Stealing Code without Credit

Deome · March 2015

Finally taking this to these forums, and others, as I have tried to resolve the issue with Philgo68 without success.

Philgo68's Master Merchant addon borrows a number of features originally published in DataDaedra. Philgo68 claims that he borrowed the code from Millus Roster, an unpublished addon my friend Millus wrote (in his own words, using a number of things from DD, with my blessing). I myself have used code from Millus Roster, with Millus's blessing, and inclusion of Millus's license as he requires. However, among the numerous people Philgo68 thanks on MM's page, neither I nor Millus are mentioned, and his Master Merchant addon does not include Millus's license nor my own (which are identical).

To add insult to injury, many of the people Philgo68 thanks on Master Merchant's page frequently disparage me, and my addons, in guild and public channels. Those guilds promote Master Merchant, and either ignore or insult my own.

So far, I've documented the following features, and their lines of code, as lifted from DataDaedra without permission or credit:

Stats To Chat
Save Posting Prices

I have worked tirelessly over the past year on my addons, and I am absolutely fed up with hearing people state that Master Merchant is "better" because it includes my features--features that were further developed beyond Millus Roster and published long before Master Merchant was released--and that DataDaedra is "incompatible" with Master Merchant because Philgo68 doesn't know how to include our (Millus's and my) LibGuildHistory, which we wrote specifically to solve any issues of compatibility with history addons. Quite frankly, I do not believe Philgo68 could have been completely unaware that they were in DataDaedra. I'm further infuriated that Philgo68 refuses to credit either me OR Millus, nor use the license we share.

I wouldn't be so irate had there been some acknowledgement of indebtedness on Philgo68's part in a timely fashion, nor if he wasn't thanking so many people who I've seen badmouthing me and my addons publicly. But now I want those borrowed features removed from Master Merchant, or Master Merchant removed from ESOUI altogether. Otherwise, what's he going to steal next so that people can say "Yeah, but MM has that too!"?

Philgo68 · March 2015

While I can't honestly remember where I picked up some of the the Stats to Chat code, the Master Merchant page does indeed credit Millus for the small bit of Stat to Chat code I may have used from his addon, "Thanks to Mattmillus for some of the Stats to Chat code."

Matt's Copyright:

-- Copyright (c) 2014 Matthew Miller (Mattmillus)
--
-- Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
-- obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
-- files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
-- restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
-- copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
-- copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
-- Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
-- conditions:
--
-- The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
-- included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

I did not consider a handful of fairly standard lines of code a "substantial portion" of the addon, so I didn't feel the need to include his Copyright. Additionally, this code has it's roots in the ESO source anyway:
(http://esodata.uesp.net/100010/src/libraries/utility/zo_linkhandler.lua.html#31)

I have no control over what other say or don't say about your addons, so please don't lay that at my feet.

I can't say I've looked too deeply into the GuildLibHistory library, but it seems like it doesn't return information until it's brought all the guild history in from the server, while the scanning MM (and SK before it) do, is as shallow as possible to return an offline sales report ASAP to the user after login.

God Bless,

Philgo

hiyde · March 2015

I'd like to thank both of you, as well as all add-on developers that use their personal time to help make our gaming experience better, with little or no compensation. I'm sure you guys don't get thanked enough for your efforts!

I'd also like to acknowledge that Philgo was the first to provide Guild Sales/Analysis tools publicly. Others had created addons, but weren't willing to share (which is their right). He was also eager to receive suggestions and feedback (of which a lot was implemented) and whether on the forums, in-game, or via mail, has always been responsive to bug reports.

(This isn't a knock on Deome - I've never tried to contact him regarding any of his addons, I'm just relating that my experiences with Phil have been 100% positive and from my interactions with him, he comes off as a stand-up guy. I have no clue what code he did or didn't use or what he was obligated to credit.)

Most, (if not all of) the "Thank You's" on his ESOUI page have been there since the addon's launch week. I don't see how Phil would have any control over "badmouthing" by people on that list. As a person who's on that list, I was certainly never asked or encouraged by Phil to participate in anything negative of that sort (nor would I).

I've seen some conversations of this nature in a few guild chats and its been more about people being passionate with their preferences. Someone will say "what's the best sales addon" and differences of opinion ensue.

The more addons, the better, I say! Hopefully you two will work this out.

maryriv · March 2015

Well, I wish you would both get together and make a super addon because you both have some good points. Regardless of how small the code is, it is still one of the most widely used features of the addon to post the stats to chat.

That said I really love ddShopkeeper because it has the abilities to count listings and displays it right in the guild roster which is extremely convenient.

MM is a good addon and has improved on lots of the features found in DD and ddSK.

I would hope that you guys could set aside your differences and co Author a really awesome addon that incorporates all these features.

ElfFromSpace · March 2015

I too, hope that these differences can be put aside. I am one of the people accused directly by deome of disparaging his addon, which shocked and confused me because I recommended his add-ons countless times. Although he implied myself and my fellow guild members had disparaged many times, the only incident that was specified was a guild mail. On the very bottom of a raffle reminder, I informed members of a new add-on named Master Merchant which they should check out. Deome took offence that I did not find room in the mail to also mention similar add-ons that were still listed in my guild's forums post recommending addons.

Deome has blocked and ignored me and refused to respond to other attempts to apologize for the unintended slight. I am sorry that my mail upset you so much. It was not my intention and I wish you had spoken to me before letting your anger build to this point.

Please, Deome, this lashing out will not accomplish anything. You're hurting yourself the most. I appreciate all the work you put into your addons and the help they gave to players. If you wish to continue to help players, it would be better for you to try to work with the other add-on makers and please don't take personal offence if someone creates an alternative to your work, or when players chose which addon they prefer to use.

ZOS_MichelleA · March 2015

Hello, all. We will be closing this thread, as we do not allow posts or threads that are created for the purpose of naming and shaming other community members. Naming and shaming is the act of creating a post to call out an individual or group by name, and making them the subject of public accusation, ridicule and/or shaming.

If you have issues with another person, we ask that you handle this in private, rather than on the forums. Thank you for your understanding.