Today’s big news is that you can copy as many characters from World of Warcraft as you want without any legal penalties whatsoever. Blizzard‘s copyright infringement lawsuit against Chinese company Lilith Games has been dismissed by the court in the US. So go ahead and make that game about Garrosh Hellscream becoming a Broadway singer — because you could win the case!
All right, fine, that’s not really what it means. The case is being dismissed chiefly because Blizzard’s original claim of copyright infringement was sweepingly broad and didn’t actually call attention to any distinct elements of World of Warcraft characters being copied in Lilith Games’ title DOTA Legend. (The game in question also isn’t a MOBA of any sort, just for added name confusion.) A more specific filing could easily bring the case right back to court. So it’s less a lack of legal backing for Blizzard’s characters and more the result of being overly broad with a filing; you probably will still run into problems with Springtime for Hellscream.
