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12-17-13, 12:22 PM   #96
TheWafflian
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Join Date: Jul 2013
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Originally Posted by Tumes View Post
A few replies ago you said this wasn't the real topic of the thread, and you're correct about that. Scott allows free access to the add-on and Blizzard and WOWI were a bit hasty in their draconic response. First and foremost, that should be rectified.

On the larger topic of a company being able to dictate if third parties can charge for their time and effort on extending the company's software, I'd love to see that argument in court. Heck, I'd like to see it go all the way up to the SCOTUS if necessary. Once you strip away the corporate entity and monetary component of the argument, this argument ultimately boils down to the civil liberties and rights of the individual.

The desire by Blizzard should really be about the integrity of the gaming experience. That can be accomplished by providing APIs for their extensible interface, which they currently do, and enforcing those APIs. If they find that a add-on is affecting the stability and playability of the game, then sure, they are well within their rights to require that a developer brings their add-on inline with those requirements to ensure a stable and playable software environment.

Paying a fee for an add-on is based on an agreement between the consumer and the provider.

As has been noted previously, none of us are lawyers. But we all should understand what constitutes civil liberties and rights, and we should acknowledge those and expect that they be respected by ourselves and others. And we should most certainly champion those arguments in court when a party attempts to enforce a legal agreement that violates them.
I've edited out a couple paragraphs to lessen the size of the quote, the discussion as to whether Blizzard should allow paid addons is another one entirely.

The policy isn't a violation of rights - An addon developer has the rights to require payment for an addon, but not the means to keep it compatible with WoW (In the event of Blizzard coding against a specific addon). Only Blizzard has those means, and the addon developer does not have the right to force Blizzard's cooperation. Blizzard can't legally force the developer to make his addon in a specific fashion, but nor can the Developer force blizzard to make their game in a specific fashion.

Blizzard does, however, have the right to code the game in a way they see fit. It has no obligation to make WoW compatible with a specific addon. They own the code to WoW as much as an addon developer owns the code to his addon - The difference is that the addon requires wow to be coded in a way that is compatible.

There is nothing legal is Blizzard trying to force the addon developer to give it away for free.

There is nothing illegal, however, in blizzard altering it's game's code in a way that renders a policy-violating addon useless.
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