Pantheon Trinket Drop Hotfix, MDI Time Trials, Voice Acted Quests Shut Down, DLC #624

[Sariengrey]

Blizz is right to protect their IP and copyrights. If they aren't comfortable with this voice over stuff existing , intermingling with their work, they have every right(and should and I believe HAVE TO!) to protect it. Even if its well done and a great idea(that maybe they will do in the future!). The person attempting to put out this project, while novel and grand ,should have done their legal homework.Even if its just a hobby, and checked to see what they were going to do didn't have infringement or repercussions possibilities. Sounds to me like they didn't. As an artist and someone who deals with copyright stuff a lot, Blizz is within their rights and are taking the correct course of actions and doing so in a very polite manner imo.

[Nythiz]

So it's okay for Blizzard to blatantly steal everything from everyone. like: the Emerald Dream, Dungeons and Dragons, Cthulhu, the entirety of the norse gods, magic the gathering, tyranids, eldar, space marines, everquest, dark eldar, high elves, lizardmen.

but it's NOT okay when people so much as EDIT Blizzards unoriginal stolen works in ways that would actually work beneficially to Blizzard.

Understood.

Now can you guys stop replying to my post? you're all extremely boring.

Maybe it's not OK for blizzard to steal stuff from everyone. But then the other side has to get into gear and protect their copyright if they think it's getting violated.

Copyrights and patents are really complex, but as far as I know you have to actively defend your Intellectual Property or you will lose copyright on it.
This addon is probably in somewhat of a gray area, but the legal team felt it came to close to violating copyright that they'd rather be safe than sorry.

[qactuar]

Author of the addon posts a comment in this thread, yet gets completely ignored by everyone as they continue their pointless bashing of Blizzard...

[Unholyground]

The reason they have to shut down stuff like this addon is that it could potentially take away revenue from Blizzards voice actors. That is the only reason I can think of.

[Katsutomai]

Jesus Blizzard are being fucking pricks about this.. They will NEVER voice act normal Quests. How the fucking hell is Blizzard going to claim this is CREATING stories when all it's doing is NARRATING their OWN QUESTS. Not making new shit. This makes me even more glad I canceled my Sub ages ago.

[Bormec]

If people are getting mad about or wondering why Blizzard doesn’t just hire more voice actors or pay their current voice actors to do additional dialogue, the answer is simple; it’s about the $. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) has renegotiated voice actor contracts about a half dozen times over the past 20 years, specifically in regards to New Media (IE: video games). AFTRA merged with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) a couple of years ago, forming a power union, with intent to get stronger bargaining power for its members when dealing with studios, be it for TV, films, commercials or voice overs.

Nowadays, voice actors can have very lucrative careers and studios that want quality dialogue must be willing to pay a quality price. Most won’t want to, so they cut back on voiced dialogue, saving it for special quests or cutscenes. If Blizzard did add more voice acting to their game, I would bet it would be offered at an additional cost to the players.

ALSO, and this is very important; allowing an add-on like this to exist could create conflict and potential boycotts from or lawsuits by SAG-AFTRA on behalf of voiceover actors.

[Deleted]

Author of the addon posts a comment in this thread, yet gets completely ignored by everyone as they continue their pointless bashing of Blizzard...

Its ok atleast you saw it

[Katsutomai]

ALSO, and this is very important; allowing an add-on like this to exist could create conflict and potential boycotts from or lawsuits by SAG-AFTRA on behalf of voiceover actors.

Can you explain how that works exactly? How SAG-AFTRA could create a lawsuit over what seems to be no different than a Non-Profit mod for, say, Skyrim that involves World of Warcraft stuff. Runescape stuff. Zelda stuff.

[Heladys]

Blizz is entirely justified. Anyone having difficulty with the concept needs to grow up a little.

it's like that Star Trek fan-created "movie" - no intelligent person could ever think that was going to be okay.

[bufferunderrun]

There were some excellent explanations as to why they have little choice but to shut it down above but I suppose you closed your eyes and scrolled to avoid making an informed mistake. After all, you can only be judged based on what information you already possess, amirite?

I for one hope they take the route of the author/community and start to voice all quests in the future (with an option to disable it or click past it at least, obviously).

the other choice is to support the project and asking to review the stuff before it get released but hey hiring a small team to supervise the voice acting done gratis by fans is to much for a company that earn millions. its the same retarded stuff of when they told us if we do this you get a one less raid tier.

[Bormec]

Can you explain how that works exactly? How SAG-AFTRA could create a lawsuit over what seems to be no different than a Non-Profit mod for, say, Skyrim that involves World of Warcraft stuff. Runescape stuff. Zelda stuff.

Something along the lines of the voice over contract (if the agents had the wherewithal to include it) having a clause about the voice actors being given the first crack at additional dialogue beyond what they were originally contracted for. If they hired them for lines A, B, and C but then allowed other (amateur or unpaid/non-union) talent for lines X, Y, Z then that could be a breach of contract. It’s why union film/TV projects have to have a certain number of union actors (even extras) before they can hire non-union talent.

Without such a clause (and the only likely way it wouldn’t have been included is if the actors had refused any additional dialogue work or if Blizzard was already intending to go non-union for the extra dialogue) then a lawsuit wouldn’t happen but potential blacklisting/boycotting from the union still likely would

[Katsutomai]

Something along the lines of the voice over contract (if the agents had the wherewithal to include it) having a clause about the voice actors being given the first crack at additional dialogue beyond what they were originally contracted for. If they hired them for lines A, B, and C but then went to other (amateur or unpaid/non-union) talent for lines X, Y, Z then that could be a breach of contract. It’s why union film/TV projects have to have a certain number of union actors (even extras) before they can hire non-union talent.

Without such a clause (and the only likely way it wouldn’t have been included is if the actors had refused any additional dialogue work or if Blizzard was already intending to go non-union for the extra dialogue) then a lawsuit wouldn’t happen but potential blacklisting/boycotting from the union still likely would

But couldn't they point out that these people weren't hired in any way, shape or form? That they are doing this on their own as something of a Passion Project for a game they love? That they have no affiliation with any of them at all beyond them playing their game.

[Crookids]

Jesus Blizzard are being fucking pricks about this.. They will NEVER voice act normal Quests. How the fucking hell is Blizzard going to claim this is CREATING stories when all it's doing is NARRATING their OWN QUESTS. Not making new shit. This makes me even more glad I canceled my Sub ages ago.

Well, you can easily say this by the tone of the acting. There is a priest in the video that has a southern accent and gives a definite feel to the character that Blizzard might not have intended.

Personally, I think this was an extremely admirable and ambitious project that I wish wasn't taken down. There are so many aspects of WoW that are community driven and it makes the game that much better. However, there is definitely a reason why they don't want this done and a large part of it could be the image or tone. It could also be legal ramifications of voicing certain quests that are rated a certain way because they are text over being voiced. Who knows. However, I am willing to bet it has to do with avoiding legal troubles.

[Tupolew519]

i think i like this addon.

[Crookids]

In Bossmods you can add any anime voice to a boss mechanic where the boss shouts something like: "Beware my awesome power" to "Ryū ga waga teki wo kurau!". Again, I am asking where is the difference when it's happening all over the place. That is actual re-performing, you are changing the entire message. Whereas when you simply perform the text word for word you are not even changing anything at all. It's a mind numbing stupid differentiation to shake off the first while scolding the latter.

If they were really honest with it, they would need to forbid a LOT of addons that change sounds, add sounds or remove sounds. Performing something word for word while not changing any contextual text is literally just reading it. When I read a book out loud I am not "re-performing" it, I am reading it out loud. This is insanely stupid to take legal actions against. Are you telling me when I read a book I am infringing the copyright? Lmao, NO!

They are performing the literature as opposed to creating different warning sounds for abilities. There is a clear differentiation. If you changed the voice of Argus and performed his lines as a difference voice or tone -- I can assure you it falls in the same category. Adding a sound queue to an ability's actuation is vastly different.

[Turaska]

As much as I can respect and understand why a company would protect its IP I think add-ons like this should be encouraged, not stopped. IP aside, it's the players choice to install this, it's not forced upon anyone so ultimately, wheres the harm?

[ilikepieisgood]

As much as I can respect and understand why a company would protect its IP I think add-ons like this should be encouraged, not stopped. IP aside, it's the players choice to install this, it's not forced upon anyone so ultimately, wheres the harm?

The harm is when other, less well meaning people take advantage of that.

Copyright/IP laws are exceedingly complex, and there are always people looking to take advantages of company that allow a gap.

Look at it this way, imagine if Blizz loses their control over their IP. Then they effectively lose creative control over WoW, they lose control over what kind of addons are and aren't allowed, and ultimately, they lose the ability to police their own product because it's no longer "their" product.

There is no such thing as "harmless" trademark infringements, because even if the person who's doing it has no malicious intent, there are plenty of people out there who do.

[FecundDecay]

Blizz is right to protect their IP and copyrights. If they aren't comfortable with this voice over stuff existing , intermingling with their work, they have every right(and should and I believe HAVE TO!) to protect it. Even if its well done and a great idea(that maybe they will do in the future!). The person attempting to put out this project, while novel and grand ,should have done their legal homework.Even if its just a hobby, and checked to see what they were going to do didn't have infringement or repercussions possibilities. Sounds to me like they didn't. As an artist and someone who deals with copyright stuff a lot, Blizz is within their rights and are taking the correct course of actions and doing so in a very polite manner imo.

Just adding my bit here - take it or leave it. You hit on the exact issue here they do have a right to protect their IP - BUT they are also OBLIGATED legally to protect it. Every single person working for blizzard might LOVE the voiced quest project and might personally want to allow it to continue, but legally speaking if they are aware of someone infringing on their IP and do nothing to stop it they actually lose their legal standing to fight it the next time. That means that someone else could come along who IS nefarious, who IS giving them monetary concerns, who IS actually doing something bad - and they would be shit out of luck to suddenly step in and stop them. Any court would ask them, "Why now? Why not last time when you did nothing?"

it's a shame, yes, but part of the way our IP laws work is that they MUST be defended to be maintained. Companies like blizzard simply do not have the legal luxury (no matter how much they might WANT it) to pick and choose when and where to defend their IP and when to allow others to infringe upon it. This is one of those situations in which, no matter how much the folks over at Blizzard might have found this project impressive and awesome, they would be doing major harm to their ability to legally take action against ANYONE infringing on their IP if they were to allow just this one single person to keep on doing it.

Sucks, yes.... but their hands really are tied by how the laws in this area function, and how courts handle these types of cases.

[Easo]

What is important, though, is that Blizzard could and should improve VO of the older quests.
P.S.
I love how almost all of you are ignoring the addon's creators post here and just continue to throw poop at Blizzard.

[Velerios]

Blizz is right to protect their IP and copyrights. If they aren't comfortable with this voice over stuff existing , intermingling with their work, they have every right(and should and I believe HAVE TO!) to protect it. Even if its well done and a great idea(that maybe they will do in the future!). The person attempting to put out this project, while novel and grand ,should have done their legal homework.Even if its just a hobby, and checked to see what they were going to do didn't have infringement or repercussions possibilities. Sounds to me like they didn't. As an artist and someone who deals with copyright stuff a lot, Blizz is within their rights and are taking the correct course of actions and doing so in a very polite manner imo.

And the white knights rides on behalf ob blizzard. Sorry, but that's BS. Yes, blizzard can protect their copyrights, but this is a NON-COMMERCIAL addon that IMPROVES the gameplay. That's simply the lazyness of their lawyers and especially the shareholders. Activision is more and more overtaking blizzard.

And naturally they are polite these days. Simply because they knew what happens if they are not: See what happen to GTA: they did shut down the mods, the shitstorm was awful. But hey, that's blizzard, here the white knight army are riding on their behalf.

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it's a shame, yes, but part of the way our IP laws work is that they MUST be defended to be maintained. Companies like blizzard simply do not have the legal luxury (no matter how much they might WANT it) to pick and choose when and where to defend their IP and when to allow others to infringe upon it. This is one of those situations in which, no matter how much the folks over at Blizzard might have found this project impressive and awesome, they would be doing major harm to their ability to legally take action against ANYONE infringing on their IP if they were to allow just this one single person to keep on doing it.

Again BS. They actually have the legal luxury to decide who and where can use whatever they own. They CAN say that it is only allowed in this particular case. They don't need to allow it for non-commercial use at all, but yes, they definitively can say that it is allowed, but only here. And even if they allow ONE SINGLE PERSON doing it does not change anything against others who use it without their consent.

Saying that this is not possible because it would open the floodgate is simply BS.