You are absolutely incorrect, and you have exposed that you blatantly know absolutely nothing about writing software.Originally Posted by Captiosus
Addons are LUA script, the only thing they *require* is a LUA interpreter, not WoW.exe specifically. It is perfectly possible to run a WoW addon in a LUA sandbox. Blizzard does not provide the LUA scripting language, they provide a LUA interpreter. Very, very big difference. As for the WoW API... copyright does not apply to API function calls. The actual code that those calls execute are indeed copyright protected, but we can't see that code anyway, let alone modify it. Now, if Blizzard had made the API available through an SDK that had a very restrictive license, they'd have a case about not being allowed to use commerical software in conjunction with their API. But they didn't. The API is freely available with absolutely no licensing requirement needed.
Addons are unquestionably original works. In order to be considered a derivative work under Title 17, the author would have to incorporate Blizzard copyrighted assets, such as the lua code they use for their own addons or blizzard art. If an author did that and tried to charge money for it, then Blizzard has a very clear cut case for injunction and damages based on derived work. Otherwise, copyright belongs to the author. Period.