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Originally Posted by Cairenn
Yet another site that is uploading mods without checking with the mod authors themselves:
World of Warcraft UI Mod Database (WOW DB)
And it would appear that they are ripping them straight from the ui.worldofwar.net database.
When will people learn that things like that are theft of intellectual property?
Thread on Blizzard forum is here.
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Hi there,
First, I would like to appreciate that I uploaded information about authors, and there is no excuses for this action.
Now the next step is how I will salvage this process. We are here now, and what I did is not acceptable. I cannot change the past, and I will take full responsibility of this.
The thing is how we can continue so all parts get friendly out of this situation. I can tell you that I have used more than 500 hours freely to develop this service. My intention has always been "give something to the community", a service that could make things simpler.
Now here is my story...
When I created the first UI Mod Database back in December 2004, I had a complete system where people could upload there UI mod information. I quickly grew to 50-70 mods.
A couple of weeks after I see a new UI Mod DB popup, this is wowaddons.com (now defunct). This mod DB started already with 50 UI Mods from beginning...
If I remember, clear 9 January another UI Mod DB popup - this time this is curse-gaming. The DB opened with more than 100 UI Mods and it quickly got very popular, and grew very fast to today's #1 UI Mod DB. Sites like wowaddons.com and mine did poorly after curse-gaming - simply of lack of features compared to curse-gaming.
Already back in beginning of February I was busy with school, so I disconnected my UI Mod database. Somewhere in May, I saw another popular “pre created” WoW DB popup – this time it was ui.worldofwar.
I am not sure when/how wowinterface / wowguru was build. However, I believe that they were definitely not from an empty playground.
However, I see the same similarity over and over with new UI Mod databases – that they was created with pre-build UI Mods and they share the same user base. No matter in what scale you did this, without asking the authors it does not make you less suspected. I do not find it fair to be accused by the majority, because there is so many others linked to this factor.
So where does this lead us?
I predict within not very long time - we will see many new WoW UI Mod Databases popup, this factor is just a matter of time. This will eventually lead to an even more complex and chaotic situation for the UI Mod Developers.
“Already back in January I said to the community - that we will need a standard for all the UI Mods.” - Brugs
However, one thing for sure, you cannot judge me like this - because I clearly explained that all major parts have done the same.
Another factor is you cannot judge anyone here about intellectual property - we can only hence about this. None of us has the technical expertise, neither the right to stamp each other - because this simply leads to no good.
Because I created the first UI Mod Database - does it give me the right to own the concept?
I would like to see an open debate about this… and hear people’s opinion…
Brugs