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12-16-13, 06:02 AM   #1
spiel2001
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Join Date: Jun 2008
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Letter to Blizzard - December 5th

What follows is a letter I sent to Blizzard on December 5th regarding the status of nUI.

Tom... Thanks for the email.

I am not distributing it only to paying users. There are several ways that folks can still get the add-on for free.

1) they can be referred by another nUI user that I trust

2) they can send me an email and explain how they're doing something, anything, to be a helpful member of the community or to show their support of the time, effort and resources that go into maintaining and supporting nUI.

3) they can download it from Curse or WoWI and make whatever modifications they need to make to it to keep it running

There's a very large number of people who I have granted access to who have never paid a penny, and I will continue to do so. But when some asshat sends me an email telling me it's "against the law" for me not to give him the add-on and answer his email questions (for free), while he hurls epithets and insults at me, he can kiss my ass.

For that matter, anyone who makes an ass of himself to me, or to any other member of the community, is immediately banned. Aside from that, there's no other requirement other than to be respectful and make at least some sort of effort to show some appreciation.

Now. If it's Blizzard's position that I have to provide free distribution and free technical support to every paying and non-paying WoW player, regardless of how they treat me, then Blizzard and I do have a problem. For that matter, if Blizzard's position is that add-on authors have zero say in who can and can't use the software they produce, we have a problem.

That's the only thing I'm out to do here: block the people who treat me, and/or the other users, like crap from having access to the benefits of my work. I'm sick of busting my ass, for free, for people who treat me like crap. At least you guys (and Blizzard) get PAID to take that crap from the users.

So... If I'm not allowed to control who uses the code I wrote in any way, shape or form and that Blizzard requires me to give anyone and everyone completely unfettered access to my code and my support, then yes we have a problem.

But, if that's the case, then Blizzard's rule is not that authors can't have pay only versions of their software, it's that authors have no control whatsoever over their software and that they have no right to require ANYTHING of those who use it.

So. Is that the case?

K. Scott Piel
Author of nUI
http://www.nUIaddon.com


which was in response to this e-mailI received from Blizzard...

Hey Scott,

Sorry to hear about the abusive email’s you have received. People plus anonymity can really suck!

I completely understand that you do not want to submit yourself to that kind of environment. As you know, a lot of vitriol is also spewed in WoW’s direction, and it’s hard not to take that personally. There are many times I have to pull out of the forums and just avoid reading them.

If you only want to receive feedback and reports from paying users, I fully support you in that. However, you cannot just distribute your addon to paying users. I hope you understand that this is a position Blizzard needs to take.

Let me know if you want to talk about it.

<sender contact info redacted>
__________________

What people don't get is that I am, ultimately, an artist at heart.
My brush has two colors, 1 and 0, and my canvas is made of silicon.



Official nUI Web Site: http://www.nUIaddon.com
Official nUI Support Forum: http://forums.nUIaddon.com
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