So, I’ve tried to reach out to Blizzard through several official channels for quite some time, and I’ve either gotten no response, or folks who were unable to help due to this not being in their area.
I’m hoping someone who knows copyright law well can assist, or a member of Blizzard staff; respectfully, I request that folks don’t just provide personal opinions.
The Blizzard Legal FAQ states that novels, screenplays, theatrical productions and other adaptions aren’t permitted. These terms seem to indicate officially published/made-for-money projects. What I’d like to do is make a non-profit writing blog, made just for fun to write with others from the POV of a Blizzard character. Credit and disclaimers would be provided to disassociate it with any official content.
Can anyone assist me in clarifying whether or not this would be permitted?
Thank you, and Merry Christmas.
I’m an attorney in several states in the US, so I can only tell you about US copyright laws. I usually work in the technology arena but I’m also a volunteer attorney with the EFF (who also assists with users such as yourself who may find themselves attacked for doing just such a thing and need a hand with protection or fighting back - worth a look up). I can’t speak to the laws of other countries, so let me leave that caveat.
Generally, writing a blog about a thing someone else has published falls under a fair use exception to copyright laws as long as it’s more like commentary, adding your opinion, teaching people about it, etc. If you are creating something like a new work (akin to a novel) along the lines of a fanfic, perhaps, you may be delving into derivative works territory which may require a license/adaptation rights, and seems to be the thing Blizz is trying to say is off limits via their verbiage. To be safe, for your blog the majority of it should be your own work, not just copy/pasted words or images, you should give credit to the owner of the work where used, and you shouldn’t be making money off of it. Based on the limited info you provided, it sounds like you’d be in the clear of all that.
If you have really specific questions about specific bits of work, please send me a direct message and I’ll be happy to help. I can only speculate on the generalities in a public forum. I hope this helps somewhat!