Originally Posted by Phanx
<snip> If you don't have anything specific in mind, and are just assuming that the reason nobody is actively maintaining an addon is because it's not "open source", you're probably wrong. Chances are, it's simply because nobody has the skills, time, and desire to take on someone else's project and support it.
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I am sure that's what usually happens. If I find an addon that someone else abandoned but I want to update it to work, either I submit a patch for that addon or I create a clone of it and give proper credits to the original addon and author so people don't get confused.
This license wouldn't change a thing to be honest, not regarding to the speed up updates or the creation of new addons. Fact is people and the devs get bored of the game, and slowly more update less and in the end disappear from the grid. What happens is people that got time and want to either submit patches or make a fork, give proper credits to the original author. If it's too much work to update it, the addon dies and people find alternatives.
For example I've noticed over the past year that Carbonite has slowed down development, often it's just patches to keep the addon working with the current game build. I am not sure what happens in MoP but if someone here wanted to make a Carbonite addon or update it, I am sure they can submit patches or make their own fork of it, as long proper credit is given I see no problem. Maybe I am naïve, maybe there is a problem, but I just don't see it. :P