Originally Posted by
LordEntrails
That's not what I said. Nor am I aware of anyone else making that statement.
Please understand nuance. I said to 'me it was not a significant problem. To me it is much less of a problem than the harm I believe will happen if their is an attempt to force a license upon community devs'. This 'harm' has been supported by community devs who have stated they are opposed to such mandatory licensing. Their is a very big difference between my stance and the one you say people are arguing.
It is disrespectful to demean someone by saying "throws a tantrum". Though that may be your interpretation of what happened, I'm pretty certain both SmiteWorks and the dev who recently left the community stated that was not what happened. And, disrespecting community devs by demeaning their choices certainly doesn't help the community.
The first thing you have to understand is that when a community developer posts or shares an extension, they retain all rights to that extension unless they explicitly state otherwise. That's the way the law works (despite what many people assume; that once something is posted to the internet anyone can use it however they want). Their is a common understanding that anything posted on these forums can be used non-commercially by anyone (hence why it's posted), but their is still the understanding that any other dev who wishes to use the code should ask before doing so (which as far as I know has always been granted). Even SmiteWorks is restricted by this, they too need to ask before they incorporate someone's code.
API keys stored in plain text files distributed via a forum are not secure. Unless such extensions where distributed via the FG Updater and stored in the vault, anyone could simple open up an extension and pull out any other dev's API key and use it to 'authorize' their extension. Plain text API keys can be secure, but not in the current FG distribution model and not without other infrastructure. But, lets really not devolve into a big debate on specifics of API keys, because any API key structure require infrastructure. Infrastructure that requires resources, that takes away from SmiteWork's ability to otherwise support and enhance FG.
This, enforcing a licensing in order to obtain a API key is what is restrictive. Not the API key itself. A license by its very definition IS restrictive, even copyleft type licenses are restrictive because they restrict the creator's right after initial publishing. Some people think any restriction is draconian. Some of those people are or might become FG Community Developers. People who perceive things as 'draconian' are likely to react by not contributing.
Right now (because their is no forced license community content must be released under) devs who feel all such community content should be released to the public domain can do so. Devs who feel that they should retain some or all of their rights can do. All devs can contribute in the manner in which they feel is appropriate.