StarCraft Source Code Discovered, Fan Rewarded for Returning it to Blizzard - Sensationalist Headlines

[quote]Blizzard has showered a fan in rewards after the return of a lost gold master source code disc for the original 1998 StarCraft. As spotted by Kotaku, Reddit user Khemist49 had purchased a "Box of Blizzard stuff" off eBay which happened to contain a disc marked "StarCraft Gold Master Source Code". Unsure what to do with the seemingly valuable object, he turned to Reddit for answers and, after having some users request the code be made freely available or to sell it, was contacted by Blizzard's legal team. Blizzard naturally requested that he return the disc due to the "intellectual property and trade secrets" that it contained and once again Khemist49 turned to Reddit to express his confusion after seeking legal advice. Torn between having paid for and done nothing wrong in acquiring the disc and his potential legal obligations, he decided to send the disc back to Blizzard, just in case. The multi-billion dollar game company decided to reward Khemist49 by sending him a free copy of its popular FPS Overwatch, and $250 USD in Blizzard store credit. Khemist49 assumed that this was the end of this unusual event - until a week later he received a phone call from a Blizzard employee. "He wanted to thank me for returning their disc (which was in fact stolen)." Khemist49 explains in his follow up Reddit post "He then asked me if i have ever heard of BlizzCon. I said well, yeah of course but it's impossible for me to go, i live in the east coast, and the badges are always sold out before you can refresh the page lol. He said well, the reason we are calling you is to invite you to Blizzcon, all expenses paid, and we would love to take you out for drinks." To top it all off, two days later he also received a box of Diablo and Overwatch themed merchandise for his troubles.[/quote] [url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/05/04/starcraft-source-code-discovered-fan-rewarded-for-returning-it-to-blizzard]IGN[/url]

Honestly deserves more for the entire source code of starcrraft, I'm willing to bet some people would've offered more than 250$ and a blizzcon trip for that.

Why does it mean so much to them with such an old game?

[QUOTE=Hilton;52185318]Honestly deserves more for the entire source code of starcrraft, I'm willing to bet some people would've offered more than 250$ and a blizzcon trip for that.[/QUOTE] Not even $250. It's $250 Blizzard Fun Bucks.

[QUOTE=ferrus;52185320]Why does it mean so much to them with such an old game?[/QUOTE] Old or not, it's their IP

Well the alternative was probably being sued all the way to the 7th plane of oblivion so i'd say all expenses paid trip to Blizzcon is a nice gesture.

As much as people might wonder if the value of having a Gold source code versus getting a free trip, 250 Blizzard bucks, merchandise. I still must say this is one of those stories of there are many where I smile at the response from Blizzard. Most companies would just threaten legal action if not returned without any thank yous' for being kind enough to give it back. I know that's supposed to happen, but the fact that Blizzard shows such kindness towards someone who were in position of doing something malicious with a source code of their game and still giving such a response back for the reddit user doing the "right thing". It really just makes me smile.

I Would have done the same thing. Can't imagine wanting to risk being sued by fucking blizzard. Besides, it's their IP anyways. Who ever sold it didn't have the right.

[QUOTE=FezianEmperor;52185357]As much as people might wonder if the value of having a Gold source code versus getting a free trip, 250 Blizzard bucks, merchandise. I still must say this is one of those stories of there are many where I smile at the response from Blizzard. Most companies would just threaten legal action if not returned without any thank yous' for being kind enough to give it back. I know that's supposed to happen, but the fact that Blizzard shows such kindness towards someone who were in position of doing something malicious with a source code of their game and still giving such a response back for the reddit user doing the "right thing". It really just makes me smile.[/QUOTE] I'm quite sure that the main reason Blizzard had this sort of reaction was because the news blew up a bit on reddit. It takes little to no money (for Blizzard) to send the guy to Blizzcon, but they get a ton of good PR, brand awareness and coverage for it. Any good PR manager would do the same - it really makes me think what the hell do other companies are trying to achieve when they try to bully their fans in situations like these.

Morally, correct thing to do. I think we can all agree on that. It's their franchise and regardless of how old it may be, it's still their property. I just wonder how it happened to so carelessly wind up in a box of junk. However, assuming he did try to barter off the thing for some fortune, Blizzard would likely blast whoever came into possession with it, and anyone who garnered any profit from trading it around. If it was released online and came into the hands of the public, it would probably be a nightmare for them and everyone knows once something is on the internet it's never really gone for good. It'll always exist out there. All in all, he was remunerated by Blizzard for doing something he didn't have to. He didn't give into greed, or any desire to profit from it (which he likely could have, for much more than Blizzard offered him, as Hilton said) but instead decided to save himself, Blizzard, and everyone else who might've been involved the trouble of going through loads of legal bullshit, lawsuits, and god knows what else. He made things easy instead of making them difficult and I find that respectable.

Stick and carrot IP protection, they might also be setting a precedent that promises a reward for respecting their IP claims instead of just a threat of repercussions if they're broken.

Huge disappointment. No native Linux, no custom sourceports, no actual custom SDK, nothing. Hope Blizzcon, Overwatch and a gift card was worth it. Reminds me of the guy that found that Xbox devkit and decided to destroy it.

[QUOTE=Flazer210;52185392]He made things easy instead of making them difficult and I find that respectable.[/QUOTE] Well when your options are being weighed with legal shotgun pointed at your face, sure. And Blizzard actually extending some goodwill with gubbins is nice to see, even if it is all PR and Marketing.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;52185400]Reminds me of the guy that found that Xbox devkit and decided to destroy it.[/QUOTE] That turned out to be fake anyway.

The value of the disc is questionable. It's possible that was Blizzards only hard copy of the source code but I'm sure they have the master copy on a hard drive somewhere. So really the only concern here is that their code was out in the wild while their game was still making sales. It's worthless now that the game has gone free to play and with the Remaster just around the corner. However it's really cool of Blizzard to not only give him some store credit and merchandise but also an ALL EXPENSES PAID trip to Blizzcon! No doubt he will be treated like a king by Blizzard during his trip and that is worth returning the source code in my books.

If nothing else, the guy's name will be remembered in the community.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;52185400]Huge disappointment. No native Linux, no custom sourceports, no actual custom SDK, nothing. Hope Blizzcon, Overwatch and a gift card was worth it. Reminds me of the guy that found that Xbox devkit and decided to destroy it.[/QUOTE] And what would you do in that position? Would you seriously risk [B]your[/B] entire legal future and ability to get a job with any company that deals with proprietary software over this? This is Blizzard. Blizzard have made no small notice of heavyhanding legal shit in the past on all number of topics, your ass would be grass if you leaked their code.

[QUOTE=ThatSprite;52185411]And what would you do in that position? Would you seriously risk [B]your[/B] entire legal future and ability to get a job with any company that deals with proprietary software over this? This is Blizzard. Blizzard have made no small notice of heavyhanding legal shit in the past on all number of topics, your ass would be grass if you leaked their code.[/QUOTE] I would've asked 4chan or something, devised a way to send an encrypted image of the disk to people anonymously, and let them take the risk of releasing it publicly. There would be countless people willing to do that in my stead. Though, I guess when he posted on Reddit he was already sunk and had no choice. The article states that Blizzard immediately sent the guy legal threats. Reddit would have easily sold him out and he probably used his personal email address and it would be trivial to get other related information through ISPs or something, so the moment that source code appeared on the web anywhere his ass would be the first one they sued.

I'd have made a copy at least, for personal storage.

[QUOTE=FezianEmperor;52185357]As much as people might wonder if the value of having a Gold source code versus getting a free trip, 250 Blizzard bucks, merchandise. I still must say this is one of those stories of there are many where I smile at the response from Blizzard. Most companies would just threaten legal action if not returned without any thank yous' for being kind enough to give it back. I know that's supposed to happen, but the fact that Blizzard shows such kindness towards someone who were in position of doing something malicious with a source code of their game and still giving such a response back for the reddit user doing the "right thing". It really just makes me smile.[/QUOTE] Corporations aren't friends, it's just PR to keep the guy's mouth shut and reinforce their IP's protection, and they're filthy rich anyway. The value of that source code would be massive for historical/archival purposes, too bad leaks and datamines make capitalist jesus cry

Honestly, this guy is an idiot for posting this on Reddit. If I had something as rare and valuable as the private, never released to the public source code to such a loved game, I'd try my best to get it into as many places and archives as possible, with my own personal backups of course.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;52185400]Huge disappointment. No native Linux, no custom sourceports, no actual custom SDK, nothing. Hope Blizzcon, Overwatch and a gift card was worth it. Reminds me of the guy that found that Xbox devkit and decided to destroy it.[/QUOTE] SC isn't exactly a difficult game to recreate in 2017 anything that may have come out of releasing the code would be shut down by blizzard anyway, and that's ignoring the possibility of them legally buttfucking you for the next 10 generations if they ever got their hands on you

[QUOTE=jonu67;52185432]I'd have made a copy at least, for personal storage.[/QUOTE] Who's to say he didn't? We'll never know.

The game was just released for free a few weeks ago, this source code could have started some serious modding projects and a fanbase to sustain them. A shame, honestly.

[QUOTE=ferrus;52185320]Why does it mean so much to them with such an old game?[/QUOTE] Would you prefer Valve's "eh, it's somewhere, the only fully pit-together copy we had was on this PC that died" stance?

Honestly he made the right move. Both sides benefited from this. He looks like a hero, and Blizzard gets some good PR from this. Win win situation.

[QUOTE=Hilton;52185318]Honestly deserves more for the entire source code of starcrraft, I'm willing to bet some people would've offered more than 250$ and a blizzcon trip for that.[/QUOTE] Yeah maybe barely enough to pay his legal fees too had he sold it illegally

While I understand that this was the best thing to do legally (and morally, I guess), there's a part of me that desperately wants to tear the game apart and see how it ticks. That part is very sad.

the free blizzcon trip is just a trap to get him to take a polygraph test to make sure he didn't copy the disc

Maybe he can convince Blizz to release the source code like Id used to do when he meets up with them ...a bit too optimistic perhaps?