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by wtetzner 3336 days ago
> Returning it to Blizzard directly is good for Blizzard. I'm not even sure if that's true. It's not like Blizzard didn't already have the source code.

If some distributed the source code, what would happen? It's not like people could start releasing new StarCraft games to compete with Blizzard. And it seems unlikely that the source code is going to give someone some kind of an advantage it creating other competing games against Blizzard.

Obviously legally it's Blizzard's right to keep the code private, and there are times where it's advantageous to do so, but this doesn't really seem like one of those times.
1 comments
moftz 3336 days ago
Someone could just reskin assets, change dialog, etc and revamp Starcraft into any RTS game. The AI and game code is what is really important for Blizzard to retain. It isn't the idea that people will compile Starcraft (Blizzard has released the game for free), it's the possibility that someone may profit off of all of Blizzard's efforts in writing the backend code for the game. I think it seems very likely that there would be a sudden influx of Starcraft clones and other RTS games made from the engine flooding every app store. Blizzard doesn't want people making money off their IP, plain and simple.
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wtetzner 3335 days ago
> I think it seems very likely that there would be a sudden influx of Starcraft clones and other RTS games made from the engine flooding every app store.

I don't see why. Even if the code was leaked, it would still be illegal for people to use that code. Blizzard still owns the copyright, and I doubt it would be hard to show that a game was just StarCraft reskinned.

> Blizzard doesn't want people making money off their IP, plain and simple.

I'm sure they don't, but it's not clear that it would have any real effect on them. If they've released the game for free, would it harm them in any way?

I don't know if it's right or wrong to distribute the source or to return it to Blizzard. Obviously it's against the law to redistribute it, but I'm not sure that it would be immoral. Mostly, I see a lot of half-baked black-and-white arguments in the comments on this article, and I'm just trying to point that out.

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