Warcraft III: Reforged is asking its users to hand over their “moral rights” on custom maps, but why is Blizzard asking for them?
Let’s first answer the obvious question of what exactly a “moral right” is. Moral rights is a legal term that refers to the rights of the creator to own their created property. It means that you get to say that you created that thing, that you own it, and therefore can do whatever else you want with it within the bounds of the law.
In the Terms of Service for Warcraft III: Reforged, Blizzard asks players to "waive any moral rights or similar rights you may have in all such Custom Games, without any remuneration." What this means is that any custom maps made by users for Reforged become the sole property of Blizzard and not the creator.
Which sounds pretty awful, right? Why would Blizzard want to take away the rights of mapmakers from getting credit for their creations?
Well, it all has to do with the history of Warcraft III and one particular custom map called Defense of the Ancients. Released in 2003, Defense of the Ancients (DotA) quickly became so popular that it was more played than traditional Warcraft III matches. People purchased Warcraft III specifically to play DotA, and the map basically gave birth to the modern MOBA genre.
You’d think that with that kind of popularity Blizzard would have cashed in somehow, but you’d be wrong. The guys who made DotA were eventually hired by Riot Games (where they made League of Legends) and Valve (where they made Defense of the Ancients 2, or Dota 2). That last one led to a protracted legal battle where Blizzard sued to keep the Defense of the Ancients name. The two companies eventually settled out of court and Valve released Dota 2 in 2013.
League of Legends and Dota 2 are arguably the biggest video games in the world, and certainly the biggest MOBAs in the world. They’re also worth enormous sums of money--money that Blizzard let slip right through their fingers.
Blizzard doesn’t want that to happen again, so this time if you make a custom map on Warcraft III, you don’t own it. Blizzard does.
Source: Kotaku, Gamasutra, Blizzard