Corran Horn
May the Schwartz be with you
Still nothing "official" but TL is very good on this subject.
KeSPA, the organization who runs Korean E-Sports for Starcraft BroodWar has reached an agreement with Blizzard to allow KeSPA to continue broadcasting BW matches.
From TL.net:
I dont think many people thought that BW broadcasting would cease to exist after the many lawsuits from both sides, but glad to see them reach an agreement. Maybe once Gretech's (GOMtv) agreement ends, we will see KeSPA enter into SC2 tournaments. This also could mean that the GSL (SC2 Tournaments) could be broadcasted on "real" tv channels.
Long live OSL/MSL/Proleagues
KeSPA, the organization who runs Korean E-Sports for Starcraft BroodWar has reached an agreement with Blizzard to allow KeSPA to continue broadcasting BW matches.
From TL.net:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=221245Since there's a lot of misinformation and bad information spreading about the entire process, here's a brief summary of the entire situation, up to the "most recent" speculative stuff.
So where to start? I guess I'll start at the end of the KeSPA - Gretech negotiations.
Basically, KeSPA and Gretech were really close to reaching an agreement up till about November. KeSPA claims
"KeSPA has put together a negotiation team and met around 10 times now and continued to advance the negotiations. Through negotiations and by narrowing the difference in opinions, there was a complete agreement with the exception of 2~3 articles, and in reality negotiations were very close to being settled."
It's not certain of course, but on November 25th, Blizzard apparently stepped in and demanded that KeSPA agree to Blizzard's original demands with respect to derivative works -- that is, Blizzard owns 100% of the rights. This leads to the lawsuits and leds to MBC/OGN's stance during the law case: They want to see how much rights Blizzard actually have over derivative works as the original author. This isn't too far fetched given that Blizzard announced that legal action would be the best move on October after suing MBC and OGN. Overall, however, the lawsuits didn't really reveal that much, other than a few troublesome articles within the Blizzard - Gretech contract that were called out on.
Gretech then gives up their exclusive rights to Brood War broadcasting. There's two possibilities here. One is the original interpretation -- which is that this is a result of Blizzard complying to the results of the third court case where the judge ordered only Blizzard or Gretech be represented as the plaintiff. The second interpretation, given the new speculation is that Blizzard wanted to renegotiate with KeSPA.
DES, on April 20th reported from an "Blizzard insider" that Blizzard had contacted KeSPA and asked KeSPA to mediate Intellectual Rights negotiations. Essentially: the crux was that Blizzard Korea does not have the manpower to deal with this situation anymore -- since Riot Games opened up a Korean branch and absorbed many of the core Blizzard Korea members. Essentially, according to DES, Blizzard Korea is in a pinch and needs the broadcasting stations more than ever.
Il-Gan Sports reported today that the negotiations are finally settled. The fourth court case that was due on the 13th has been pushed back, and according to an insider this is because they have reached an agreement.
The fine details are still in the works, according to Il-Gan Sports. But what was agreed on was that Blizzard is recognizing the rights of KeSPA, the Progaming Team, MBC and OGN with respect to running Starcraft 1 Tournaments and ownership rights of derivative works. That is, KeSPA and the broadcasting stations can run tournaments as they please, and Blizzard will not restrict the sales of any derivative works that is created from tournaments.
Meanwhile, KeSPA and the broadcasting stations will pay Blizzard a licensing fee for Starcraft 1, as well as putting in Blizzard's logo during the contests. The license fee will be a yearly fee paid to Blizzard by KeSPA, OGN, and MBC Game separately.
An e-Sports insider has said that this was a result of a request Mike Morhaime and other Blizzard higher ups made to KeSPA. KeSPA's executive officer said that while they are not able to reveal anything in detail at this point in time, there will be good news very soon.
So, other than the fine details, it looks like the situation is pretty much settled.
However, please note that this only applies to Brood War, and there isn't anything about Starcraft 2 yet (not to mention Gretech still holds exclusive rights to SC2 for 2 more years). Please keep speculation about Starcraft 2 Leagues to a minimum.
I dont think many people thought that BW broadcasting would cease to exist after the many lawsuits from both sides, but glad to see them reach an agreement. Maybe once Gretech's (GOMtv) agreement ends, we will see KeSPA enter into SC2 tournaments. This also could mean that the GSL (SC2 Tournaments) could be broadcasted on "real" tv channels.
Long live OSL/MSL/Proleagues