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07-26-12, 11:35 AM   #11
Maul
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Originally Posted by Amarande View Post
In part, I suspect that the reason such an addon developer hasn't been found may lie in ARR
I have been around the addon community since 2005. I have yet to see anyone ever say, "I want to make an addon like 'X-Perl', but I am afraid of ARR issues". Maybe there is a thread out there, but I have never seen ARR being a stumbling block to those driven to write addons. And making an addon that works like another does not violate any ARR, just as Chevy making a car with 4 wheels, a motor and a steering wheel is not an infringement on Ford. If one copies code directly, then yes you need permission. If you make it on your own with your own techniques, then any author can make their own X-Perl clone.

I think the issue is more of intimidation of taking on a large project such as unit frames. It is not easy to be a one-man enterprise that does the code, the marketing (setting up yourself on the addon websites) the technical writer, the QA and the PR person for large projects. ARR is not really in the way, there are other larger factors that can stop a new addon emerging.

Originally Posted by Amarande View Post
But why change your open source licence over to ARR in response?
The established addon sites like WoWInterface bend over backwards for the addon community. The leech sites take all their efforts and deny them the ad revenue that keep the communities going. Many addon authors do not want to see sites like WoWInterface vanish because a leech site takes away all reason to ever visit them. The response to changing to ARR was a vote to keep the addon community alive. If authors did not do that as well as the addon sites working diligently to defeat those leech sites, we may not even have this forum to have this discussion right now. You owe your ability to participate in this community in part to the very addon authors that decided to defend their addon rights and exert control over where they distribute.

Originally Posted by Amarande View Post
you generally do so with the knowledge that anyone can distribute your software, whether you really like them or not.
And who gets to deal with the support deluge for code that an author is not putting out, yet has their name recognized as its creator? Again, most addon authors are one man operations. Control over distribution really helps them keep their sanity. Trying to replicate a bug that is being reported that will never show up on your source, due to a user using a different source yet does not let you know that fact, can be frustrating. Or worse, a leech site is distributing an out-dated version while your current one on where you chose to distribute has bug fixes that are still being reported by downloaders at the leech sites. I have had that happen many times.

Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking an open source model, but for me as the sole author on my projects I already deal with enough for essentially a hobby that can seem like a job. In short, I do not think ARR is as much as a barrier as you think it is. Also, some authors who stop maintaining an addon are more than glad to hand the reins over to anyone who asks. That happens quite a bit. Or one could ask if it is okay to use the code covered by AAR (a license if you will). I have done that a few times, and have yet to get someone who told me "no way".
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