Our Stance on Scraping CurseForge and Unauthorized Use of Our APIs

Clarification #2 — This post was once again edited on October 26th, 2020, to give more context around the use of the word “scraping”. When we wrote this post originally, we were addressing a larger issue with scraping CurseForge in multiple games (not just WoW). Scraping was and remains a serious issue for CurseForge. But seeing the community concern on how our stance will affect 3rd party addon & mod managers for WoW (who don’t scrape CurseForge, but rather use the CurseForge API without authorization or consent), we updated the post to draw a line between those who scrape, and those who use the CurseForge API without consent.

Clarification — This post has been edited to address the inaccuracies posted on Reddit and Twitter. We have not, nor are we planning to send cease and desist letters, or close down access to 3rd party mod managers. We are actively seeking conversations with these developers to find sustainable solutions to the following items:

• Authors’ consent when it comes to third party distribution of their creations
• How to address the impact on Authors’ earnings
• How to lessen the impact on CurseForge’s servers and CDN

To be clear: nothing is changing, and we’re not turning off access for any 3rd party managers. We’re just looking to have a discussion and find solutions.

From 2013 until today, our focus at Overwolf was to build a framework for in-game creators. We’ve been fortunate to have some success in that, with many creators making a living by building gaming apps. Read more here, or here. As a framework for in-game creators, we felt like the natural next step for us will be to support mod authors. Recently, Twitch chose us as the new home for CurseForge, and we were honored and excited to get things rolling.

The CurseForge community includes over 30,000 creators (mod and addon authors). These creators passionately build their projects — some do it as a hobby, and some invest a tremendous amount of hours and labor into their creations. We believe that mod authors deserve to get rewarded for their creations. This is not only the right thing to do, it is also our way as part of a community to give back to authors, which helps them keep on improving their creations, for the benefit of the community.

Twitch has been rewarding creators for the past years through the Authors Rewards Program. Our plans at Overwolf, are to significantly increase the support for mod authors. As a first step, we aim to double the support authors currently get. We believe we can do much more than that over time.

Unauthorized Use of the CurseForge API

CurseForge does not have an official API for 3rd parties who want to download files from its servers. The way some addon managers operate today, is by reverse engineering the calls between the Twitch Client and the CurseForge backend. A good analogy is someone reverse engineering the Spotify app to stream songs from Spotify’s servers without receiving Spotify’s or the artists’ consent to do so.

Unauthorized use of the CurseForge API introduces challenges that need solving. Most notably:

• Authors did not give their consent to have their creations distributed outside CurseForge
• Authors’ earnings will be impacted, as CurseForge has no way of monitoring engagement outside its own ecosystem, and changes are coming to the rewards program
• Downloads originated from 3rd party services rely on CurseForge servers and CDN, incurring substantial costs and offering nothing to cover them

Our Feedback on What’s Cool and What’s Not?

Regarding scraping — CurseForge has been scrapped forever. The team at Twitch has been fighting it and sending cease & desist letters or blocking IPs for years. Following up on Twitch’s stance against scraping, we see value in drawing clear lines in the sand that no form of scraping the CurseForge repository will ever be ok.

Regarding 3rd party addon managers who use the CurseForge API without consent — If you plan on using CurseForge’s servers, please reach out so we can find a sustainable way to collaborate.

What’s Next?

We started having an open dialogue with mod manager creators to address the fundamental issues above. While we don’t have a clear solution yet, we’re keen on finding ways to co-exist.

Just to be clear: nothing is expected to change in the coming months, and we’re not turning off access for any 3rd party managers. Later this year as Twitch will be sunsetting the “mods” tab in the Twitch client, we hope you’ll choose the new CurseForge app as your new addon manager because of great features and your desire to support authors, and not because it’s the only option out there.

We’re excited to finally release the first build of CurseForge beta to the public on November 3rd, and prepare to fully take control from Twitch in mid November. You’re invited to check out the beta and share your thoughts here.