Blizzards cease and desist on Rexxcraft

Community General Discussion
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Not many might know about this but Blizzard has started cracking down hard on NSFW artists.

The most recent one was Rexxcraft/RexxWorld who has been making content since TBC.

After getting legal advice from his legal advisors and lawyers Rexx had a very solid case against blizzard, but he decided he would not go to court over this since he would not put his family through a legal case.

So all of his work and portfolio, almost 10+ years of content will be purged from the net.

This is a really sad situation which is why I feel blizzard should be called out on this instead of it just being swept under the rug.

I will post underneath the message Rexx sent out to his fans/patrons when he first received the news and his response so you can read it in his own words.

But as a fan I really hope it works out for him.

The Troubles
First off, I want to mention that this may change at any time. I am looking into legal counsel but until then drastic measures have been taken.

As you may have noticed, I have taken down almost all the content here on patreon. My site and other social media accounts are also deactivated for the time being. As you all know, I have made my works on the idea that I was protected under “Fair Use”, more specifically in the form of the parody clause and transformative content through my own animations, plus precedent of things like Machinima, and that my creations were simply my own perverted love letter towards the WarCraft universe.

While I was returning home with my children this evening, I was ambushed by a clerk handing me a C&D order in my driveway, which based on what is written was submitted by the lawyers of Blizzard Entertainment.

After breaking down for a good bit, I have started looking into legal council, but as a showing of good faith as to prevent a possible aggressive response I have removed the requested content for the time being. I will say no more till I have properly spoken with counsel and looked into options.

I just wanted to give you all fun content to enjoy, but as of right now, I am floating down a creek without a paddle, and until I get my feet on the ground I have to make sure I protect myself.

No matter what, I will continue to create content, even if I have to change the methods / content at which I do it. I hope you all decide to stick around while I look into it, but if you decide this is too much to handle, I understand if you wish to bail. I am sorry, everyone. Your support of me over the years has allowed me to do what I loved, and no matter what, I will hold that feeling with pride.

Thank you.

Now to hope for the best.

Rexx’s response

The Future

After consulting lawyers and going over possibilities, double checking the angles and risks, I have come to the conclusion that pushing back on this wouldn’t be the option in my best interest. It’s not that I don’t think I would win, on the contrary, it was made clear I have strong legal precedent.

However, it’s not even really about me, but the duress it would put on my family should things go beyond the veil of threats. My poor wife could barely sleep last night due to the worries of a possible lawsuit dragging us into bankruptcy. Even should we win, there is no guarantee the possible years long event wouldn’t undo us before then.

As such, I have decided to fully comply with the request by Blizzard and will stop releasing fan art content using Blizzard IPs. As a lifelong fan of the franchise, having been subscribed nearly non-stop for over ten years, this pains me greatly. The fact all my work over that time will also be shelved hurts too.

So what’s next?

Like a phoenix, I plan to rise out of this. I have been speaking with coders, modelers, my hosts, and others towards a better, unique project, a personal fantasy setting if you will, that I hope to make a reality here. Better yet, should I get this going, I hope to make it the long teased game mentioned before. Blizzard does not have the copyright on orcs and elves, right?

For those still more interested in fan art, I am also looking into different franchises that may be more receptive to fan works and endeavors.

I am sorry to everyone for this mess. All I ever wanted was to enjoy my favorite fantasy setting, create content as a love letter to it for all the years of joy it has brought me. With that at an end, I can only do what I can to move on, and work to be an even better, more varied artist for you all.

For Glory,

Warlord Rexx.

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It’s the same story as with Overlook. Blizzard loves to claim that artist uses their ingame 3D models and therefore cease and desist claim. Another big factor is monetization of the content. There is a big difference between accepting donations for the work and, for example, timed release for general public and creating a paywall for the content.
I am all for artistic freedom, however this is not the case this time.

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Ah yes, America (and most of the world to be fair) where capitalism works exactly as intended. The big guys can suffocate the little ones even without having a case, cause the law procedure costs so much that it’s not worth it for the little ones even if they win. You know, this is exactly the type of human behavior that disgusts me the most, just because you can, you drown out the little ones. I’m not interested in WoW NSFW content therefore I have literally never heard his name in my 12 years of playing WoW. There is no realistic cause to do this, unless you specifically look for this type of content you won’t find it, and it’s not like Blizzard will ever tap into this market. In the words of my favorite Hearthstone streamer:
Capitalism, Ho!

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rip, make sure to save his content lads, so we can enjoy it :))

I do feel bad for rexx tho, actually a really good artist.

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Very sure they are in their right to do so. And making cringe stuff out of a product blizzard made, is not alright, if they deem it not to be so. Its two sided, had he made a huge game, he would be the same way. Everyone would, its just a matter of being open minded.

And many on wow definitely are not. They’re selfish, its the same with the huge movements about censorship, and paying for things. Tons of people don’t want to do that to public, official companies, but when they create somethings they want to get paid, and not have people steal or use their s for free.

Its just 
 the world today. This is a pathetic thread, take it down please.

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The main reason Rexx got a C&D was due to the money he was making, the C&D was a way to show other NSFW artist that they can be next, still Rexx was in his right in those parodies, he could’ve perfectly kept going, the thing is he decided to protect his family and start his own project elsewhere a shame.

Cringe or not

NSFW or not it was fan content.

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Yeah right, keep on beliving that.
Not in a million years would he have been able to keep a win over blizzards claims, and the demands.

Its too pathetic to even believe in. And no he had no right to spread awful garbage around, that is blizzards product. Had he asked for the permission to make the art, with or without earning money, and recieved a yes. Then he would have had the right, if he didn’t never in a million years.

Its about morals, don’t make up cringe and weird things about a product released by some other people without asking permission first.

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It’s not a belief it’s the truth, it’s the law

Rexx is protected by a parody clause.

As much as any parody, you can say that “bla bla it’s heresy oh god purge purge the heretic, purge everything because i’m an edgy templar behind a keyboard”

Doesn’t change a thing the law is on his side, thing is, a lots of lawyers are on the other side.

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Are you familiar with the concept of fair use? Unless he used their assets directly without any modification and any of his own twists on them (which seems very unlikely given that it was NSFW according to posters here) he was in fact protected by fair use. It’s okay to make parody of things. And BTW if I made a game and someone made content anywhere, where we don’t plan on extending, I wouldn’t attack them. I’d consider it free advertisement and as an added benefit I wouldn’t hurt my image in the eyes of rational people like Blizzard does when they do something like this.
Vanilla private servers? Sure they are completely right.
Fan art? Nope, they can only do it cause they’re a big company with too much money for an individual to fight.

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If you want to keep believing that, feel free to keep believing that, its too stupid for my taste.

We are talking about a billion dollar company, who does not want cringe, and sexual, or other things about their product, out in the world. For one the game is marketed for kids. Adults would never allow their kids to participate if they knew all this went around.

And they will find out sooner or later.
Secondly, its about morals.

The parody clause can be disbanded in this case, Pretty sure blizzard have ways to find holes or actual legit ways to counter the parody clause. Even one this nobody’s lawyer had not though of.

I would’ve loved to see him go through and fail miserably losing face.
Blizzard have good laywers and I am pretty sure if you dig long enough through the thousands and millions of laws, there is laws that forbid him from making his content, it might not be directed at the parody clause, but maybe some other law about showing such content to kids, or other ways .

Trust me they would’ve found a perfectly legal way to shut him down, without spending too much money on it.

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Dude, there is nsfw content of absolutly every god damn thing on this planet.

Even Black Holes.

Moral or not it does not matter, parents if they are really good parents would make sure their childrens would not look for NSFW content on the internet.

Has a said Billions of dollars.

Rexx made a living out of his work, still he could’ve just said ‘lol nop’ and kept going, he is under the “fair use” protection.

It’s litteraly Law text, LITTERALY WRITEN IN THE DAMN LAWS

Rexx is a father, he decided to give up his WoW nsfw content to just mind his own business to protect his family.

He respected Blizzard’s will by doing so.

Now quite being an edgy lad on the internet, you’re just despicable being so toxic about just a random guy doing fan content out of a universe.

NSFW or not, doesn’t matter at all, it’s as much as a Good fan art, or a good animation as a cheap Parody on paint.

Deal with it

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how does it protect his family tho?

i mean whats wrong with going to court?

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Friend, learn and live. Learn and live. Point is he would’ve not had a chance against blizzard. Not a money issue, not anything of that sort. Just trust me on this one, trust me for once. And you will live to become wiser one day.

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It’s simple, if Rexx would’ve decided to keep going, he could’ve faced court, it was a possibilitĂ©, even a lawyer advised him.

The thing is, Blizzard-Activision has, many many lawyers.

btw aren’t you a minor how can you be knowing his content monkaS

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ye but, if he’s right, whats wrong with going to court?

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You do understand that there is erotic content of quite literally anything and everything out there? People are like that. If you think Blizzard has a chance at stopping all erotic content you’re delusional.
And I’m pretty sure if he was up for 10 years with such content it’s not somewhere where kids come in contact with it. Hell I’m an adult and I haven’t even heard of him anywhere ever. Unless you look for these things you won’t find them.
And yes, just because you say that he wasn’t right, fan art is protected and Blizzard would have failed, this wouldn’t be the first case where big companies like Blizz lose a case like this. It was never about having a case tho. Blizzard can finance such a case, an individual can’t (or if they can the emotional strain isn’t worth it in this case, considering he has a family). It was almost always gonna be a war Blizzard wins without ever having a fight and they knew it, that’s why they fired the shots.
You’re being naive and you’re scoffing at us for actually seeing the whole picture.

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A risk, is a Risk, sometimes the law isn’t in the favor of those who are right.

Betol is indeed right on the fact that he might have stood no chances against Blizzardi n court, which is why i think his move of retracting was a good move.

tbh i’m expecting this thread to be deleted

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Exactly, its not about who is right. Its about the bigger picture. Who would people actually support in a courtroom, and how many laws can be altered, and countered, but other laws.

Its not a money issue, its a reputation issue, its a company versus a single individual issue. The system is flawed. But I also support blizzard, they do have the moral right.

But its not in his favor, money or no money. They would have won.

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If the judge can’t be bought I think Blizz would have actually had significantly less chance in fact.
But yeah it’s not worth the risk when you have a family to look out for. Day to day the procedure would cost money, wear you down and make you overall less of a good father, you would have less time to spend with your family and financial instability which might even lead to worse if Blizz wins. I wouldn’t do it either in his shoes, it’s just not worth it. And big companies opportunistically taking these shots at fan artists is pretty damned appalling in my humble opinion. I honestly don’t even know how this benefits Blizzard. Shutting down someone nobody even heard of unless they looked for this specific content.

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Reputation. Blizzard, the company who launched world of warcraft, a MMORPG for kids, with tons of fans making erotic art, and earning money from it, tons of other weird things, join today!

Its not catchy, and people should leave it alone.
Its not about the judge, and its not about buying anyone, its about the people in it, and the logic.

The judge would support blizzard without being bought, the jury if there was such a thing in this case, would’ve supported blizzard. Blizzard is on such a large scale, and delivering a product to kids.

Its in their favor no matter how you look at it, polluding a product meant to bring joy, and be safe for kids, its the moral right thing to vote yes too. That is also why they are keeping up with todays PC, being strict.

The best thing you can do when making things off of blizzard products, is to ask them first, and maybe sign an agreement. If you don’t do that you have nothing on blizzard. They will win, fair and square.