Former GM sues over baby murloc voice and song

A bit of an odd story has been floating around the WoW community today, revolving around former GM Amanda Lewis and her claims against Blizzard for alleged copyright infringement and voice misappropriation. Lewis claims that Blizzard, without permission, used her voice and songs in creating the baby murlocs, the adorable squeaky versions of the terrifying fish-man abominations. The complaint seeks damages for the misuse of her works.

While we don't have much more information other than the bit that's been reported, one of the key factors could be the clauses in her contract governing what happens to things employees create while on the job. Many companies have such invention policies in place to capitalize on employees' ideas and give them a place to go with said ideas to potentially make them real.

The interesting part of the complaint -- and for me, the most heartwarming, because you could tell a lawyer wrote it -- is that Lewis is claiming the baby murloc has become the de facto mascot of World of Warcraft. What do you guys think? When I think Warcraft, I think orcs, humans, war, yadda yadda -- not baby murlocs. If you're interested in a bit more of an in-depth analysis, look forward to my Lawbringer column next week.

Here's hoping for a quick settlement or summary judgmgrlrglrglrlglgglrrrllll.