The Lawbringer: Paying for addons and the spirit of the TOS
by Mathew McCurley 
Sep 30th 2011 at 7:00PM
A long, long time ago, I can still remember the article I wrote at the beginning of my time here at WoW Insider called What happed to TourGuide?, an article detailing the disappearance of beloved addon TourGuide and the sale of World of Warcraft leveling guides. I had questioned whether these guides went against the stated addon policies Blizzard had laid out, which expressly forbid addons for sale or paying for addon access. It was not well received in those circles.
Addons have been brought down or have had the Blizzard gaze upon them for less than being sold on a website for a nice chunk of change. Why then does this new crop of leveling guides and automatic gold making addons (which I will not be linking) get an apparent free pass? Why haven't we seen Blizzard take action against for-pay, in-game gold automators and leveling guides? What is it inherently about the for-pay addons that makes them permissible?
Kevin spurred this whole discussion with an email about a particular gold-making addon that people have to charge to get.
Hi Mat,There are a few things at work here with for-pay addons that contribute to "acceptance" of these specific addons. You have to ask yourself what is actually being paid for, as well as what is or is not permissible under the addon policy. You can read the Blizzard UI policy on the official forums. Let's go from relevant provision to relevant provision and figure out why Blizzard hasn't expressly forbidden for-pay guides and automatic gold making services that you pay to use.
Me and a few friends have been having a little discussion lately after we found out about a addon that is for the auction house that require you to pay to use it. our understanding was that if you are required to pay for a addon it is against the ToS, this is why even though guides like Zygor's come with addons, the addons themselves are still available for free your paying for the guide and addons like carbonite went to a donation model as opposed to being payed for.
Many thanks,
Kevin
Free of charge
This provision of the policy is actually aimed at addons offering premium versions of their addon, much like how Carbonite was accused of created a free version and a better, more robust, for-pay subscription addon. However, look at the rest of the policy -- charge for services related to the addon. While you are not technically paying for the addons that comprise the purchased guide, since profiteers will hide behind the notion that you are paying for information or the data that goes into the guide, you are still paying for a service related to the facilitation of the addon's stated purpose. Downloading, updating, and installing addons as well as furnishing them with the information from a third-party program running alongside WoW is paying for a service related to an addon that you have installed, violating the policy.
1. Addons must be free of charge. All add-ons must be distributed free of charge. Developers may not create "premium" versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on.
2. Addon code must be completely visible. The programming code of an add-on must in no way be hidden or obfuscated, and must be freely accessible to and viewable by the general public.This provision is a semantic overload. Sure, the addon's code is required to be revealed and freely available, but the information fed to the addon is not mentioned. If a third-party program running outside of WoW or layered on top of the game is still running and interacting with the game and is charged for, that information should be freely viewable, yes? While it is not the programming code of the addon, surely you would think that many things would fall under the spirit of this policy, right?
Abiding by WoW's terms
7. Addons must abide by World of Warcraft TOU and EULA. All add-ons must follow the World of Warcraft Terms of Use and the World of Warcraft End User License Agreement.Here's the kicker policy for me with these for-pay addons and guides. First of all, these for-pay gold making services advertise themselves as addons, playing to players' understanding and built-in connnotations of what the word addon means, fully aware that they believe addons to be acceptable in WoW in this capacity. But let's look at two specific pieces of the Terms of Service:
A. use cheats, automation software (bots), hacks, mods or any other unauthorized third-party software designed to modify the World of Warcraft experience;If these guides are authorized pieces of third-party software that run alongside the WoW client, by all means tell me that they are, Blizzard. Warden already runs alongside WoW, monitoring the use of third-party programs during your gaming experience, so detecting these for-pay guides and addons, if they are using third-party, out-of-WoW software, should be an easy thing to do.
C. use any unauthorized third-party software that intercepts, "mines," or otherwise collects information from or through the Game or the Service, including without limitation any software that reads areas of RAM used by the Game to store information about a character or the game environment; provided, however, that Blizzard may, at its sole and absolute discretion, allow the use of certain third party user interfaces;
"Modify the World of Warcraft experience" is an intentionally vague phrase allowing the Terms to cover a greater spectrum of issues that crop up. If these guides and automatic gold making programs advertise themselves as addons and run third-party software alongside WoW that acts as a service to provide the player and the game with information that it computes to effect the game experience for players, then why is this tolerated?
Blizzard's team sent messages to the creators of Tukui because of beta versions of the UI replacement addon was behind a premium pay wall on the site. And yet players can plunk down 40 bucks for an "addon" that auto-updates, downloads and installs other addons into the WoW interface directory for a fee, feeding the player information as a service alongside a third-party program.
This isn't about semantics or wordplay anymore. Most of what I've done for a living has been all wordplay and semantics. I talk for a living. However, there is a factor in all of this that people might be forgetting -- the spirit of the law. The spirit of these policies lies firmly in the fact that Blizzard does not want players to feel as if they have to pay to get the best experience out of WoW outside of the monthly subscription fee. The fairness doctrine of MMOs is in full effect here, and addons are part of that. Paying for a guide or gold making addon, despite how ironclad the wording, is to skirt the addon policy and the Terms of Service and should be fought against. It is against the very spirit of the rules set up by the creators of the game.
Or not. It's your money to spend. I guess I just want clarification.
Fake money or real money?
@UberBryan on Twitter had a great question about Blizzard using real dollars instead of some type of company currency like Turbine Points or Riot Point (for League of Legends):
@gomatgo why does blizzard use dollars for it's cash shop instead of company scrip like almost all other developers? ie turbine pointsFor the Diablo 3 real-money transaction auction house, Blizzard chose to go with real money instead of some kind of middle currency because of the nature of the exchange it wants to be making. This is not about revenue generation in terms of providing items for a price, but rather about supplanting an already established marketplace with a similar, yet safer, version.
When game companies want to set up a revenue model where an intermediary currency is used to purchase items from a store, as League of Legends does, making batch currency purchases make sense because you buy points to spend in a store and then purchase more when you need them. With Diablo 3, Blizzard is not trying to build a store where you purchase items. Rather, the Diablo 3 auction house is intended to replace the already huge marketplace for Diablo items out there in the grey market, where cash transactions run rampant outside of Blizzard's control and outside of Blizzard's granted rights as per the Terms of Service.
Real cash is used because real cash is used on the gray market. It has nothing to do with the amount of money being made or even the rules necessary to make the whole thing work. It has to do with the nature of the system Blizzard is intending to supplant and also to pay for running Diablo 3's massive infrastructure.
This column is for entertainment only; if you need legal advice, contact a lawyer. For comments or general questions about law or for The Lawbringer, contact Mat at mat@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Eirik Sep 30th 2011 7:24PM
This article makes me sad. You point out that Blizzard leapt on Tukui and did not leap on the 40$ "autodownloader".
... But you did not say why Blizzard allowed the downloader to continue living. This despite pointing out several ToS and EULA provisions that would seem to give it the thumbs-down.
Without a definitive statement from Blizzard, you're guessing off the same data we are. But I really want to hang *someone* by their toenails until I extract an answer.
Mathew McCurley Sep 30th 2011 7:40PM
This is exactly why I wrote the article. I don't know why they get away with it.
Mak Sep 30th 2011 7:50PM
The answer is simple, and the answer is basically semantics.
You can't pay for an Addon. They can't charge for an addon. Even a beta version.
You CAN pay to access a program that will automatically update your addons. You CAN pay for a PDF or HTML leveling guide that tells you where to go and how to level most efficiently. And it can include a data file for tourguide. Tourguide is still free.
It's that simple.
mak Sep 30th 2011 8:09PM
Just to add - i think the big thing that gets the Curse updater and leveling guides past this is that they simply aren't addons. They are other programs or services that you use, and if you pay for them that is up to you.
I wouldn't, there are Free options for guides that include addon data for in game navigation. And I think auto updating adding causes more problems then good. But you still can. You aren't doing anything to modify WoW that Blizzard would be upset by (and modifying the addon code in the interface directory is safe - Blizzard doesnt own or control those addons).
If I had to guess on the AH addon, I would bet it's basically a service that exports your auctioneer type data to a server and runs some algorithms or other such crap to help you okay the market. It's probably no better then UJ, but people are wierd and will pay for things they can get free elsewhere.
icepyro Sep 30th 2011 8:25PM
The downloader really is that simple as long as the addon is available via other means for free, including curse which has a free downloader. Who cares if I make a program that performs the same function as the curse agent and charge money for it? You're not getting an edge using that downloader over curse over manually getting files which are also available, so it's all good.
The tourguide files are a little gray area to me because the addon is free and the file would then be open source, more or less, but if getting the file in the first place is behind a paywall, then I'm not so sure. What's amusing then would be to just share the file on your own site for free as it can't possibly be upheld in court in any manner I can see. Open source is open source.
As for the pdf/html guides, I can't imagine how they can be legal since inevitably there has to be pictures, names, and other trademarked or copyrighted materials used in the book, likely without license, and for profit.
Nick Oct 1st 2011 6:02AM
@mak
What is UJ?
Jehosaphat Oct 1st 2011 9:26AM
@Nick: The Undermine Journal - http://theunderminejournal.com/
Nick Oct 1st 2011 6:03PM
Ahh, I've been there a few times before. I actually downloaded the paid for addon detailed above. I didn't pay for it. Not sure what the legalities are: I didn't pay for an item the vendor wants to charge for, but the vendor is not allowed to charge for.
Either way all it does is calculate profit margins for certain items based on mats cost vs product cost it also calculates the highest gold per hour item you can farm (cloth volatiles etc) or harvest. The 3rd component is it calculates best items to buy to sell on, based on current vs mean prices.
People pay $40 for this? Mental.
Nick Sep 30th 2011 7:32PM
I've done a quick google search on the addon mentioned. It looks to good to be true. It probably is.
JCinDE Sep 30th 2011 7:51PM
I believe the spirit of the TOS is that they do not want any third party making money off their game. Period.
That being the case, if a hypothetical person were to look for and find some of these addons on file sharing sites and download them, their authors would have a hard time making the case that it's piracy.
Not that I, personally, have ever visited that sort of file sharing site. But if I hypothetically did, I wouldn't feel hypothetically guilty for it.
mak Sep 30th 2011 8:01PM
Addon authors do not give up thier copyrights to the code they write for WoW just because they are not permitted to charge for it. Nor does someone who writes a guide vacate thier rights by making it sbout playing WoW.
Using Blizzard IP and properties in the guide would cause issues though, that's for sure. I don't think you could write a leveling guide without calling it "Hillsbrad". The level 20-25 undead zone just doesn't have the same ring.
DarkWalker Sep 30th 2011 11:02PM
@mak:
You can't copyright really small snippets such as single names. Besides, game guides most likely would be a prime example of fair use (as long as the author of the guide doesn't go on copying large stretches of the product - say, reproducing all quest text - on it's guide).
In the end, Blizzard can't really win a copyright suite against authors that write and sell an unauthorized guide for WoW, as long as the author does not do anything dumb. Does not mean they can't use the threat as a scare tactic, though.
Quaza Sep 30th 2011 8:11PM
"...but the information fed to the addon is not mentioned. ... that information should be freely viewable, yes?"
If an addon pulls information from somewhere unknown to the user, then that "somewhere" is hard-coded into the code. Because the addon code must be visible and not obfuscated, it's relatively easy to pull up the source manually and view it at any time. Keep in mind that any "security" the source may have, such as a password, would also have to be hard-coded into the addon.
TL;DR -- If the code is visible, the data source is too.
paulmewis Sep 30th 2011 8:32PM
Just wondering about the wowhead looter addon. Afaik its collecting information from wow for use in a 3rd party site, for its data displayed on wowhead.
Must be covered by this clause "[However], that Blizzard may, at its sole and absolute discretion, allow the use of certain third party user interfaces".
aerrae Sep 30th 2011 9:27PM
Wowhead is permitted, they have an agreement with Blizzard if i remember correctly, so I think this might be part of why they can do it.
But I know I have seen wowhead listed on the community site at one point or another.
I think charging for an add-on SHOULD be allowed, personally, someone took the time to write a program, why should they be denied monetary gain for their work.
Mat, you don't write articles for WoW insider for free! So why should someone else, who put time and effort into something be denied. However, I must add that the terms and conditions say NO, so they should abide by the rules of the game.
Snuzzle Sep 30th 2011 10:10PM
@arrae, the difference is that even though Mat doesn't write the articles for free, the articles are still freely available. WoW Insider lives on ad revenue (afaik anyway).
I could pay someone to code a WoW addon for me that does what I want (because at that point I am paying for his work from scratch, not an addon), but the author could not then turn around and charge others after he uploads it.
DarkWalker Sep 30th 2011 11:07PM
@Snuzzle
Not really different. One of the things Blizzard has prohibited addon writers from doing is adding any kind of advertisement in the addon, or even asking for donations inside the addon itself.
Arrohon Sep 30th 2011 8:57PM
I know of an addon that isn't exactly a "automatic gold making addon" but it is an addon that you're charged for and the function is to make you gold. It scans the AH and processes the information to tell you what you'd make the most money doing. For example it might notice that Fel Iron is in low supply and is selling high while very few people are in Outland. It'd suggest you farm Fel Iron and give you a route. It tells you what to do, but you have to do the work yourself. It also isn't free. It sounds like something that would be against the TOS to me.
Ophelos Oct 1st 2011 7:34AM
yeah i know what addon your talking about, because i use.. I got it for free from a torrent site. An that addon is called "Tycoon". The main site for it also sells alot of different addons. An just last week i reported the site to blizzard.
DarkWalker Sep 30th 2011 11:24PM
""" "Modify the World of Warcraft experience" is an intentionally vague phrase allowing the Terms to cover a greater spectrum of issues that crop up."""
This is a point where I love a few of my country's laws. (Brazil)
One of the interesting tidbits is that, in any boilerplate contract, vague or ambiguous parts are interpreted in the way that most benefits the part that didn't get to write the contract. Which makes intentionally vague or ambiguous parts of those contract mostly useless - if whoever Blizzard was going after could provide any potentially plausible definition to "World of Warcraft Experience" that left out what they are doing, that part of the TOS wouldn't hamper them at all.
If the company intends to eventually enforce the TOS/EULA here, just translating the US version of the contracts - like Blizzard actually did - is a death trap :) Even more when they do silly errors such as translating "disrupt the servers" as "destroy the servers" :)