Response from Karen "Cairenn" Hobson

Does your site host your own addons, or ones created by other authors? If you host other authors works, who is allowed to submit addons to your site? How do you handle questions of copyright or license violations?

We host addons by anyone who cares to upload to our site. Some on the site are coded by our own staff. Only the original author may upload. There are some exceptions to this rule but there are very specific rules that must be adhered to in those cases. If an original author comes to us and tells us that there is a violation of their copyright (&/or license), we check the addons in question to see whether there is valid complaint. We then work together with the author to come to a resolution that is acceptable to them. Sometimes it is as simple as getting the offending party into a discussion with the original author and they work something out between them. If that doesn't work, or if the original author isn't interested in any other resolution, and we know that it is in fact a violation, we will remove the offending addon.

Were you aware that WowMatrix is scraping your site for new versions of your addons, and allows users to download directly from your server without visiting your site?

Yes

Were you aware that WowMatrix shows ads in their client, but potentially bypasses the ads shown on your site?

Yes

Did Wowmatrix ever contact you to tell you they did this, or ask permission?

No

Are your addons licensed for free distribution (for example, GPL)?

Some are, some aren't, that's the choice of the individual author.

If the addons are licensed for free distribution, did they ever ask or inform you that they were providing them through their client? Do they host it themselves, or pull from your site?

No. Either or and sometimes both, depending on the time period in question.

If your addons are NOT licensed for free distribution, did WowMatrix ever come to you and offer to host your addons on their server?

No. Besides which, we couldn't give them that permission in the first place. That is up to the author to decide.

Did you contact WowMatrix and ask them to remove your addons or stop scraping your site? Did they respond? Were your addons removed?

Yes we did. No they didn't. Not applicable.

Did you ever ask WowMatrix to compensate you for the bandwidth their client uses, or did they ever offer? Do they compensate you?

We couldn't ask them to do anything since they refused to speak with us. They never made any offer to us. No they don't.

Have you seen significant bandwidth increase that you believe is due to WowMatrix, especially since patch 3.1?

Actually, our bandwidth usage dropped because we finally found a way to *keep* them blocked from our site. They have always worked around any other steps we have taken to stop them.

Do you agree with Curse and WoWI blocking WowMatrix from their servers?

As Co-Founder and Co-Admin of WowInterface, I stand by the steps we have taken

WowMatrix says: "Although we do not agree with their actions, we respect their position in this matter, and so WowMatrix does not currently download AddOns from either Curse or WoWInterface." Do you feel they've respected you, your site, and your addons?

They have done anything else *except *respect us.

Do you want your addons available through WowMatrix? Do you feel this decision has been influenced by the recent events?

Not applicable.

Do you have any comments you would like to make about the current situation with WowMatrix?

Our position has been made clear already, not much point in re-hashing it all. :)