Originally Posted by schmittyd
The argument put forward about protecting authors is also misleading, considering that most, if not all mods are provided by a GPL or similar open source licence which generally allow free and open distribution, so here is a warning to Curse and WI - be very careful with your false pander, you are actually breaking the terms of the open source licences by disallowing distribution by third parties. WM, authors and users have the legal right to file class action lawsuits against Curse and WI, which would result in severe financial losses so please reconsider your decision as who will you be helping if you have to close due to your own greed and misconceptions.
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OK, I have to call BS here.
Its been said time and time again that if a mod is released WITH NO LICENSE, then the license is "ALL RIGHTS RESERVED".
How can that be made more clear? Blink tags and sirens?
If you don't see a license file attached to the mod (either in its code or as a separate file in the AddOn's folder), then the AddOn author retains all rights to the mod. Copyright is granted to the author at the moment the author writes the mod. The author has to make the decision to give up some of his/her rights via a license agreement (and that agreement has to be documented).
Having the code in a readable format does not make the code "Open Source". Open readable code and "Open Source" are two entirely different things. The vast majority of AddOns released are "All Rights Reserved". Sure there are a few major mods that have been released under the GPL, however the GPL license agreement is included in the AddOn (as per the terms of the GPL).
So in short, if the AddOn does not have a GPL, BSD or other form of Open Source license attached to the AddOn, then IT IS NOT OPEN SOURCE.