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Is Korean Law Driving Policy at Blizzard?

US customers of game maker Blizzard are up in arms tonight as news of a new policy is set to require all posts on the Blizzard forum to use their Real ID system. That means that every post is accompanied by the real first and last name of the user. People are unsure what to make of this and I haven’t seen any communication from Blizzard stating why they are making this change.
I’m going to make the suggestion that South Korea’s Real Name System [is a driving force behind this decision]*. In 2009 South Korea’s government created a law that was meant to curb online defamation by insisting that all users who comment on sites with greater than 100,000 users per day must use their real name. The first US company to feel the effects of this law was Google. South Korea insisted the Youtube comments require all users to post with their real first and last name. Google got around this law by forbidding anyone with a South Korean IP address from posting to Youtube. Recently South Korea backed down and exempted Youtube from the Real Name system.
Given these facts it might not make sense why South Korea might enforce the Real Name system on Blizzard. My guess would be that the government is very aware of the immense popularity of Starcraft in South Korea. Some have joked it is their national sport. South Korea even has professional SC leagues with sponsors and packed arenas. I don’t think Blizzard can take the Google approach here and just ban South Korean users from posting to their forums. The South Korean market must make a ton of profits for Blizzard and unlike Google they don’t have revenue coming in from other sources.

* edit: fixed that sentence

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 at 12:13 AM and filed under law, Rights Online.
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Comments (11) to “Is Korean Law Driving Policy at Blizzard?”

  1. Battle Net 2.0 and Real ID - Page 22 - Fires of Heaven Guild Message Board wrote:

    [...] [...]

    Posted on 07-Jul-10 at 4:06 pm | Permalink

  2. RealID soon to apply to all forum posts, other upcoming official forum improvements - Page 9 - Elitist Jerks wrote:

    [...] [...]

    Posted on 07-Jul-10 at 7:59 pm | Permalink

  3. RealID linkspam. | azeroth .ME wrote:

    [...] Is Korean Law Driving Policy at Blizzard? In 2009 South Korea’s government created a law that was meant to curb online defamation by insisting that all users who comment on sites with greater than 100,000 users per day must use their real name. The first US company to feel the effects of this law was Google. South Korea insisted the Youtube comments require all users to post with their real first and last name. Google got around this law by forbidding anyone with a South Korean IP address from posting to Youtube. Recently South Korea backed down and exempted Youtube from the Real Name system. [...]

    Posted on 08-Jul-10 at 1:23 am | Permalink

  4. Is Korean Law Behind Blizzard's "Real Name" Policy? | Xbox Centre wrote:

    [...] Is Korean Law Driving Policy at Blizzard? [Zeroday] [...]

    Posted on 08-Jul-10 at 4:36 am | Permalink

  5. Is Korean Law The Influence For Blizzard's "Real Name" Policy? | Xbox Centre wrote:

    [...] Is Korean Law Driving Policy at Blizzard? [Zeroday] [...]

    Posted on 08-Jul-10 at 4:41 am | Permalink

  6. South Korea May Be The Driving Force Behind Real ID for Battle.Net | G.A.M.E.S. wrote:

    [...] Law student Oliver Day put forward an interesting reason for the recent change on battle.net requiring you to use your [...]

    Posted on 08-Jul-10 at 10:32 am | Permalink

  7. Digital Society » Blog Archive » Is World of Warcraft Headed Into Privacy Troubles? wrote:

    [...] Real Name System in 2009 to attempt to crack down on online disparagement.  Blogger Zeroday at the Harvard Law Blog points out that the South Korean law states that, “all users who comment on sites with [...]

    Posted on 08-Jul-10 at 12:49 pm | Permalink

  8. Is Korean Law The Influence For Blizzard’s “Real Name” Policy? | Kotaku Australia wrote:

    [...] Is Korean Law Driving Policy at Blizzard? [Zeroday] Tagged:koreal.a.w.legalworld of warcraftwow [...]

    Posted on 08-Jul-10 at 4:26 pm | Permalink

  9. Blog-O-Steria: Just a Few Dozen Reasons… » Channel Massive - Blog and Weekly Podcast on New MMOs, Other Cool Video Games and Glorious Geekery wrote:

    [...] http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2010/07/how-to-opt-out-of-realid.html http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/zeroday/2010/07/07/is-korean-law-driving-policy-at-blizzard/ http://www.wow.com/2010/07/06/blizzards-responses-on-the-real-id-situation/ Posted in Blizzard, [...]

    Posted on 08-Jul-10 at 8:08 pm | Permalink

  10. Blizzard’s Real ID Problem: Pursuing Profits, Not Trolls | Video Game Marketing, Demographics, Research & Analysis from Set on Stun wrote:

    [...] has a law that any forum with over 100,000 users needs to have them post their real identities. Zeroday, a law blog from Harvard speculates that Korean law may be dictating the policies at Activision/ [...]

    Posted on 08-Jul-10 at 8:30 pm | Permalink

  11. NickRBrown | Blog | Is World of Warcraft Headed Into Privacy Troubles? | Updated: Blizzard Balks wrote:

    [...] Real Name System in 2009 to attempt to crack down on online disparagement.  Blogger Zeroday at the Harvard Law Blog points out that the South Korean law states that, “all users who comment on sites with greater [...]

    Posted on 22-Jun-11 at 1:05 am | Permalink

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