Blizzards copyrights have gone to far.

Yes and we all know, but the fact is that Blizzard is making copyrights for things that they don't own and simply because Valve didn't care about it and decided to change some things about the heroes. Some things yes but they're still big changes and they mean a lot for us Dota community and the biggest change we all know got Skeleton King.

Lycanthrope - refers of a human to transform into a wolf, or gain wolf-like characteristics. The term comes from the Greek word lykànthropos, which means "werewolf" or some may call it "wolf man". In the November 21, 2013 update, Lycanthrope's name was changed to Lycan, likely to avoid copyright issues with Blizzard.

Necrolyte - nekros (νεκρός) the Greek word for corpse, and acolyte, a religious attendant). In the November 21, 2013 update, Necrolyte's name was changed to Necrophos, likely to avoid copyright issues with Blizzard.

Doombringer - the term "bringer" is also to be claimed a copyright of Blizzard. There are units and stuff in many games I've witnessed, they have the term "bringer", should Blizzard sue them to? I cannot remember in which update it was changed.

Outworld Devourer - this was changed for copyright reasons to. I mean Blizzard owns the word Destroyer, like lets see in Darksiders there is the fallen angel Abaddon the Destroyer. Blizzard should sue Vigil Games a company that was owned by THQ, but they both went bankrupt, but it doesn't matter Blizzard should still sue them. I cannot remember in which update it was changed.

Centaur Warchief - Blizzard claims the word "Chief" to be their property. I've see the word "Chief" in many other games, and native tribes I don't know why Blizzard doesn't sue them it would be really good to see, Blizzard suing native tribes for the term "Chief". Yeah that would be really good.

Windrunner and Pit Lord - I don't know much about these to, especially for WR, but I've heard from other people that Pit Lord existed before WarCraft was made. People said that same thing about WR that it existed in other stuff though I'm not sure about it, but I'm sure that Pit Lord existed before WarCraft.

Skeleton King - yeah these "Skeleton Kings" exist in books (dunno about games, but it's likely they exist), other fictions and stuff I've searched on the net but I cannot remember in what. Yeah Blizzard has a hero called the "Skeleton King" in Diablo but that doesn't make that they own the name "Skeleton King". I just don't know how could someone ***** out so much. No, Blizzard does not own any of this listed here (there are still a few but I didn't want to put them). Even if Blizzard do have their own Skeleton King he will be no match with our Skeleton King not even on the edge of it.
Wraith King is total joke model. Some old green, beard, ghostly ****** dude that I would only give a + for his bad *** voice. The only thing that Skeleton King didn't had, while he had everything compared to WK.

The Difference:



I know all of you saw the post on Reddit that day:
What happened to skeleton king?
And you know what the big thing is? This post comes from a LoL player who just started to play Dota few months ago back then.
Just see the reaction from the people: Skeleton King removed from Dota 2


And there it is where Valve can prove Blizzard 100% that they do not own any of this, but they just don't care about us anyway. If they really did they would have taken actions earlier. Valve would have made tons of money if they made Skeleton King arcana and from other cosmetic items. I've heared rumors that Valve cares more about TF community more, I don't know whether this is true or not but it's just a rumor I've heard. Valve would have 100% support from the Dota 2 community for the copyrights but like I said they just don't care.

I wasn't playing before it got changed. Never witnessed Skeleton King in his glory q_q

Actually, the word Warchief is copy righted, not the word Chief. Pit Lord? Yes, they were the ones to come up with it in Diablo 2.


Necrophos was changed by Valve to make a pun- since Phos in greek means light. So it's basically "Light of the dead" - or something like that.

I'm kind of glad that Skeleton King was changed to Wraith King.

TRAITOR TO THE KING? BONED!

Well, they're playing it safe with copyright, who can blame them?

Indeed "lycanthrope" is pretty much another word for "werewolf" and can't be copyrighted in any way. Same thing for "doom bringer".

However :

- Alleria and Sylvannas Windrunner are important characters from the Warcraft franchise and actually IIRC Windranger used Sylvannas' model, so this had to be changed

- Mannoroth the Pit Lord is a character from WC3 who gave his model to Pit Lord

- Obsidian destroyers are undead creatures from WC3, who gave their model to OD

- King Leoric the Skeleton King is a boss in Diablo. SK was actually called "king leoric" before the change

Pretty much avoiding unnecessary copyright issues with Blizzard by removing any unneeded references to the Warcraft/Diablo universes. Copyright issues can cause billion dollar lawsuits over some completely anecdotic **** that nobody cares about and game companies want to avoid the waste fo time. If you were them you'd do the same trust me.

Maybe Volvo just wants to avoid any potential issues instead of nitpicking "hey Windrunner just means running in the wind and Sylvannas means forest in Latin so there's no way this name is copyrighted and besides 'I range like the wind' sounds stupid so I want to keep the name" in some unnecessary time-wasting lawsuits.

Like I said Pit Lord was way before WarCraft came out he was not one of the WarCraft franchise.
"Skeleton Kings" are seen in other fictions therefor they existed way before Diablo got their own Skeleton King.
Destroyer is also not a copyright.

WarChief can be stumbled upon many native tribes in this world and other fictions therefor it's not a copyright.

No, Necrolyte was changed because Orcs in WarCraft 1 had Necrolytes http://www.wowwiki.com/Necrolyte. But the name itself is not a property of Blizzard.

It's kinda silly, but that's copyright law for you. Tbh I'm not sufficiently bothered about name changes to get annoyed - they're tiny cosmetic changes to avoid a costly and prolonged legal action.

Ultimately Blizzard created the models/characters many DOTA heroes are based on, they could make a pretty reasonable case about another company using them to make money.

Tbh Blizzard missed a fairly major trick in letting DOTA slip away instead of employing the creators themselves - they could be sitting on the combined income of LOL and DOTA 2...

Anyway, both companies seem to be reasonably adult about the whole thing - Blizzard complains quietly to Valve, who make small changes to avoid infringing their copyright.

It's mildly annoying when I have to update a guide because of it, but I'd rather both companies were investing their profits in making games rather than suing each other!

I mean a lot of the copyrights is because copyrighting is generally done in regards to a specific genre. Whilst a company can't copyright a word in all it's entirity, they can for it's usage in certain areas.

That and given that DOTA 2 was origionally a mod of a Blizzard product, and that trouble to do with Blizzard about even just the title DOTA, it's more sensible for Valve to just not take the risks. It changes so little that it's not worth a potential lawsuit and all the negative publicity that comes attached.