This news message is to inform all of you about impending changes that are forced upon us by the legal representatives of wizards of the coast.
Last friday we received an e-mail from wizards of the coast (wich I will paste after this news message) demanding we stop using wizard's trademarks and copyrights on this site. Also it is demanded from us to stop promoting and linking to apprentice and mws.
To us this means that we cannot continue magic-league in it's current form and name. Therefor, as of friday the judges panel will be deactivated, so it will not be possible to run tournaments of any form for the moment. The rated single matches will stay since you can play that in any form, and we don't have any influence over that.
The clipping of the league will be temporary and as we speak we are discussing different solutions on how to continue our on-line activities in a form that doesnot infringe on any of the copyrights as mentioned in the C&D mail.
Following is the mail as we received it friday (minus the adresses, since hatemail is not appreciated)
Re: Infringement of Wizards of the Coast LLC’s
MAGIC: THE GATHERING® Copyrights and Trademarks
Dear Mr. Moerman:
We are counsel for Wizards of the Coast LLC (“Wizards”), the owner of the copyrights and trademarks for the MAGIC: THE GATHERING® trading card game, including the MAGIC: THE GATHERING ONLINE® version of the game. It recently came to our attention that your group has created a website, www.magic-league.com, that touts itself as the place for “free online Magic: The Gathering” tournament and casual play, using two unauthorized computer programs: Apprenctice and Magic Workstation. These software programs use text and, in some cases, artwork, from Wizards’ MAGIC: THE GATHERING® cards. Your site also makes available free MAGIC: THE GATHERING® cards. Your use of the “Magic-League” name and “magic-league.com” domain name further evidences your bad faith intent to capitalize on the good will associated with Wizards’ MAGIC: THE GATHERING® trademark, and pass your site off as authorized or associated with Wizards’ MAGIC: THE GATHERING® game.
Your unauthorized copying and distribution of the MAGIC: THE GATHERING® trading cards text and artwork constitutes copyright infringement in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 501. Your distribution of unauthorized computer programs designed to simulate MAGIC: THE GATHERING ONLINE® game is a clear infringement of Wizards’ intellectual property rights in the images, layout and game mechanics associated with MAGIC: THE GATHERING ONLINE®. Further, your use of the “magic-league” name for a site enabling free online playing of Wizards’ MAGIC: THE GATHERING® game violates the federal trademark laws, including 15 U.S.C. §§ 1114(1) and 1125(a), by creating a likelihood of confusion with respect to Wizards’ authorization or sponsorship of or association with your commercial activities. Your unauthorized use of the “magic-league” name is also likely to dilute the distinctive quality of Wizards’ MAGIC: THE GATHERING® marks in violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c) and the anti-dilution laws of numerous states.
On behalf of Wizards, we therefore demand that you immediately cease and desist from any further use of Wizards’ MAGIC: THE GATHERING® copyrights and trademarks, remove and/or remove the links to, the infringing Apprentice and Magic Workstation software and MAGIC: THE GATHERING® cards from your website, and assure us that you will make no future unauthorized use of Wizards’ intellectual property.
Please provide us with your written agreement to the above, as soon as possible and in any event within ten days. This letter does not purport to be a complete statement of the facts or the law and is without prejudice to Wizards’ legal and equitable rights.
Sincerely yours,
Sadly, in times of economic turmoil WotC seems to be really clamping down on rumours and websites to try and negate profit losses. Like a mangy dog defending its bowl of food.
I just think if MTGO was really that great (which it isn't) it could easily brush off the competition from a free program like MWS and sites like www.magic-league.com supporting it. Somehow this was a long way coming though and I guess if they are infringing copyright laws WotC has every right to enforce it.
I just kind of wish they would make their Online product better instead of shutting everything else down. Then again I think I'll rather stick to a good MMO and play Magic IRL.
So they'll just remove the logos, all links to Apprentice (fairly sure MWS is fine. They removed the promotion of the MTG game pack - it is essentially just a tool for online card play now), and then come right back?
'Intel' has been used a short version of 'intelligence' for years, yet I bet if you try to put 'Intel' on a computer chip and sell it as your own you'll be slapped with a C&D order about as fast as it took me to type this.
A word in relation to a specific thing or industry IS protected, and they must continue to protect it (showing due diligence and all that).
And, strangely, boilerplate doesn't protect you when it can be argued that the entire nature of the site counteracts it. They ARE using 'Magic' as a name of the game to get people to the site, or else why have it?
And profit has nothing to do with bad faith intent. Not being used for profit doesn't protect much of anything.
I'm sure this will be an unpopular point of view around here, but them's the breaks...
Compare this situation to the following:
A group of players starts to organize a series of worldwide events where you just have to bring printouts of the Magic cards to play. They call it Magic-Free-Games, and it starts to take off and gather a lot of players. These players, and these events, don't generate any direct revenue at WotC.*
If WotC asked them to C&D, would their actions seem out of place in that context? I can't imagine that most people would be surprised if they did that. That's the equivalent to what is happening here.
Magic Online is far from perfect, in fact, it has a lot of warts. I should know, I've suffered through a great many of them over the years.
MTGO has more options now than it ever did for 'budget' players. Pauper, PRE's, etc all keep the costs down to a minimum and will cost you less than a subscription fee likely would.
I'm not at all surprised that WotC is cracking down on people using thier work for free. Especially given the times being as they are. This is going to suck for the players who used MWS/Apprentice in Magic-League, as I'm guessing most of them won't be able to or will choose not to transition into MTGO in the same way they were playing before.
*I'm guessing that some players play more paper magic because they can test for free on MWS/Apprentice. But I also imagine that for every one that does there are more that use it as a free way to play magic without spending any money at all and even replace buying _any_ product with playing for free. I'm also guessing that WotC has more details about buying habits of the players as a whole than we do.
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^^
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But why would they do this? Online play cannot replace actual play. This sounds like the rants of people claiming that the radio would die because of tv, newspapers shrivelling up because of the interweb. Bull! Are they making money? Not as far as I know!
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[I was permabanned and all I got to show for it was .... well, nothing.]
I think it would be awesome if wizards tried to shut down all magic related web sites. It's their legal right, afterall!
/sarcasam
They are demanding that the names of all magic cards be removed from their website.
The names of magic cards.
It's ****ing ridiculous. Hasbro/WOTC is waging war against their freaking players. They have been pulling the legal bully thing too long. You don't bite the hand that feeds you, and I hope that, somehow, all this legal bullying ends up backfiring in their faces.
Understand, Dredge is not really a Magic: The Gathering deck. When a card is playable in it, it doesn't mean it's a tournament playable card. It means it's playable in whatever crazy fantasy world that Dredge operates in.
I think it would be awesome if wizards tried to shut down all magic related web sites. It's their legal right, afterall!
/sarcasam
They are demanding that the names of all magic cards be removed from their website.
The names of magic cards.
It's ****ing ridiculous. Hasbro/WOTC is waging war against their freaking players. They have been pulling the legal bully thing too long. You don't bite the hand that feeds you, and I hope that, somehow, all this legal bullying ends up backfiring in their faces.
"Biting the hand that feeds you"... That's one way to look at it I guess.
Another way (probably WotC's way) to look at it is: "Cutting off the hand the steals from you.".
Unless those 'hands that feed them' are feeding WotC in some other way, they're not feeding WotC at all, and are in fact, likely taking away potential revenue from WotC.
None of us have the actual numbers, so I certainly can't say that they know what they're doing. No more than anyone else who posts here can, anyway. And if you look at it from each point of view, both sides make sense.
From the players, it's removing a fun outlet and a way to practice.
From the WotC's, it's removing competition that's leeching off of their work and not directly helping them.
Perspective makes all the difference.
I'm going to add a little to my point, since it seems like I'm just a WotC sympathizer whereas I'm really just trying to get across how a decision like this is made by a corp like this.
Somewhere, way up in the Ivory Towers of WotC they realized that magic-league is creating competition to MTGO and that they're getting no money from it. It went to the bean counters who ran some numbers and decided that the amount of lost revenue from the people who would quit MTG Paper over this is more than the loss of revenue that giving people a free online alternative to MTGO has caused. They put a quarter into the Lawyer-o-matic and turned the knob and out came the C&D order for this.
Yes, people will be mad.
Yes, some people will probably quit altogether.
I'm thinking that they'll get more revenue in the long run without a competitive outlet for online Magic though. This will disappear into the aether as the next set is released* and players will grumble, and grouse and complain.... but they'll move back into playing and paying as much as they can afford to do so.
*I'm guessing you've noticed that they do this on the precipice of a new set whenever they do something like this? You know why? Because as soon as we crack-addled chiba monkeys get our fix of new cards and new sets and new new new new stuff... we stop caring about the previous issue. Sad but true.
But why would they do this? Online play cannot replace actual play. This sounds like the rants of people claiming that the radio would die because of tv, newspapers shrivelling up because of the interweb. Bull! Are they making money? Not as far as I know!
Many newspapers are losing a lot of business. Smaller ones are shutting down.
It's ****ing ridiculous. Hasbro/WOTC is waging war against their freaking players. They have been pulling the legal bully thing too long. You don't bite the hand that feeds you, and I hope that, somehow, all this legal bullying ends up backfiring in their faces.
I love tirades like this.
They're so self righteous.
If Magic League were using MODO to run its activities and WotC sued them, then you'd have a decent argument that WotC is waging war against their players.
They're not though, and you don't have an argument that's anything more than rage.
Anyone who is using freeware to avoid giving WotC money, so as to be able to play the game that they have made available on-line, is not one of their customers.
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"Let us win, but if we cannot win, let us break a few heads"
I think the online "market" as such as divided in 2 - those who can afford to play mtgo and those who can't.
Remove the qualifier "online" and you have the truth about Magic. It's a zero-sum metagame. We knew in 2001 if we wanted to succeed, we needed to spend more time playtesting and reading, studying and reviewing matchups. MODO did three things. It gave its players access to anytime-anyplace playtesting. It automated the rules and procedures of the game (and in ways I think affected the way new mechanics and interactions are heading in the paper game as well). And it created an extra cost barrier for competitive play.
So now if we want to succeed, we need to spend a LOT more time playtesting, studying, and reviewing matchups. MODO lets us do that, for an additional price: that we maintain a collection online, in addition to our paper collection. What's more, people who usually win get to play for less, or for free, while the rest of us continue to give WOTC money to lose. Eventually we will either run out of money, or run out of money. No money, no Magic.
So playtesting and deckbuilding and gaining experience from local events has doubled in price, and the pace of change in the metagame has sped up, decks morphing into unrecognizable other decks over the course of hours to days, rather than the weeks to months of prior rotations. The card values fluctuate more dramatically and rapidly as a result. It takes serious, serious money or serious, serious skills to keep up with all this. The players who manage to flourish in this system are then MUCH better prepared to take home the prizes in paper-Magic-land. All the top 8 players of all the premier paper events from last year? All use MODO. I'll bet the top 4 players in your own local FNM, wherever that may be, are all regular MODO users. MODO is the entry level requirement for competitive play. And it has its own payouts, its own pro circuit. So pros will use it.
MWS and Apprentice don't have these. Their communities are made up of much the same people as the kitchen table - the guys who buy a pack or two at a time on Payday, not a case with every release. So even if you were bent on playtesting your rogue creation, the opponent quality on MWS wouldn't come close to that on MODO. The rules? You and your opponent observe them by gentlemen's agreement, they aren't encoded or enforced by the game software. So if you don't know the rules pertaining to a complicated card interaction, you make errors and things that could get you penalties in paper-Magic-land. Again, the answer is MODO, but it costs money.
WOTC attacking MWS and Apprentice indirectly through Magic-League are just dealing a death-blow to semicompetitive and casual Magic. They are making it clear that, in order to compete at any but the most informal level, you need to buy the right to playtest if you want to do it online. Just as proxies are not allowed in sanctioned tournaments, proxy-software is not allowed for playtesting.
I don't have an argument other than rage? Keep on running with those assumptions.
My argument is that Wizards/Hasbro are being legal bullies in an excessive way.
I don't even use either of these programs, nor the site in question; I have no personal interest in this. I simply believe that wizards are being too heavy handed, and it's pathetic.
They could have simply demanded that the offending programs be removed, but they are forcing the website, that has nothing to do with the development of these programs, to remove all names of magic the gathering cards from their website.
It may be somewhat a sophistry, but wizards could effectively shut down every magic website if they wanted to, and according to some people, they would be justified in doing so.
It's legal bullying, and it's excessive.
Is it in their right? Sure! But it is excessive and unnecessary.
I love tirades like this.
Anyone who is using freeware to avoid giving WotC money, so as to be able to play the game that they have made available on-line, is not one of their customers.
But many of them are Wizards' customers. I use to play paper Magic and did all of my testing using Apprentice and MWS prior to tournaments. So yes I was a Wizards' customer, and if I still did my Magic work this way I would be under attack from them. I'd consider whether it was worth it to continue to play the game when I couldn't remain competitive without the chance to test.
I think the real anger comes from Wizards trying to shut out these players and shunt them into MTGO to get the second bite at their money. "Want to test but can't get to a regular play group? I'm gonna need a second payment."
I also question the sincerity of Wizards' legal arguments. You'll notice the repeated use of MAGIC: THE GATHERING during the letter because that phrase is the only set of words Wizards has a copyright on. This is eerily similar to the D&D fiasco during the 80's when they tried to cutoff use of the word "Ranger." That didn't pass the laugh test at the court house. I've got to think more about whether the rest of Wizards' claims hold water, but I'll get to that after finals.
While technically their right, this is a really mean-spirited thing to do on Wizard's part. While removing any references to Magic: The Gathering is well within their rights, last I checked they didn't have the word "Magic" copyrighted, even within the context of trading card games (or else no other card game would be able to make reference to magic in any way, assuming my limited knowledge of copyright law is correct).
Unless they go after every single online dealer of cards they are being hypocritical, as all online dealers (at least the major ones) have both the card name and the card text when viewing the item. Some (*gasp*) even have pictures!
They don't give a crap about their copyrights, they only care about their bottom line. They are allowed to, but they shouldn't pretend they are doing anything else. Not to mention that this really won't make them that much money in the long run (especially if they had to take this to court).
The thing is, Magic dealers are buying. Of course they aren't going against them, but that doesn't make them hypocritical. WOTC is just protecting their bottom line, which may feel crappy because we like to freeload. However, it's perfectly legitimate and I can't believe that it's taken this long.
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A voice for Timmy.
Commander R Ashling, the Pilgrim Mono Red Wildfire Control GBW Karador, Ghost Chieftain Abzan Dredge Rock WBR Tariel, Reckoner of Souls Mardu Aggro-Reanimator Midrange
This is simple trademark protection letter. A company is required to enforce a trademark it owns; otherwise an undefended trademark could end up in the realm of words like Xerox, Chapstick, and SPAM (all previously trademarked yet not defended vigorously enough). Magic-League could come back as MtG-League and have no issues (WotC does not own the trademark on MtG; METALOGENIA in Spain does and they don't make card games).
The stuff about Apprentice and MWS are little tougher. Linking to software is somewhat in a legal gray area; it hasn't really been tested too well in court. Apprentice should be fine since it was previously endorsed by WotC years ago; MWS has always been on WotC's hit list. Magic-League could simply remove the links to these programs and satisfy the letter.
Note that nowhere does the letter say that WotC objects to Magic-League's purpose of connecting people together for some purpose. WotC just objects to the unauthorized use of their trademarks and linking to software that competes with MTGO.
The major problem here is the corporate myth that doing something is always better than doing nothing. The economic landscape is obviously a disaster. The fact of the matter is that spoilers have been around for years, magic-league has been around for years, but only now when profits are in the toilet do they feel the need to pick on people who have nothing to do with their bottomline.
What they fail to realize is that no action is sometimes better than an irrational moronic decision to piss off the people who buy their products. See also: the RIAA. Lawsuits and intimidation only makes people want to not buy out of spite if nothing else.
Terrific actions to take in light of this:
-buy from very localized dealers who happen to have random singles based on what people bring in vs. starcity type dealers who open mass amounts of wizards product to drive their singles market.
-organize community cardpools so that everyone is buying less, but everyone still gets to play a competitive wide variety of decks.
-get your information from 3rd party magic media vs. checking wizards.com to help sink some of their web traffic.
I love the game. I'm not going to be dramatic and outraged and say I'm quitting. But they're surely not getting half the money they usually get from me in light of their idiotic panic policies.
I test my decks and create my decks on MWS, but i play the draft on friday nights.
That = money to WotC pocket. Where i play there are about 12 - 20 players that night thats a good haul in my book for wizards. I can sleep at night using MWS for testing. I'm not going to buy box after box or lose my shirt trading to get cards!
Most of my play group feels the same. I understand their point but i agree its excessive the degree of legal action
Well, eventually, WOTC would like to see people do just that. An acceptable second alternative is that people abandon paper Magic altogether. They probably would lose a lot of business if they discontinued paper Magic, because of all the primarily social players out there, some of them with substantial money to spend. This demographic is already moribund because of the increasing complexity of the card interactions on average, thanks to MODO, and the dwindling supply of people who own paper cards and have the money to participate in organized play.
At any rate, I can see where they might try to increase the ratio of pro-level events that are held entirely online. Some day they may even hold all pro-level events online, including PTQs, and leave FNM and local events for the brick and mortar community to support. The thought behind this is that procedural irregularities are theoretically less common in MODO than they are in paper Magic (barring a crash) and easier for player to get to (their computer vs. a venue hundreds of miles away). This will Balkanize the community even further. MWS and Apprentice serve mostly as a way to level the playing field for players with low incomes and modest ambitions.
I'm not questioning the right of WOTC to harass Magic-League for using its name and product names to push a product not affiliated or authorized by WOTC. That's just the way the legal stuff works. I'm certainly questioning their ethical and moral judgment and their vision for the long-term future of the game, beyond the current recession and current business model.
What Nis said matches with my knowledge of intellectual property law (which is admittedly small, a Mass Communication Law class required for my journalism degree.)
If Wizards becomes aware of violations of their IP and deliberately decide not to pursue legal action, they have a weaker case should they try to pursue action against someone else later on.
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I am no longer on MTGS staff, so please don't contact me asking me to do staff things. :|
The thing about killing Magic-League to me is that it feels like a prelude to killing MWS and Apprentice. Without the free game platforms, my amount of play in magic will drop off dramatically. I dont play a dozen decks a week in paper magic, the cost of 4 of each painland, 4 of each filter, 4 of each walker is so far beyond my capacity that it isn't even funny. You kill the free platforms, and the only play I'll do most weeks is casual and FNM. My product consumption is driven by tuning and developing decks for free, and essentailly betaing them before I buy the cards. Let us mess around for free WotC, charging us for playtesting is obscene, one of the things we pay for by playing your product on a regular basis is the idea of deckbuilding. Don't make deckbuilding theory something I have to pay for, I'll just quit the tourney circuit and play a multiplayer, that format has no need for new cards at all.
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Author of Spinning the Top, help for veterans and newbies alike looking to break into the multiplayer environment.
The only safe lotus variant: White Lotus0
Artifact
Sacrifice White Lotus, Q: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool. Answering a simple puzzle to unleash legendary power
I just think if MTGO was really that great (which it isn't) it could easily brush off the competition from a free program like MWS and sites like www.magic-league.com supporting it. Somehow this was a long way coming though and I guess if they are infringing copyright laws WotC has every right to enforce it.
I just kind of wish they would make their Online product better instead of shutting everything else down. Then again I think I'll rather stick to a good MMO and play Magic IRL.
Sounds quite amusing.
[GTC] Gatecrash Patch for MWS (249/249)
燃える時計秘密めく花の香り
www.pokemoncrossroads.com
A word in relation to a specific thing or industry IS protected, and they must continue to protect it (showing due diligence and all that).
And, strangely, boilerplate doesn't protect you when it can be argued that the entire nature of the site counteracts it. They ARE using 'Magic' as a name of the game to get people to the site, or else why have it?
And profit has nothing to do with bad faith intent. Not being used for profit doesn't protect much of anything.
Compare this situation to the following:
A group of players starts to organize a series of worldwide events where you just have to bring printouts of the Magic cards to play. They call it Magic-Free-Games, and it starts to take off and gather a lot of players. These players, and these events, don't generate any direct revenue at WotC.*
If WotC asked them to C&D, would their actions seem out of place in that context? I can't imagine that most people would be surprised if they did that. That's the equivalent to what is happening here.
Magic Online is far from perfect, in fact, it has a lot of warts. I should know, I've suffered through a great many of them over the years.
MTGO has more options now than it ever did for 'budget' players. Pauper, PRE's, etc all keep the costs down to a minimum and will cost you less than a subscription fee likely would.
I'm not at all surprised that WotC is cracking down on people using thier work for free. Especially given the times being as they are. This is going to suck for the players who used MWS/Apprentice in Magic-League, as I'm guessing most of them won't be able to or will choose not to transition into MTGO in the same way they were playing before.
*I'm guessing that some players play more paper magic because they can test for free on MWS/Apprentice. But I also imagine that for every one that does there are more that use it as a free way to play magic without spending any money at all and even replace buying _any_ product with playing for free. I'm also guessing that WotC has more details about buying habits of the players as a whole than we do.
MTGO Writer and Epic Time-Waster.
If you have questions about MTGO PM me, I'm all up ons, as it were.
Check out my articles on http://puremtgo.com/ I'm the nerd you see there... wait, not that one. Nope, not that one either... yeah. That one.
Hopefully they leave MWS and Apprentice alone. I don't know what I would do if they decided to try and shut those down.
(Siggy adapted, DarkHunter1357 (deviantART))
/sarcasam
They are demanding that the names of all magic cards be removed from their website.
The names of magic cards.
It's ****ing ridiculous. Hasbro/WOTC is waging war against their freaking players. They have been pulling the legal bully thing too long. You don't bite the hand that feeds you, and I hope that, somehow, all this legal bullying ends up backfiring in their faces.
Modern:
Something new every week
Legacy:
Something new everyweek
"Biting the hand that feeds you"... That's one way to look at it I guess.
Another way (probably WotC's way) to look at it is: "Cutting off the hand the steals from you.".
Unless those 'hands that feed them' are feeding WotC in some other way, they're not feeding WotC at all, and are in fact, likely taking away potential revenue from WotC.
None of us have the actual numbers, so I certainly can't say that they know what they're doing. No more than anyone else who posts here can, anyway. And if you look at it from each point of view, both sides make sense.
From the players, it's removing a fun outlet and a way to practice.
From the WotC's, it's removing competition that's leeching off of their work and not directly helping them.
Perspective makes all the difference.
I'm going to add a little to my point, since it seems like I'm just a WotC sympathizer whereas I'm really just trying to get across how a decision like this is made by a corp like this.
Somewhere, way up in the Ivory Towers of WotC they realized that magic-league is creating competition to MTGO and that they're getting no money from it. It went to the bean counters who ran some numbers and decided that the amount of lost revenue from the people who would quit MTG Paper over this is more than the loss of revenue that giving people a free online alternative to MTGO has caused. They put a quarter into the Lawyer-o-matic and turned the knob and out came the C&D order for this.
Yes, people will be mad.
Yes, some people will probably quit altogether.
I'm thinking that they'll get more revenue in the long run without a competitive outlet for online Magic though. This will disappear into the aether as the next set is released* and players will grumble, and grouse and complain.... but they'll move back into playing and paying as much as they can afford to do so.
*I'm guessing you've noticed that they do this on the precipice of a new set whenever they do something like this? You know why? Because as soon as we crack-addled chiba monkeys get our fix of new cards and new sets and new new new new stuff... we stop caring about the previous issue. Sad but true.
MTGO Writer and Epic Time-Waster.
If you have questions about MTGO PM me, I'm all up ons, as it were.
Check out my articles on http://puremtgo.com/ I'm the nerd you see there... wait, not that one. Nope, not that one either... yeah. That one.
Many newspapers are losing a lot of business. Smaller ones are shutting down.
I love tirades like this.
They're so self righteous.
If Magic League were using MODO to run its activities and WotC sued them, then you'd have a decent argument that WotC is waging war against their players.
They're not though, and you don't have an argument that's anything more than rage.
Anyone who is using freeware to avoid giving WotC money, so as to be able to play the game that they have made available on-line, is not one of their customers.
Remove the qualifier "online" and you have the truth about Magic. It's a zero-sum metagame. We knew in 2001 if we wanted to succeed, we needed to spend more time playtesting and reading, studying and reviewing matchups. MODO did three things. It gave its players access to anytime-anyplace playtesting. It automated the rules and procedures of the game (and in ways I think affected the way new mechanics and interactions are heading in the paper game as well). And it created an extra cost barrier for competitive play.
So now if we want to succeed, we need to spend a LOT more time playtesting, studying, and reviewing matchups. MODO lets us do that, for an additional price: that we maintain a collection online, in addition to our paper collection. What's more, people who usually win get to play for less, or for free, while the rest of us continue to give WOTC money to lose. Eventually we will either run out of money, or run out of money. No money, no Magic.
So playtesting and deckbuilding and gaining experience from local events has doubled in price, and the pace of change in the metagame has sped up, decks morphing into unrecognizable other decks over the course of hours to days, rather than the weeks to months of prior rotations. The card values fluctuate more dramatically and rapidly as a result. It takes serious, serious money or serious, serious skills to keep up with all this. The players who manage to flourish in this system are then MUCH better prepared to take home the prizes in paper-Magic-land. All the top 8 players of all the premier paper events from last year? All use MODO. I'll bet the top 4 players in your own local FNM, wherever that may be, are all regular MODO users. MODO is the entry level requirement for competitive play. And it has its own payouts, its own pro circuit. So pros will use it.
MWS and Apprentice don't have these. Their communities are made up of much the same people as the kitchen table - the guys who buy a pack or two at a time on Payday, not a case with every release. So even if you were bent on playtesting your rogue creation, the opponent quality on MWS wouldn't come close to that on MODO. The rules? You and your opponent observe them by gentlemen's agreement, they aren't encoded or enforced by the game software. So if you don't know the rules pertaining to a complicated card interaction, you make errors and things that could get you penalties in paper-Magic-land. Again, the answer is MODO, but it costs money.
WOTC attacking MWS and Apprentice indirectly through Magic-League are just dealing a death-blow to semicompetitive and casual Magic. They are making it clear that, in order to compete at any but the most informal level, you need to buy the right to playtest if you want to do it online. Just as proxies are not allowed in sanctioned tournaments, proxy-software is not allowed for playtesting.
My argument is that Wizards/Hasbro are being legal bullies in an excessive way.
I don't even use either of these programs, nor the site in question; I have no personal interest in this. I simply believe that wizards are being too heavy handed, and it's pathetic.
They could have simply demanded that the offending programs be removed, but they are forcing the website, that has nothing to do with the development of these programs, to remove all names of magic the gathering cards from their website.
It may be somewhat a sophistry, but wizards could effectively shut down every magic website if they wanted to, and according to some people, they would be justified in doing so.
It's legal bullying, and it's excessive.
Is it in their right? Sure! But it is excessive and unnecessary.
Edit: and I am righteous. Love it.
But many of them are Wizards' customers. I use to play paper Magic and did all of my testing using Apprentice and MWS prior to tournaments. So yes I was a Wizards' customer, and if I still did my Magic work this way I would be under attack from them. I'd consider whether it was worth it to continue to play the game when I couldn't remain competitive without the chance to test.
I think the real anger comes from Wizards trying to shut out these players and shunt them into MTGO to get the second bite at their money. "Want to test but can't get to a regular play group? I'm gonna need a second payment."
I also question the sincerity of Wizards' legal arguments. You'll notice the repeated use of MAGIC: THE GATHERING during the letter because that phrase is the only set of words Wizards has a copyright on. This is eerily similar to the D&D fiasco during the 80's when they tried to cutoff use of the word "Ranger." That didn't pass the laugh test at the court house. I've got to think more about whether the rest of Wizards' claims hold water, but I'll get to that after finals.
Unless they go after every single online dealer of cards they are being hypocritical, as all online dealers (at least the major ones) have both the card name and the card text when viewing the item. Some (*gasp*) even have pictures!
They don't give a crap about their copyrights, they only care about their bottom line. They are allowed to, but they shouldn't pretend they are doing anything else. Not to mention that this really won't make them that much money in the long run (especially if they had to take this to court).
Corporate scare tactics make me sick.
Commander
R Ashling, the Pilgrim Mono Red Wildfire Control
GBW Karador, Ghost Chieftain Abzan Dredge Rock
WBR Tariel, Reckoner of Souls Mardu Aggro-Reanimator Midrange
This is simple trademark protection letter. A company is required to enforce a trademark it owns; otherwise an undefended trademark could end up in the realm of words like Xerox, Chapstick, and SPAM (all previously trademarked yet not defended vigorously enough). Magic-League could come back as MtG-League and have no issues (WotC does not own the trademark on MtG; METALOGENIA in Spain does and they don't make card games).
The stuff about Apprentice and MWS are little tougher. Linking to software is somewhat in a legal gray area; it hasn't really been tested too well in court. Apprentice should be fine since it was previously endorsed by WotC years ago; MWS has always been on WotC's hit list. Magic-League could simply remove the links to these programs and satisfy the letter.
Note that nowhere does the letter say that WotC objects to Magic-League's purpose of connecting people together for some purpose. WotC just objects to the unauthorized use of their trademarks and linking to software that competes with MTGO.
[card=Jace Beleren]Jace[/card] = Jace
Magic CompRules
Scry Rollover Popups for Google Chrome
The first rule of Cursecatcher is, You do not talk about Cursecatcher.
What they fail to realize is that no action is sometimes better than an irrational moronic decision to piss off the people who buy their products. See also: the RIAA. Lawsuits and intimidation only makes people want to not buy out of spite if nothing else.
Terrific actions to take in light of this:
-buy from very localized dealers who happen to have random singles based on what people bring in vs. starcity type dealers who open mass amounts of wizards product to drive their singles market.
-organize community cardpools so that everyone is buying less, but everyone still gets to play a competitive wide variety of decks.
-get your information from 3rd party magic media vs. checking wizards.com to help sink some of their web traffic.
I love the game. I'm not going to be dramatic and outraged and say I'm quitting. But they're surely not getting half the money they usually get from me in light of their idiotic panic policies.
That = money to WotC pocket. Where i play there are about 12 - 20 players that night thats a good haul in my book for wizards. I can sleep at night using MWS for testing. I'm not going to buy box after box or lose my shirt trading to get cards!
Most of my play group feels the same. I understand their point but i agree its excessive the degree of legal action
At any rate, I can see where they might try to increase the ratio of pro-level events that are held entirely online. Some day they may even hold all pro-level events online, including PTQs, and leave FNM and local events for the brick and mortar community to support. The thought behind this is that procedural irregularities are theoretically less common in MODO than they are in paper Magic (barring a crash) and easier for player to get to (their computer vs. a venue hundreds of miles away). This will Balkanize the community even further. MWS and Apprentice serve mostly as a way to level the playing field for players with low incomes and modest ambitions.
I'm not questioning the right of WOTC to harass Magic-League for using its name and product names to push a product not affiliated or authorized by WOTC. That's just the way the legal stuff works. I'm certainly questioning their ethical and moral judgment and their vision for the long-term future of the game, beyond the current recession and current business model.
If Wizards becomes aware of violations of their IP and deliberately decide not to pursue legal action, they have a weaker case should they try to pursue action against someone else later on.
The only safe lotus variant:
White Lotus 0
Artifact
Sacrifice White Lotus, Q: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.
Answering a simple puzzle to unleash legendary power
Trust in the Savior. Through him we are protected. We follow his works. He will lead us to perfection.