Baby Murloc's Voice Wants Piece of the Action

[AdamSavage]

This is interesting enough, I don't know how much truth is behind it though.

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - A former "game master" for Blizzard Entertainment claims she invented the voice and song of baby murlocs, which "have become the de facto mascot of the billion-dollar enterprise ... World of Warcraft" but Blizzard won't pay her a dime for it.
Amanda Lewis sued Activision Blizzard and Blizzard Entertainment in Federal Court, alleging copyright infringement and misappropriation of her voice.
Game master is a customer-service position, Lewis says, in which she helped "World of Warcraft" players who had "in-game issues, such as abusive language or players becoming 'stuck,' or unable to move, in the game."
While working at Blizzard, Lewis says, she received an email requesting voices for "World of Warcraft" creatures. She say she "had previously developed a voice, on her own time and through her own creative efforts, [which] she thought would be appropriate for WoW and offered to demonstrate it."
The complaint continues: "The appealing style and original content of Amanda's vocal work was recognized by Blizzard, which used Amanda's voice and an original song she developed to give life and personality to creatures known as baby murlocs. Murlocs are a type of aquatic humanoid creature common in WoW, and baby murlocs are a friendly and appealing version of murlocs that appear in various quests and are available as special player-owned 'pets.'
"Providing creative content for WoW was not part of Ms. Lewis' duties as a customer service representative, and Ms. Lewis did not assign any copyright in her music and vocal work to Blizzard."
Lewis says her voice and the baby murloc song have become an important part of "World of Warcraft."
She claims that at BlizzCon, Blizzard's annual convention for gamers, the company has handed out baby murlocs, and that "In addition to their inherent appeal, such pets are status symbols and can be quite valuable on the secondary market for WoW items and characters."
What's more, she says, the company profits by selling baby murloc plush toys in its online store.
"In short, due in significant part to the appeal of Ms. Lewis' creative and vocal work, baby murlocs have become the de facto mascot of the billion-dollar enterprise that is WoW."
She claims she has filed copyright applications "with regard to baby murloc vocal expressions and the baby murloc song ... which have been incorporated into WoW without Amanda's permission."
She seeks disgorgement, quantum meruit, and damages for copyright infringement and misappropriation of her voice.
She is represented by Alan Engle, with Meador & Engle, of Anaheim Hills.

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[Lisaara]

I wouldn't say the baby murloc is some big symbol of wow....most people I know just want murlocs dead.

[Sherbe]

I LOOOOVE baby murlocs, and would love to have one ingame, but alas never got single one. I do have moth Murky and Lurky plushes though. Lovelovelove them.

I don't really have an opinion about the case though, except it reminds me of the complaints of the voice actor of James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2, apparently James was modeled after him physically and he never got his original payment from Konami and something about not agreeing to re-publishings of the game and intellctual property blahblah. It was a weird rant from him that I read and I doubt he's ever going to get money from Konami, but this person is even less likely to get any money from Blizz. Should have copyrighted and contracted the heck out of murlocs, really.

[Chimera]

I dont really have much of an opinion on the case except that i can def see why she's pursuing it, if there is truth in this whole thing to begin with, since while Murlocs are not popular in a good way, baby murlocs are extremely popular. Murlocs in general as well as Hogger and Saurfang are some of the most popular iconic beings for jokes and comments and popular sayings (such as how elite hogger is or how people compare saurfang to chuck norris) but baby murlocs are a huge fad for people who adore and hate murlocs. The baby appearence is very popular with people who like cutsey things and think the gurggling is cute and blizz has introduced many different types of baby murloc minipets as well as thrown one on the blizz bear mount and even made a whole questline dedicated to saving murlocs and their babies (borean tundra, D.E.T.H.A).

They're overall indeed a popular icon but i dont know how much truth is in this case since it seems that theres a huge lack in communication in regards to the copyright agreement that Amanda professes to have signed and to be frank, based on this quote, i doubt there is a signed copyright agreement to the murlocs voice in Amanda's name. Blizzards, perhaps, Amanda's, not so sure. Im wondering though how much she's trying to sue them for and what all is gonna happen if they discover the signed agreement (aka how much money they gotta put out to her and this case and if that will affect the speed of introducing new patches and the better graphics that blizzard has been working on for WoW... i think its too close to Diablo 3's release for this to impact its scheduled release.)

[cowmuflage]

I dont really have much of an opinion on the case except that i can def see why she's pursuing it, if there is truth in this whole thing to begin with, since while Murlocs are not popular in a good way, baby murlocs are extremely popular. Murlocs in general as well as Hogger and Saurfang are some of the most popular iconic beings for jokes and comments and popular sayings (such as how elite hogger is or how people compare saurfang to chuck norris) but baby murlocs are a huge fad for people who adore and hate murlocs. The baby appearence is very popular with people who like cutsey things and think the gurggling is cute and blizz has introduced many different types of baby murloc minipets as well as thrown one on the blizz bear mount and even made a whole questline dedicated to saving murlocs and their babies (borean tundra, D.E.T.H.A).

They're overall indeed a popular icon but i dont know how much truth is in this case since it seems that theres a huge lack in communication in regards to the copyright agreement that Amanda professes to have signed and to be frank, based on this quote, i doubt there is a signed copyright agreement to the murlocs voice in Amanda's name. Blizzards, perhaps, Amanda's, not so sure. Im wondering though how much she's trying to sue them for and what all is gonna happen if they discover the signed agreement (aka how much money they gotta put out to her and this case and if that will affect the speed of introducing new patches and the better graphics that blizzard has been working on for WoW... i think its too close to Diablo 3's release for this to impact its scheduled release.)

Thing is Blizzard owns the rights to Murlocs not her she mearly did work for them. These things happen all the time in the comic world. Someone makes a character for a big company then decides to leave and then starts to demand the rights to the character saying they made it so they should own the rights. When infact they got paid to make it by the company so the company owns it.

I think thats the deal here. It's not over the character it's just about the money.

[Chimera]

Yea, thats why im really sketchy on the lack of communication regarding the copyright agreement she has professed to have signed that declares she owns the voice, not the company. It all seems really that shes trying to loot off the popularity but i never doubt the other possibilities which in this case is that shes being honest that she owns the voice in writing, i just dont have a lot of faith in it :3

[cowmuflage]

Yea, thats why im really sketchy on the lack of communication regarding the copyright agreement she has professed to have signed that declares she owns the voice, not the company. It all seems really that shes trying to loot off the popularity but i never doubt the other possibilities which in this case is that shes being honest that she owns the voice in writing, i just dont have a lot of faith in it :3

True dat.