Official Statement Released by KeSPA

KeSPA releases an official statement in response to Blizzard's announcement to cease negotiations with KeSPA.

A week and a half after Yonhap New's interview with Mike Morhaime, KeSPA has released an official statement on the comments by Morhaime on the negotiations between itself and Blizzard. In the interview, Morhaime states that Blizzard has been unsuccessful in its three year long talks over Intellectual Property rights with KeSPA.

KeSPA has now responded stating that it has been willing to recognize these rights from the beginning of the negotiations, but states that some of Blizzard's other demands are unreasonable. In a translation of the statement by TeamLiquid.net's Waxangel we are shown KeSPA's side of the story.

One of the issues is a limited usage of a game to a one year period. A limited use of a game to a year could mean the requirement of renewing the rights to use the game each year, thus possibly putting certain constraints and restrictions on the organizations that use it.

Other serious issues raised by KeSPA include the right to audit KeSPA's finances, ownership of secondary content through KeSPA's teams, players and broadcasting, royalties and sub-licensing fees on sponsorships and broadcasting fees. Blizzard, as stated by KeSPA, also required their authorization of all aspects of league management which include the acquiring of sponsorships, marketing planning and broadcast planning.

After addressing these issues, KeSPA went on to tell the story of the negotiation process from their point of view. KeSPA claims that through the past three years Blizzard would arbitrarily halt or reopen negotiations depending on the progress of StarCraft 2's development. The release date of StarCraft 2 became much clearer last June and thus negotiations reopened only to be stopped once again when the game's release was delayed.

KeSPA states that they have asked several times to continue negotiations or to speak with Mike Morhaime, but they were met with responses to change their stance or no response at all.

The statement ends with KeSPA stating that they have sent an official request to Mike Morhaime to re-open negotiations and, if necessary, the association along with the pro-gaming teams will hold a joint press conference on the matter.

The statement from KeSPA coincides with Blizzard's announcement of StarCraft 2's release date set to be July 27th 2010.

Links
TeamLiquid.net - Source (English Translation)
Fomos.kr - Source (Korean)