I'm no longer supporting this add-on

hatori1181 · 09-10-12, 04:06 AM

I noticed, after I logged into WoW today that carbonite had an update. I went to Rythal's page and was surprised to see that the Carbonite devs were going to continue work on the add-on.

I was not prepared for what I would see when I came to the forums, here. Not only did the developer NOT thank Rythal for his hard work, but I was shocked to read this from the developer: "I did not know a patch was released... I don't play WoW anymore except for testing the addon."

But that paled in comparison to what came next: It is our addon. We did not ask, nor do we want someone else modding it.

I won't tell you to work for free or give your property away, so please don't tell us what we should do with our property.

REALLY? So not only are they not thanking Rythal, but they are going to be dickish about receiving help?

It's clear to me that the developer is only updating this add-on for the continued donations. I'd be willing to bet that the patch is yet another bandage like the previous patches, and that if one were to look under the hood of the new patch, you'd find little had changed. (Or worse, that they had incorporated Rythal's work without crediting him.)

I'm done. While I like this add-on, I will not use, nor support in any fashion, this add-on any longer. I hope as the rest of the world wakes up and sees this level of douchebaggery, that others will do the same.

Agent Smith · 09-10-12, 07:14 AM

i'm with you... I'll use rythal's version while I seek out the best replacements for the features of carbonite that I used the most. Sadly that's probably going to mean 3 or 4 addons, but in the end it will probably run smoother than carbonite does right now. It's just a shame...

myrroddin · 09-10-12, 07:25 AM

I am not going to debate thanking Rythal, especially since I haven't used Carbonite since early Burning Crusade, and I never used it in vanilla. However, I hope that everyone realizes that Carbonite has a copyright, and Rythal breached said copyright?

If someone came along and started modifying my addons without permission or violating my copyright, I too would be angry. Case in point: here and here and most especially here.

On a side note, it should be to nobody's surprise that Carbonite's devs stopped playing the game. The community was more or less aware of that fact during early Wrath of the Lich King. Great, there is an official update, but it is time to move on; yes, even if you "cannot play the game without Carbonite." Yes, of course you can. There are other addons that do exactly the same things as Carbonite, and do them better because they are specialized.

Agent Smith · 09-10-12, 07:54 AM

there is a slight difference. he never ever laid claim to it and tried to contact the devs. what he did is more akin to finding glaring grammatical errors in a book, telling the author, fixing it and giving a fixed copy to his friends who had already acquired the faulty book. it's kind of a gray area... but there it is. and the moment the devs announced their umm triumphant return? he took it down. sadly they didn't use his edits and we're back to repeating every bug rythal had fixed already.

the fact that admins of this forum allowed this to go on and indeed participated in the conversations, bug reporting and aiding people installing the fixes should really tell you something

Kagaro · 09-10-12, 08:06 AM

Originally Posted by Agent Smith

there is a slight difference. he never ever laid claim to it and tried to contact the devs. what he did is more akin to finding glaring grammatical errors in a book, telling the author, fixing it and giving a fixed copy to his friends who had already acquired the faulty book. it's kind of a gray area... but there it is. and the moment the devs announced their umm triumphant return? he took it down. sadly they didn't use his edits and we're back to repeating every bug rythal had fixed already.

the fact that admins of this forum allowed this to go on and indeed participated in the conversations, bug reporting and aiding people installing the fixes should really tell you something

in your example above, changing the grammar and distributing the fixes to those that had it does count as copyright violation via deritave works.

Agent Smith · 09-10-12, 08:17 AM

well if we're going to go that route, then rythal holds the rights to any code that he wrote to make it work. personally, i think the devs could have been a whole lot more gracious and taken him on as part of the team, and had a nearly fully functional update that just needed a little fine tuning

ookamiashes · 09-10-12, 05:48 PM

First off slapping a trademark tag on your page doesn't give you a trademark. You actually have to apply for it and have it approved. A search of http://www.uspto.gov/index.jsp yields no such result for carbonite addon.

Second according to your own homepage your copyright ran out in 2011.

CARBONITE® is a registered trademark of Carbon Based Creations, LLC.

“World of Warcraftt® and “WOW” are trademarks owned by Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. This Website and the CARBONITE® Addon are not endorsed by or affiliated with Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

The CARBONITE® Addon is not affiliated with or sponsored by Carbonite, Inc. or its CARBONITE® on-line computer back-up software and service.

Copyright (c) 2007-2011 Carbon Based Creations, LLC

I appreciate Rythal's work and thank him so much. I will not be updating this addon past his last version. If it becomes no longer compatible then I will just switch. Why? It bothers me that he made sure to contact the developer, asked for people to donate to the developer and never once claimed he made the addon yet the dev's a dickhead.