What’s up with that? Straight up add for a private server that’s getting served against other WoW content on youtube.
Not naming or linking, just a heads up.
We know. They have been advertising on FB and what not for over 3 years. They use various legal loopholes to do what they do. Starting with but not limited to keeping their hosting servers aka “base of operations” in other countries with no Extradition treaty
Cant prosecute what you cant touch. The world is not a “one world government” my friend. There are countries out there who literally will not recognize US law.
I skip them all the same so I can’t say that I care.
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If you mean the one with unreal engine 5 I literally just saw their ad about thirty minutes ago.
It’s just a private classic server.
I understand they structured it so the business is outside of any jurisdiction where copyright can be enforced, but it is a little surprising that they don’t have grounds to get Google to stop serving up adds for it. Not that I would imagine Google is in any real hurry to help Microsoft.
In theory, if Blizzard can show that consumers were confused by those ads for pirate servers, they can sue Google/Facebook for vicarious liability to trademark infringement, as they have both the ability to control who they sell ads to, and direct financial benefit from advertising the infringing service.
They are using material for their private server that is open source. This is one legal loophole. They are using content that falls under “fair use” another legal loophole. For Blizzard to go after those companies and prove infringement they have to prove a US dollar was made. If these folks base of operations are in another country with no Extradition treaty. Another Legal Loophole.
Like you said Cäpslöck in theory Could Blizzard go after Youtube and Facebook anyway since they hosted the adds? Yes 100% you are right. But their chances of winning are about 10-20% due to all the things mentioned above. On top of that these proceedings are VERY LONG and they would spend more taking them to court then they would actually win in the suit due to the fact that a US dollar was not made by the company hosting the servers. No technically they still fall under “fair use” HOWEVER Youtube and Facebook however DID make money by hosting those adds but once again this pales in comparison to the folks hosting the servers. Blizzard would get less that it would cost them to take this to court.
So in the end of the day Blizzard’s their legal team a has a choice to make. Is it cost effective to take this to court? The answer here is clearly no. Like I said the most they could hope to get is the money paid to Facebook and Yotube to run the adds. Which isnt not much at all. Does this suck? Yes 100% Is their fair? No. But Blizz can not go after the host of the servers. Most they can do is Sue FB and Youtube but they would ONLY get the money paid to run the adds which I promise you is less than 100k. Court cost alone in a case this this will be WELL OVER that. Its just not cost effective for them
You are right they could but they wont.
I don’t see how.
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:
- the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
- the nature of the copyrighted work;
- the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
- the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Both google and the private server are using the work for profit.
I already explained this pretty thoroughly above.
They made money in a country with no Extradition treaty my guy. They Can NOT go after them. Their funds were made in another country and are untouchable from US laws. Most blizzard could do would be file a infringement case and PRAY the folks responsible come to the US at some point. The moment they stepped foot on US soil they would be arrested. But Blizzard wouldn’t get a dime until then. They would however spend a ton to take this to court.
To repeat what I said above…
I’m not talking about copyright here, I’m talking trademark.
These are non-blizzard entities attempting to use the mark ‘World of Warcraft’ to advertise a computer game.
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Trademark, Copyright these are all us laws.
Not much blizzard can do unless they do like you said and go after YouTube and Facebook for actually running the ad but even if they did like I said in my long post above all they would get is the money that was paid to these companies to run the ads which isn’t much.
They need to be able to go after the people actually running the private servers but unfortunately they do this purposely in countries with no Extradition treaty
So unfortunately the only alternate method they could do would be build a case against those responsible and file it and hope to God they one day step foot on us soil. If they don’t Blizzard wouldn’t get a dime from them and it’s very costly to take a case like this to court. It would literally be tossing money down a drain.
There is one last thing they could do and that’s place a cease and desist on YouTube and Facebook for running the ad and basically cut their advertising. But doing this presents its own legal complications also.
Bottom line these folks know what they are doing and have been able to do this for so long because it works.