During the U.S.-Iraq War, South Korea's Weimeide Company sued Excalibur Network "Legend" for infringement in the No. 1 Intermediate People's Court in Beijing. Moreover, this is the fourth time that the First Intermediate People's Court has heard this case, and it has been fighting an international lawsuit for more than a year.

Due to the extraordinary popularity of "Legend" in China, every court session attracts a lot of media, and even the gaming and judicial circles have been watching, because the verdict of this lawsuit will have far-reaching consequences. As long as Excalibur Network's "Legend" is judged to be legal, then domestic game manufacturers will be able to plagiarize Korean online games after changing their skins.

The content of the lawsuit filed by Korea Weimeide is that "Legend" plagiarized "Mir 2" and infringed the plaintiff's exclusive right to "Mir 2". The defendant plagiarized as many as 294 items in terms of game characters, occupations, props, skills, scenes, values, etc., and directly used the plaintiff's source code, demanding that the defendant stop the operation of "Legend", destroy relevant data and materials, stop the publicity and sales of related products, close the official website of "Legend" game, and publicly apologize, bear the relevant litigation costs, and compensate the plaintiff for economic losses.

Today, the First Intermediate People's Court announced the final verdict.

And because of the commercial secrets involved, there were no public hearings in several court sessions, and reporters could only wait outside for news. This time, I waited from the morning to the afternoon, and finally when the relevant personnel came out, the reporters were instantly surrounded.

"Mr. Zhou, what is the outcome of the lawsuit?"

"Lawyer Qin, has Shenjian Network won?"

"Mr. Zhang......"

The representatives of the South Korean company all ignored the reporters with black faces, and walked briskly to the car on the side of the road with their leather bags. However, the lawyer representing the Korean side said: "I have done my best, and this case has gone through one year and three months from the first trial to the present. Regardless of the outcome, it is of great significance to China's judicial circles, and it can also serve as a reference for similar cases in the future. ”

"In other words, the final verdict is that the defendant won, so will the plaintiff continue to appeal?" the reporters asked.

The lawyer said as he walked: "I don't know ...... whether the South Korean side will continue to appeal."

At the gate of the court, Zhou Hao, the representative of Excalibur Network, said with a smile: "The content of the Korean prosecution is very outrageous, and "Legend" and "Legend of Mir 2" are two completely different games. To say that we use the source code of the Korean side is a ridiculous thing. Legend is written in C++ using a game engine developed by Kingsoft's Nishiyamaju Studios, while Mill 2 is written in other languages using Bornd's Delphi engine. How can two different game engines, two different computer languages, be copied in the source code?"

The reporter asked again: "But "Legend" seems to have borrowed a lot of gameplay and data from "Mir 2". ”

Zhou Hao said with a smile: "If these things have to be sued, then did "Swordsman Love" copy "The Legend of Sword and Fairy"? According to this statement, "Mir 2" copied "Heaven" itself, and "Heaven" also copied "Diablo"!"

"What about game items? Some of the items in the two games have exactly the same name. The reporter asked again.

Zhou Hao suddenly said indignantly: "Since you asked about this, then I must state one point. All the props and equipment in "Legend", but all related to copyright issues, we have obtained the authorization of the original author. For example, the weapon 'Moon in the Well' belongs to Mr. Huang Yi's original literature, and we have obtained Mr. Huang Yi's exclusive authorization. If South Korea's "Mir 2" dares to use the name 'Moon in the Well', then Excalibur Network Technology reserves the right to pursue its legal responsibility!"

"Did the Dragon Slayer Knife and the Heavenly Sword also be authorized by Mr. Jin Yong?" the reporter continued to ask.

Zhou Hao shook his head and said: "As far as I know, the dragon slaying knife comes from the "Legend of the Swordsman of Shushan" and "The Legend of the Dragon Slayer of the North Sea" by the lord of Huanzhu Mansion, and it is the magic weapon used by the dragon slayer master in the book, and it was left by the real person of Changmei before his ascension. In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao's two swords are the Yitian Sword and the Qingyu Sword, which are called peerless double swords. Luo Guanzhong and the owner of Huanzhu Mansion have already passed away, and their works have also passed the literary copyright protection period, so we don't need to pay copyright fees to anyone. ”

There is also a reporter who persevered: "But according to netizens who have played "Mir 2", as soon as they enter "Legend", they know that they are copied, because the two games are too similar." ”

Zhou Hao smiled: "What's the coincidence? The background of the game story is different, "Legend" belongs to the oriental background, and it is the Zhongzhou continent. We can also catch wild horses as mounts in the game, and if "Mir 2" also introduces a mount system, can we also sue him for plagiarism?"

"How do you explain the agency contract that South Korea's Weimeide Company came up with?" the reporter said.

Zhou Hao said: "Mr. William Zhu, the president of our company, did act as an agent for "Mir 2" at the beginning. However, due to the problem of capital turnover, the agency company has long since closed down, and it has nothing to do with the current Excalibur Network Technology Company. Mr. William Zhu became the president of Excalibur Network, and after the failure of his own business, the Korean side can find another agent!"

……

Of course, South Korea's Weimeide company has found a new agent, and as early as last year, many domestic manufacturers are rushing to cry and want to be an agent.

At that time, Guangtong beat many Chinese counterparts, and the agency contracts were about to be signed, and suddenly found that the Korean side had launched "Mir 3" (that is, "Legend 3"). Guangtong, who has made a lot of money, of course, does not want to act as an agent for outdated old games, so after many negotiations, after promising to increase the game share, the Korean side finally handed over the agency of "Mir 3" to Guangtong.

As soon as the final result of the "Legend" lawsuit was announced, the industry was in an uproar.

And Guangtong also took advantage of this public opinion boom and announced that he was acting as an agent for "Legend 3". The game has just started the preliminary warm-up promotion, and before it has had time for public testing, Excalibur Network Technology Co., Ltd. suddenly issued an announcement: "Inform Huadu Guangtong Communication Development Co., Ltd., "Legend" is an original online game independently developed by our company, and it has nothing to do with "Legend of Mir 2" operated by South Korea's Weimeide Company. Please do not use "Legend 3" as the name of the game for "Legend 3" represented by your company, and do not mislead consumers into thinking that this is a sequel to "Legend...... Excalibur Network Technology reserves the right to pursue legal liability. ”

Not only that, Shenjian Network also made trouble with the approval department, and Guangtong's "Legend 3" was stuck because of the game name.

It's so ugly!

I copied other people's games, not to mention.,And ran out of the sequel to the card family.。

But then again, the IP of "Legend" is indeed made big by Excalibur, what does it have to do with Korean companies?

Guangtong's Yang Zong's background is also very hard, ignoring the announcement issued by Excalibur Network, continuing to frantically promote and warm up "Legend 3", and even fantasized that this name could pass the review. Until the beginning of April, the approval department gave a clear reply: "Legend" belongs to the registered trademark and game name of Shenjian Network Technology Company, and it is registered in the Internet, computers, games, clothing, catering and other fields (all registered), and other companies are not allowed to use similar trademarks or names again.

The arm couldn't twist the thigh, so Guangtong had to rename the game "Legend 3", which sounded like a copycat. But in terms of publicity, he still uses the sequel to "Legend" as a gimmick, openly shouting slogans such as "a different legend" and "a new legend".

This kind of propaganda is certainly okay, because "legend" is a Chinese term.

However, Guangtong's "Legend 3" has just started the public beta and was immediately sued by Excalibur Network. Because the props in the game, the names of the weapons such as Half Moon, Wuji, Judgment, Purgatory, Soul Breaker, and Ling Feng all belong to the original of Excalibur Network Company and enjoy the corresponding copyright, and the Korean names in the game are not these.

In order to save trouble, Guangtong and the Korean side directly copied the set of Excalibur Company when translating the game.

The lawsuit started again, this time it was Han Fang and Guangtong who were suspected of plagiarism. Moreover, the evidence was conclusive, and the lawsuit ended after only half a year, and the Korean side was ordered to modify the name of similar equipment in the game, and compensate Shenjian Company for 8 million yuan of economic losses, as well as bear 2 million yuan of litigation costs.

"Legend 3", which has only been in operation for half a year, was originally very popular with the gimmick of the sequel to "Legend", but its popularity plummeted because of the suspension of the service and the modification of the equipment name - modifying the name of some equipment, the Korean side actually dragged on for more than a month, and the daylily was cold when the service was opened again, and Guangtong wanted to cry without tears.

Netizens who are familiar with the causes and consequences all say that Song Weiyang is really awesome, and the "thief shouting to catch the thief" is really slippery.

In fact, even if Excalibur doesn't interfere, "Legend 3" or "Legend 3" will die a miserable death. Because Guangtong has no experience in online game operation, the game is full of plug-ins, and one person hangs more than 10 numbers to automatically fight monsters, and the map is full of robots, how long can this kind of game live?

……

"Old Song, congratulations on winning the lawsuit!" At the end of March, Brother Xiao Ma specially brought Tencent game personnel to visit.

In history, there was only this visit, but the object of Xiao Ma's visit was Chen Tianqiao. Tencent's main profit point is the online SMS business, but the competition in this field is becoming more and more fierce, so Xiao Ma naturally focuses on online games. But he had no experience in this, so he led a team to visit Chen Tianqiao, hoping that industry bigwigs could give him advice.

When Brother Xiao Ma explained the origin, Song Weiyang smiled and said: "I'll make a call when I go back, you can go to Rongcheng to talk to William Zhu, and you can also learn from the operation team of Shenjian Company." ”

"I'm going to go to EA in May," Xiao Ma suddenly said, "Actually, I've already fallen in love with a Korean online game called Triumph, a 3D game built by Unreal Engine 2." But I've heard you say that the domestic market needs rough and simple online games, and I'm afraid that this "Triumph" is too complicated. So want to hear your suggestions. ”

Song Weiyang said: "The game should be rough and simple, it was two years ago, and everyone didn't have much knowledge. But now it's different, there are already a large number of people, and playing "Legend" slashing monsters is very boring. Now is the time to make a slightly more complex game, or a casual game. ”

"In other words, 3D online games like "Triumph" are still very promising?"

Song Weiyang said: "But I want to remind you that it is best to get the source code as an agent for Korean online games." Otherwise, bug fixes and version updates will drag you to death, and the bugs of the pickle game are flying all over the sky, which is something that everyone knows. ”

"I'll try it, but I'm afraid it's hard to get it. Little Brother Ma smiled bitterly.

This has to blame Song Weiyang, the Korean game company was unwilling to provide the source code, and the Korean side of "Legend" couldn't find an agent, so it agreed to take out the source code after William Zhu gave a super high agency sharing contract. Now that Excalibur is copying other people's games and winning the lawsuit, how can Korean manufacturers still give the source code? They are afraid of making a second "Legend"!

Song Weiyang said: "Let's be an agent first, train the team, and then develop it ourselves." ”

Brother Xiao Ma said: "In terms of operation and promotion, in addition to those routines on the market, I plan to engage in 'playing games and sending QQ numbers', what do you think?"

"Very awesome strategy. Song Weiyang said with a smile.

At this time, applying for a QQ number not only costs a fee, but also limits the amount of registration, and you may not be successful if you want to register. If the classmate in the class can help others apply for a QQ number, then he is definitely the most popular boy in the class.

In history, Tencent's first online game "Triumph", many people rushed to send QQ numbers to play games. After Tencent announced the news, nearly 200,000 people signed up for the internal test a day at the peak, and I have to say that with the big killer of QQ, Tencent is too cheap in promoting new products.

It's a pity that "Triumph" belongs to the Korean online game, and there are too many bugs. Equipment disappeared inexplicably, characters disappeared inexplicably, and the data made an anomaly from time to time, reducing the number of online users by 90% in half a year.

This year has been a boom in China's online game market, with new games coming online every month, sometimes four or five games in the same month. Under the huge stimulation of the huge profits of "Legend", cats and dogs are jumping into it, and Sohu launched "Knight OL" before the Spring Festival under Zhang Chaoyang's decision. So far, NetEase, Sohu, and Jinshan invested by Song Weiyang have all launched games, Tencent plans to go online, and even Ding Ming wants to act as an agent for a game.

Meanwhile, World of Warcraft is here!

After the release of Warcraft 3, Blizzard officially released World of Warcraft, which had been secretly developed until now.

As soon as this news came out, although everyone didn't know what "World of Warcraft" looked like, let alone when "World of Warcraft" would be completed, game manufacturers all over the world began to scramble for agency rights, because its stand-alone sister game "Warcraft" was too influential!

In China alone, dozens of agents have played dog brains, and the senior management of Weiwangdi frequently comes to China for inspection, but it is not to say who "World of Warcraft" intends to let agents.

In another time and space, after layers of screening, the scope of the agent was finally narrowed down to Jiucheng and Guangtong.

Guangtong is still too tender, and Jiucheng secretly joined forces with Singapore Telecom, Sohu and Intel to form a joint venture company to win the agency of "World of Warcraft". As a result, before the public beta of "World of Warcraft" started, Jiucheng threw away Sohu and other partners, and won the exclusive agency by itself, so don't look too ugly!

As for Song Weiyang's "Classic of Mountains and Seas", it is still under hard development, and it has already cost more than 100 million yuan, and there are more than 400 development members in each group, and more than 2 million yuan will be spent every month just for wages.

Although the progress of the game was slow, the results were very gratifying, and Zulong Studios successfully developed the "Excalibur 3D Engine", which is even better than the engine of World of Warcraft. Of course, there is no need to be too proud, because the "Warcraft" engine was not the most advanced at that time, and the reason why the effect is so good is that the art team is awesome!

"World of Warcraft" released the news of selecting an agent, Song Weiyang was taken aback, and hurriedly asked Zulong Studio to speed up the development.

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