It’s against WoW rules to be charging add-ons, right?
So with that being said is it not against the rules, by extension, for Streamers to sell, for example, Weak Aura strings?
Just curious, people are saying it’s a “grey area”. But I want a definitive answer to it.
As far as I am aware you are correct. An addon developer can ask for donations to support their work but they cannot charge for the addon.
With regards to what you have implied from your post it appears that there is definitely something fishy going on as it is not the addon author who is doing the charging anyway and these streamers, if the allegations are true, are trying to profit off of someone else work.
- Applications May Not Charge Premiums To Use The APIs . “Premium” versions of Applications offering additional for-pay features are not permitted, nor can players be charged money to download an Application, charged for services related to the Application, or otherwise be required to offer some form of monetary compensation to download or access an Application when those features use the Blizzard Developer APIs. Likewise, Applications may not include interstitials soliciting donations before features or functionality becomes available to the player. Also, players may not be required to watch a video advertisement before accessing a feature or function of the application.
With the Weak Aura strings, that is what a player/streamer has created themselves or had made for them. The Addon itself is free to use.
Some will give away these strings for free, others will put them behind a sub wall. They have no obligation to share their strings with you.
So profiting off an addon’s String [import/exports] is acceptable? I’d be rather miffed if I were the author of that addon for others to make money off your work.
You see it as profiteering, they see it as a perk of being a subscriber.
You are free to write your own version of their weak auras, or modify existing ones, or even just use other people’s on https://wago.io/
Still rather underhanded – wonder if such streamers donate to the author.
That is up to them to decide if they want to support the addon creator.
Why is that underhanded? You can watch the streams for free, and you can make your own WeakAura strings. If a streamer wants to reward his supporters by sharing their auras only with subscribers, then that’s fine with me.
It’s still profiting off someone else’s work, in this case the Weak Aura’s add-on author. And unless said author gave their permission it’s pretty scummy imo.
Usually when people say it’s a “grey area”, it means “it’s likely to be illegal” without saying it. If they’re asking money for it directly that is.
They are the writer of the string, the addon maker is not.
It’s the same as WoW guides for money. Somebody created a tool to help you out ( like r1 players explaining arena ) and they charge money for it.
It’s a grey area and unless Weak Auras author forbids this not much can be done. Still I think plenty of weak auras simillar to what streamers offer can be found on wago I am sure. And if not there are many people proficient enough with Weak Auras addon to recreate that behaviour for free.
The best advice is to just learn how to use the addon. It’s not as complicated as it seems at first glance. And apart some very specific cases with custom code most of the auras are realy easy to create with nice graphical interface. There are tutorials on youtube and Weak Auras documation is also very helpful when learning. Then you don’t need to give any streamer money just to get their weak auras.
In case of WeakAuras2, the license of the addon is GPL2+, which, among other things, requires that any derived work be under the same license. By the GPL2’s definition of derived work, anything that links to (ie, uses functions provided by the software) the software is to be considered derived work, and fall under the terms of the same license. Since many WeakAuras use functions and hooks provided by WA, and are more than just mere configuration and data, they are by this definition, derived works. (Oh, and since Oracle Vs Google, APIs are copyrightable, which makes WA strings being derived work an even stronger case, silly as it may sound.)
So it should be safe to assume that WA strings are GPL, or at least under a compatible license, unless the authors of WA explicitly said that strings do not constitute derived work. (I can’t find any trace of this, mind you.)
In practice, this does not forbid selling strings for money or subscription, the GPL explicitly allows that. But those strings are still under the GPL, so anyone can re-share them, even for free, publicly, because the GPL allows them to, and it does not allow placing additional restrictions on the work. Doing so would violate the license.
Nevertheless, I’m not a lawyer, just someone who happened to work a ton with open source & free software licensing and compliance. 
The back door method.
Now this is the kind of response I like. Very insightful, you have my total appreciation.
That’s the first thing that came to mind. There’s an actual paywall to something like a guide addon, so wouldn’t that be going against their TOS?
But it’s not an addon, that’s the trick. I can write an article about anything (even with copyright) and I can ask money for it. Like every film /music critic do. ( also you can write an article about “Best goldfarming methods in BFA” and charge money for it ) Same goes for WA strings.
Tell that to Zygor at $7.99 a month. I have reported them in the past and guess what? They are still up and running.
Exactly who I thought of, first thing.
Truuuue. It’s an external program, just like TSM. The addon implementation is the free part (as it should be), but the meat of it is the external service.
Those clever nuggets!