Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: blizzard, DotA 2, Lilith Games, uCool, valve

The Ownership Of 'Dota 2' Is Going To Be Decided By Jury

Published Sun, 21 May 2017 10:45:53 -0500

That headline may sound silly on the surface, but that is an actual thing that is happening right now. Valve has been taken to court by two mobile developers, Lilith Games and uCool, who have made smaller MOBA Dota 2 clones for smartphones in China. Naturally, Valve sued due to copyrights, to which uCool fought back and claimed Valve doesn't own the source material the game is based on, and their case should be thrown out.

Which, believe it or not, has some merit, as Dota started as a Warcraft 3 mod, which creator Eul released to the public, making the lore and characters fair game for anyone to use. uCool is citing a post made in 2004 with this quote as part of their evidence:

"I wish I could give you a last map that's playable, but I can't. Instead, from this point forward DOTA is now open source. Whoever wishes to release a version of DOTA may without my consent, I just ask for a nod in the credits to your map."

A court order was issued denying uCool's motion for a summary dismissal of Valve's claim, and instead, Judge Charles Breyer says that a jury must decide whether or not Eul relinquished the right to his mod from the forum post as a point of abandonment of property. But the case will also examine if Blizzard's End User License Agreement had any rights to the mod to begin with since it prohibits mods from being distributed for commercial purposes. Granted, Blizzard and Valve settled their end of things years ago, but now a jury must decide whether or not Valve has any legal standing to it in the first place and whether or not Lilith Games and uCool are good to continue with their copies or if they're in violation of trademarks. Gonna be an interesting couple of months for all parties involved.

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