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Post by
127599
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Post by
4466
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Post by
pelf
I'd be very wary of doing that without consent. Even if it's some license that permits it, if you do that, and the author makes an update that fixes a bug, bad things can happen if you aren't personally watching the actual source to update your posting for the entire life of the addon.
That's one of the problems that authors had with Wowmatrix -- they would mirror an addon, the author would update but Wowmatrix didn't get the update. Then, people would tell the author his addon was broken because they were using Wowmatrix and getting an out-of-date version because the author wasn't pushing updates to Wowmatrix. That's just one possibility.
Post by
409946
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Wanderingfox
From a more social standpoint, I wouldn't do it. A lot of authors consider it disrespectful to reupload their works on sights they specifically
don't
upload on. If they wanted it on a particular site, it'd be there. And more importantly anyone updating from the unofficial place isn't guaranteed to get the newest version of the addon. This usually causes a lot of issues and sometimes helps to wrongfully defile an author's name -- when people start cursing out Mr X because his addon that they got on WoWi is broken beyond use.
Some authors are EXTREMELY sensitive to stuff like this, to the point of issuing legal cease and desist letters to sites that hosted their addons without permission (here's looking at you WoWMatrix).
Post by
409946
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Post by
RedwoodElf
Well since Blizzard has essentially declared that any and all addons for WOW are effectively part of WOW itself, and belong to them (Thus their "nobody is allowed to charge for an addon" policy) it gets even weirder...
I'd still fall on the "Ask the author to post their addon on WOWInterface and Curse themselves...something along the lines of "Great addon! You know, It'd get more exposure if it were available on WOWI and Curse too!"
Post by
409946
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
RedwoodElf
Well since Blizzard has essentially declared that any and all addons for WOW are effectively part of WOW itself, and belong to them
That's not what the policy states, nor do they have any legal right to do so. Addons are fully the intellectual property of the creator. Blizzard has no legal right to impose limitations of any sorts on addon authors nor claim rights over addons. The addon policy can only be theoretically enforced by banning authors or by blacklisting certain addons from running. From a legal standpoint (among other standpoints), the addon policy is pure bull-%^&*.
It may not state it explicitly, but that's the clear implication.
Post by
409946
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Post by
Wanderingfox
I'm fairly sure that the UI policy falls under the same licensing scheme that something like the half-life or unreal engine uses. That is to say that it's free to make anything you want, but you cannot charge people for it without specifically obtaining a right to use the engine (in this case WoW itself). As Blizzard has obviously shown that they have no intentions of issuing anything of the sort, all addons MUST be free of charge, otherwise they violate the licensing agreement that everyone agrees to every time you patch the game. By agreeing to the ToU, you've signed over your rights to anything you create to Blizzard.
In other words, since the addon cannot exist without wow, it's a derivative work, and thus you cannot make money off it without the permission of the owner of the original work (ie. Blizzard). At least that's what my fairly rudimentary understanding of the copyright system seems to be telling me.
The sections of the ToU that I'm referencing:
Section 1:Subject to your agreement to and continuing compliance with the Terms of Use agreement, you may use the Service
solely for your own non-commercial entertainment purposes
by accessing it with an authorized, unmodified Game Client. You may not use the Service for any other purpose, or in connection with any other software.
Section 4:All rights and title in and to the Service (including without limitation any user accounts, titles,
computer code
, themes, objects, characters, character names, stories, dialogue, catch phrases, locations, concepts, artwork, animations, sounds, musical compositions, audio-visual effects, methods of operation, moral rights, any related documentation,
"applets" incorporated into the Game Client
, transcripts of the chat rooms, character profile information, recordings of games played using the Game Client, and the Game Client and server software) are
owned by Blizzard or its licensors
. The Game and the Service are protected by United States and international laws, and may contain certain licensed materials in which Blizzard's licensors may enforce their rights in the event of any violation of this Agreement.
With all of that said, however, it seems to be a very gray area, and I'm reasonably sure that it was added solely to prevent things like carbonite and other addons that were explicitly profiting off of the game. There's nothing in the ToU or the addon UI policy that prevents donations (outside of the explicit solicitations of donations, but again that's probably there to stop circumvention of the policy).
Post by
409946
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Wanderingfox
Like I said, I'm not trying to pretend that I have anything more than a basic understanding of the copyright system. With that said, there really hasn't been a huge impact on addons due to the new policy. The few that were actual issues (carbonite's obfuscation causing the client to slow to a crawl on loads being one) were resolved, and Blizzard does not seem to be too pressed to deal with all of the 'fence' cases.
I really think that they were just trying to get some written policy in place so that if an addon comes along that is a serious threat to the game, they can just ban people for it without having to try and justify it.
Post by
409946
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Post by
4466
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Wanderingfox
By solicit donations they are likely referring to what carbonite did after 30 days of use (it used to pop up a dialog demanding that you go to their website and donate to redownload the addon or it would stop functioning).
Throwing in a /addon about that spits back something like "author: me, donate: somewebsite.com" is not soliciting donations, the user has to go looking for it.
Post by
127599
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Post by
RedwoodElf
How did this get from me wanting to upload it somewhere else to soliciting?
Via a somewhat bizzare and circular route, I believe...
discussions of Intellectual Property within an MMO commonly gravitate towards arguments about who actually "owns" addons, since Blizzard has basically said that all addons must be open-source.
In any case, I made the best recommendation on your original question I believe.
Contact the Addon author and suggest that he upload it to some more sites, and ask for permission to do so yourself if he doesn't have the time.
Post by
352872
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Post by
4466
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