[andrepd]

>Fact that you don't make money off it would work for almost any game developer

It really wouldn't. I know it's fun to imagine Blizzard as an oppressive corporation overlord, but any developer in the world will take steps to protect their IP.

[SXX]

I have no doubt that any developer would send take down for illegal assets usage and there is nothing wrong about it. This where project creator gone wrong and hope he won't do anything like that in future.

Though Blizzard in particular aggressive towards open source projects that recreate their games and generate a lot more lawsuits than other game development company. It's just like that 'Candy Crush Saga vs Banner Saga' lawsuit. These guys had right to do that, but it's still looks awful.

PS: As example of company that nice to the community look at Rockstar Games. Even if they're not really do anything for modding community there is tons of hobby software projects created around GTA include custom multiplayer servers, editors and any kind of mods, So far no one ever get lawsuit threats for doing anything like that. Now check Blizzard with their pro-DRM and anti reverse engineering lawsuits.

[andrepd]

I see. That's probably true; I'm not up to date on that stuff. Still, in this particular case, I can't blame any company for protecting their IP. It's a freely distributed clone of one of their games, after all. Even if they are not making money out of it they are hurting their business.

[PhasmaFelis]

No, there are (rare) devs who are not assholes about their IP, and will overlook small-scale non-profit work or at least act like humans instead of robo-lawyers when they approach "infringing" developers.

Blizzard has a legal right to be dicks about their IP, but that doesn't make it morally correct. We've refused to let IP holders set the narrative with regard to DRM; let's not do it here.

[cweiss]

The problem is, if Blizzard knows of an infringement and fails to attempt enforcement, anyone can come along and legally claim "Hey, they didn't hassle this (small time) guy, so they have no right to hassle us". So the well-meaning hacker guy with a cool prototype opens the door for Zynga to come in and make StarCraftVille, which I'm fairly sure would be not so well received.