements (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/eula.html) (EULA) as to what we agree that Blizzard owns about what we play. I believe the names/character do indeed belong to them, but I'm not positive. But if they do belong to Blizzard, it wouldn't hurt to ask permission to use the names of the characters/places/etc in Rick's stories.


Edit: found both on the internet, so I included links to both from the WoW website. I'd read them, but I have my arms full of flailing baby.

[Fynne]

Under section 4, Ownership



#
Ownership.
All rights and title in and to the Service (including without limitation any user accounts, titles, computer code, themes, objects, characters, character names, stories, dialogue, catch phrases, locations, concepts, artwork, animations, sounds, musical compositions, audio-visual effects, methods of operation, moral rights, any related documentation, "applets" incorporated into the Game Client, transcripts of the chat rooms, character profile information, recordings of games played using the Game Client, and the Game Client and server software) are owned by Blizzard or its licensors. The Game and the Service are protected by United States and international laws, and may contain certain licensed materials in which Blizzard's licensors may enforce their rights in the event of any violation of this Agreement.

Bolded for emphasis.

[Villayna]

I emailed Blizzard licensing last week.

I've seen a few hits from someone in Irvine, Ca since then. Doesn't mean it's a Blizzard employee, or that it's a licensing person, but I'm hoping my email is the cause of the views. I checked and there were no hits from the IP addresses in the 4 months prior.

I have not receive any communication from them, however. I was going to wait until Monday and send a new one, but if you have a lawyer involved, it might give any requests a bit more weight than from a random internet person.

Here is a link to what I sent: http://wow-tng.org/showpost.php?p=256182&postcount=4

The address I sent it to is: Merchandiselicensing@blizzard.com if you want to have your lawyer contact them directly.

[Villayna]

As to your question about the names of his characters, Blizzard would have no rights to the names of them. Places, non-player characters (which I'm pretty sure are the characters that the part that Fynne pointed out are referring to), and official game storylines would be not be able to be used.

While it would probably be possible to "de-WoW-ify" his writing, I fear that the scrubbing process would remove too much of the personality.

[Xaraphyne]

I've read and reread that excerpt, but I can't be sure if they mean our characters and stories, or Blizzard characters and stories.

[Natasha]

Any info you could find out from Blizzard would be most appreciated. I don't know anything about the game and what belongs in the game and what doesn't, as far as names, places, etc. I'm really treading on thin ice if I don't watch my own back. Blizzard is a big company and they could cost me dearly if I'm not careful. Thanks.

[Xenorin]

I guess the big question is what the profits from the publishing would be used for. I think I read somewhere someone mentioned some charity. I do think that right there would make or break the deal as to what would happen with whatever is published.

[Villayna]

I've read and reread that excerpt, but I can't be sure if they mean our characters and stories, or Blizzard characters and stories.

The names of the characters and the stories that people write are the intellectual property of the people who came up with them.

However, anymore than that, it's ALL Blizzard's property. You can't call him a blood elf. You can't say he's from Silvermoon. You can't say he's wearing a Drape of the Dark Reaver or using a Fury of the Raging Dragon gun. You can't say he has fel-green eyes due to pacifying his magic dependence with the essence of demons. Elves are fantasy fodder, so you can say he is an elf. You can say he comes from a magical city filled with light and splendor. You can say he has an intricately woven cloak and worn gun.

And so on. It is possible to take WoW out of the story, but they just won't be as good without some serious editing and rewriting.

[opalexian]

The Ezra Chatterton story (http://skirmisher.org/electronic-entertainment/ezra-chatterton-the-terminally-ill-kid-that-blizzard-made-into-a-world-of-warcraft-god/) I just wanted to post that for Natasha's reference. (BTW, Rick said that he had the crossbow they made for Ezra and would never delete it :) ) Blizzard isn't totally heartless-if they know the proceeds will be going to charity, they may even be willing to be more involved in the process. In the meantime we will hound them mercilessly about everything because they need to know how special he was to everyone, especially to his family.

[teutelquessir]

If it's non-profit and has a copyright disclaimer crediting Blizzard Entertainment, you might be able to self publish some copies for personal mementos.