Originally Posted by Grimsin
Everyone is aware that bliz's changes to the AddOn rules not to long ago basically makes it where you don't really need to get permission anymore? Since no WOW AddOn can be copy righted or protected.
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Incorrect. Addons are copyrighted by default the moment the code is written as pretty much any other creation and they are the intellectual property of their authors. Just because their code is readable does not imply that the addons are open source. Blizzard's policy simply requires that addons are "free of charge", if you intend to use them in their sandbox, meaning that an author is unable to require monetary compensation of any form, or even charge for "premium" versions. Donations are still allowed by the policy, as long as they are not advertised ingame.
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Your right trying to PM all 200 some odd authors of all the AddOns in my compilation would be ludicrous.
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It is certainly inconvenient, yet if you do not secure permission to redistribute an altered version of their work, you are opening a huge can of worms, as it is well within author's rights to ask you to remove their addon(s) from any compilations you are distributing (for whatever reason). This only applies to addons that are not distributed under a GPL or any other kind of open source license, that explicitly allows redistribution and/or distribution of modified versions. At any case, the best course of action, is to always secure permission, when possible.