New UI Add-On Development Policy

[Kelticfox]

2) Add-on code must be completely visible.
The programming code of an add-on must in no way be hidden or obfuscated, and must be freely accessible to and viewable by the general public.

I'm wondering if this is so Blizzard can incorperate any code they like into WoW along the lines of "Oh I like that! Lets put that in!".

An example I can see is along the lines of Outfitter and the New Duel Spec changing gear automagically....


Reminds me of the LoLCat's "I STE4LZ JOOR CODEZ!".......

[jugarnjax]

I wish you smart people would knock some sense into the retards posting on the wow boards about this. They can't get it through their heads that most of the new TOU is bad, but the new rule specifying "Add-ons must be free of charge" is completely unenforceable in a court of law.

[Stingray]

There are definitely ways they could make it enforceable - perhaps they have plans for the future so only addons from Blizzard-approved authors can run at all? Something along the lines of the way Microsoft/Sony ensure that only validly licensed games run on their consoles, or the way that Windows tells you when a new driver or program you're installing isn't properly "signed". WoW could simply refuse to run anything that isn't approved. If anyone circumvented it, they could go after them in the same way they did Glider.

[bbr]

I wish you smart people would knock some sense into the retards posting on the wow boards about this. They can't get it through their heads that most of the new TOU is bad, but the new rule specifying "Add-ons must be free of charge" is completely unenforceable in a court of law.

No, but you accepted the TOU, and thus blizzard will simply disable any addon that violates that TOU.
Thus, you'd be paying for a non functional addon.

[Seink]

The people here who think Blizzard has some rights to addon code must also think that Microsoft has some right to the code of any program that runs under Windows? Or that Sony has some claim over the code of any game that runs on the PS3? No.

Ummm, No.

Running games or software doesn't affect how much you pay for your ps3 or windows. Running an addon, however, affects the performance of the game which is entirely what blizzard charges you on.Windows & PS3 is designed so that 3rd party programs & games could run on it. Wow is designed so you can play one of the 16 races and 8 class, not so you can run an addon.

Furthermore, Windows & PS3 is doing business by selling you their product.Their product which you purchase is final. Whatever you do to the product has nothing to do with them since you paid them already.

Blizz (online portion) is selling you a service. They don't gain from an addon that makes your wow experience better. (Think about it. Who would quit a game for one fking addon?) Furthermore, benefiting monetarily through the use of blizz's service without the consent of the the service provider is definitely illegal. Your addon runs on the service of blizz(Wow), therefore you are using their service.

[Naargaar]

Cite the legal premise they would have for upholding either of those in an actual court or you're full of shit.

I suggest you read up on the Glider ruling

Blizzard argued, and Judge Campbell agreed, that when users violated the World of Warcraft EULA, they no longer had a license to play the game and were therefore guilty of copyright infringement. As Siy noted in a blog post last year, Blizzard's theory, if taken literally, would mean that violating any of the rules in the EULA and Terms of Service, such as choosing a screen name that didn't meet Blizzard's guidelines, would be an act of copyright infringement

taken from:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...-troubling.ars

[Quest]

I wish you smart people would knock some sense into the retards posting on the wow boards about this. They can't get it through their heads that most of the new TOU is bad, but the new rule specifying "Add-ons must be free of charge" is completely unenforceable in a court of law.

Preach some sense into these people. No matter what you feel about people trying to sell addons (the code THEY put time and energy into developing and is totally legal by actual laws) you need to look at the big picture people. Who the hell thinks they could actually uphold this in a court is delusional at best.

I for one hope to see more paid-for-addons. If you dont want to buy them, dont buy them. If you do, enjoy. Trying to screw with capitalism. Doesn't hurt their bottemline IN ANY WAY YOU CAN POSSIBLY COME UP WITH.

At least their case with Glider could be argued. This is just retarded.

[Seink]

This is what happends when Blizzard wins the case with Glider. They think they can stop people for chargeing for open source addons simply becuse its used in their game.

No matter how shitty the addon or what you think of people charging for it. FUCK BLIZZARDS mentality thinking they can control how people freely interact in a free market. Who the hell are they to tell anyone what they can do with addons BESIDES turning off functionality in their game where they have FULL RIGHT to do so.

Anyone else as pissed with the audacity?

Well Wow is indeed their game. Wow is their product. Its not human rights or freedom. The DO own wow. Whats your point?

[SimTex]

Wow many blizzard fan boys in this thread.

How many of you havn't whined or at least been irritated when you couldnt get your favorite addon updated after a major content patch because the addons sites were down. Consider how much bandwidth 11 million players potentially use. These rules basically tells all those site you can't charge shit for the service your provide or you risk legal action. (Not that I think Blizzard will ever win, and if that is the case the servers would just be moved to Rusland or another country with less strict rules.)

Secondly addons like carbonite, questhelper what ever, are not mandatory to play the game. If you like them pay for them, if blizzard don't like them, they can remove their abiliity to pull information from your quest log, and the addons would be gone (or had to rely on memory sniffing, which didn't work for glider), there is no reason to deny payment for addons just because blizzard don't like that kind of addons.

Allowing ingame adds for payment, ofc this should be allowed, the creator of the addon decides what he puts in his addon, and if he wants to have an oppotunity to earn something from making an adddon let him. (AGAIN YOUR ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO USE HIS ADDONS IF YOU DONT LIKE THE IDEA OF ADDS, hell you can even modify his code to remove it). Saying he can just put a paypal button on his site, is infeasible, because how many addons are actually downloaded from the authors own site. (Here I assume that these new rules are a result of that type of addons)

Finally blizzard made this addon system so people could make the game better, until now it has worked in their favour, and I seriously don't see any reason to enforce these new rules, I havn't encounter any problems with addons. Back in vanilla wow, there were addons that could do a little too much, and those were forced out by changes to the addon API. I also remember that blizzard changed how /who worked to get avoid performance bottlenecks caused by census. Also the API for pulling data from the auction house was changed when the popularity of Auctioneer increased. So if blizzard have a problem with quest helping addons, they should just fix thier API, and not try to force all addon developers and addon sites to obey a new set of rules.

And to people saying that this is good so that sites like curse can stop earning money on Wow. What do you think that sites like mmo-champion, wowhead or wowinsider is about. It's all about making money from wow, just because their service as it is now is free, doesnt mean that they don't try to earn something.

[jugarnjax]

No, but you accepted the TOU, and thus blizzard will simply disable any addon that violates that TOU.
Thus, you'd be paying for a non functional addon.

I have yet to pay for any addons. The TOU doesn't specify that I can't use paid-for addons. I support the right of the developers to sell their work. I don't support Blizzard's policy of controlling third party developer copyright (which is legally unenforceable). Besides that, how exactly would they disable addons? I could rename them, modify their hashes, rewrite them as my own. The only way to completely control the content of addons would be to disable all output functions in the API or require digital signatures/officially approved addons. Either way wouldn't go over well with the player base or the developers.

I suggest you read up on the Glider ruling
taken from:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...-troubling.ars

It is my personal belief that the judge that presided over that case was incompetent in the realm of technology. The fact that I could be infringing copyright simply by having data in my RAM and possibly copying or modifying it is ridiculous. Not to mention these new terms of use are in fact a violation of developer copyright if Blizzard attempts to enforce them, and they really only have standing if their intellectual property rights or trademark is being infringed upon.

[Naargaar]

jugarnjax you are probably right about the ruling, but surely as it stands it does give them the legal right to control third party developers?

[Quest]

No, but you accepted the TOU, and thus blizzard will simply disable any addon that violates that TOU.
Thus, you'd be paying for a non functional addon.

So?

Blizzard is fully withing their rites to disable addon functionality as they see fit

They are NOT, however, within any rites to tell people what they can or cannot do with addons. They can tell people what they want them to do, but they have zero legal backing. You cant be a company and just toss up a list of shit you want to happen and expect the law to back you.

What foolishness would that be?

[jugarnjax]

jugarnjax you are probably right about the ruling, but surely as it stands it does give them the legal right to control third party developers?

It does not, because they would be infringing on the developers' copyrights. They can control what happens within the realm of wow, not what happens outside it. As long as it doesn't infringe on trademark, IP, or Blizzard's copyright, and is not taking place within any of their other services.

[Quest]

I suggest you read up on the Glider ruling
taken from:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...-troubling.ars

Did you even read the actual ruling or did you just skim a arstechnica ruling? Has nothing to do with this.

CITE THE LEGAL PREMISE BLIZZARD COULD USE TO ENFORCE ANYTHING THEY HAVE LISTED ABOUT ADDON DEVELOPMENT.

[Quest]

Well Wow is indeed their game. Wow is their product. Its not human rights or freedom. The DO own wow. Whats your point?

They own the game, and the servers.

They do not own the addons nor the code, nor do they have legal premise to do anything about said addons due to them not infringing copywrite in any arguable way like Glider was.

Even if their was legal premise in the Glider case, it would be moot because the case is going to appeals court, so nothing is even final. Your half assed argument fails.

[Quest]

It does not, because they would be infringing on the developers' copyrights. They can control what happens within the realm of wow, not what happens outside it. As long as it doesn't infringe on trademark, IP, or Blizzard's copyright, and is not taking place within any of their other services.

This is exactly why Glider is in hot water (yet still undetermined) and things like addons cannot be enforced in any other way but Blizzard yanking code on their end to stop it.

You people that think they can take people to court over addons are amazingly out of touch with reality. Even trying to compare it somehow to Glider to further your 'arguments' shows a gaping hole in your understanding of the legal system and morality general. They would be laughed out of the court unless someone decided to counter sue them because they would be sure to get any sort of reimbursement for the hassle of Blizzard trying to take them to court.

This is just funny.
Its a good thing most addon authors have a logical mind and will laugh too.

[ZerOne]

Why don't you guys just make an addon which break the new rules, wait for the legal response and take it to court and try to win it, instead of acting like retards here.

[bbr]

They own the game, and the servers.

They do not own the addons nor the code, nor do they have legal premise to do anything about said addons due to them not infringing copywrite in any arguable way like Glider was.

Even if their was legal premise in the Glider case, it would be moot because the case is going to appeals court, so nothing is even final. Your half assed argument fails.

If they find software or addons which negatively impact the game, they can deny it the ability to function with the game.
Simple as that.

They allow users to make addons, but it's still their right to say whether those addons are allowed.

[Quest]

Why don't you guys just make an addon which break the new rules, wait for the legal response and take it to court and try to win it, instead of acting like retards here.

The only retards here are people actually thinking it would go to court. Their are already plenty of addons that violate their rules already. They arnt going away anytime soon.

[jugarnjax]

You people that think they can take people to court over addons are amazingly out of touch with reality. Even trying to compare it somehow to Glider to further your 'arguments' shows a gaping hole in your understanding of the legal system and morality general. They would be laughed out of the court unless someone decided to counter sue them because they would be sure to get any sort of reimbursement for the hassle of Blizzard trying to take them to court.

Given enough money, a defendant could win a case against Blizzard. However, I know that's not the reality. Most developers that are affected by this will receive a cease and desist notice and summarily stop charging for their addon or stop working on it altogether.

I haven't seen anybody in this thread that has yet insinuated that it would be possible to sue Blizzard over the new terms of use. Counter-suing is a viable option though, if the need arises.

Why don't you guys just make an addon which break the new rules, wait for the legal response and take it to court and try to win it, instead of acting like retards here.

I eagerly await this scenario.