Another reply:
Hi there,
I have asked to be given the reins and just remove whatever needs to be removed.
I do know that PMs were sent to all authors. I have a theory as to why they never arrived, but that is what it is, only a theory. I can't fix that now. The bell has already been rung so to speak. Some authors replied with OKs to host. Others asked that we not do so. Those were not hosted.
Further causing issue was that first notification that anything was amiss was a threat in an anonymous message forum. From there I think backs got up on both sides and here I am, fixing things.
Making things even more grey is the fact that nearly every addon is a derivative of work built by numerous people who used various license agreements over the course of the addons' evolution.
Even though I have removed every addon that requested removal, at least 70% of them are technically not owned by the current author. It's a mess from the inside out. Unfortunately, those same authors are very upset and I hesitate to let them know that they don't in fact have the rights that they truly believe that they have. In the future if a company were truly trying to steal their work, they probably could without recourse. We have no intention of doing that.
It's not as cut and dried as "copyright" issue as most think, but at this point explaining the underlying issues to the authors in jeopardy would only exacerbate the situation. There is a lot of legal chatter going on in your IRC and on the forums that is simply misplaced. I truly hope that the false sense of security doesn't come to haunt them. They are a fantastic group of people.
I don't expect authors who have requested removal to come back. It's a shame really as the Spark product is much easier for the player to use than what is currently out there.
For now though, I simply want to make this right for the authors, and I believe I will have the mandate to do that.
As I mentioned, send anyone to me that needs help and I'll do my best to get things solved for them.
I have flagged your files for removal. I can't do it myself or it would be done.
Good luck in the future. I apologize for how this all worked out.
All the best,
John Hoskin
Creative Director
TenTonHammer.com
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I'm not entirely sure what to say to part of that. But... Hopefully this should all be sorted out soon.