Reddit user Khemist49 made a routine purchase on eBay. After receiving his “box of Blizzard stuff” in the mail, he made a pretty intense discovery. In this mythical box was a CD-R labeled with the phrases “ StarCraft ” and “Gold Master Source Code.” Drama ensued, leading to a very happy ending for Khemist49.
Khemist49 apparently struggled with what to do. Reddit being Reddit, he was torn between sharing the contents with the people, or taking the “moral high ground” by shipping the StarCraft source code disc off to Blizzard. After a few days, things took a swift turn when Blizzard’s legal department formally requested the return itself. Blizzard cited” intellectual property and trade secrets” as a reason to comply with the request.
After doing some legal research of his own, Khemist49 went ahead and did the right thing. In return for playing nice, Blizzard sent him a copy of Overwatch and $250 in credit for the Blizzard store. But that’s not all, oh no. Later on, Blizzard called the dude up on the phone and invited him to BlizzCon 2017, all expenses paid, along with a drink date with the team. Blizzard confirmed the story was true to Kotaku.
Frankly, it’s probably for the best the contents weren’t dispersed on the Internet. Considering StarCraft is still active and supported by Blizzard, the source code being out in the wild could have detrimental results, especially in the competitive scene.
Source: Kotaku