Originally Posted by Arabeth
That a piece of software is 'free to use' does not mean that the person using it for free has the right to its distribution, moreover if they do not attribute it to the original author and even worse, as has happened, they imply that it was them who wrote it!
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It's not as bad as you describe it here. They never imply that they wrote the Addons and the first entry from their FAQ reads:
Q. What is WowMatrix?
A. WowMatrix helps you download, install and update World of Warcraft AddOns. You can choose from over 1,500+ available WoW AddOns created by your favorite AddOn authors from all over the world.
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And, as someone mentioned already, if you open up the information about the Addon in WoWMatrix, the author is now displayed. I wish they would also show a link to the Addon-Page or the author's Portal and I will also send them an email regarding this (of course you must also know that many wowace Addons don't have such an weblink so far).
The re-distribution part is a little bit tricky. I'm pretty sure the Addon authors didn't allow my Firefox-Browser to download (aka re-distribute?) their Addon. The only difference is that by pressing the 'Download'-Button in WoWInterface you are making a deal with WoWInterface, whilst in WoWMatrix when you press the 'Update All' Button you don't (of course you can argue you implicitly do agree to the policies of all involved Addon-Download-Sites at once).
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WoWMatrix's 'business model' is not particularly robust. If the sites it relies on to supply the addons themselves rely on ad revenue to survive and WoWMatrix is essentially taking that revenue away from them, then those sites may (will) fold. If they all do that, WoWMatrix folds as it has nowhere to source its addons. And of course Meldas (for example) will have stopped using the ones that have only one source, which having folded ... you catch my drift.
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So, you are saying we won't have any more Addons then? The end of the world?
That's an unlikely assumption.
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As an addon user (never having written one) Tristanian still has my support (whether you need it or not) because I understand the effort that goes into producing the addons I use and appreciate it. And I do that because I am also a professional programmer!!
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Believe me, I know the names and websites (or portals) of all authors of each one of my addons and I appreciate their efforts. Some Addons are downright beautiful pieces of creativity and since I did myself (for me and my guild) some smaller Addons or adjustments of 'no longer supported' Addons I know how much effort it takes to do this stuff. They get detailed error reports, help in translation and sometimes I even make 'customer support' for them by answering questions in their forums.
All this while I still use WoWMatrix.