It is deeply discouraging to witness the prevalence of content theft within the gaming community. A recent incident involving the unauthorized redistribution of PleaseBugMeNot’s work on the 6.68 AI BETA highlights a significant issue: when developers are exploited, it directly impacts the longevity and quality of the projects they maintain. This situation has understandably left the developer demotivated, casting doubt on the future development of DotA AI.
To understand the gravity of this situation, we must look at the developer's own perspective regarding the integrity of his work:
"Hello, again. I stood up from bed today and what i see... my work on some shitty copy-paste blog. Wtf? Too bad the version they got is too old... it doesn`t even have the -alldagons mode. The bots are with broken item builds and i bet all 6.68c content isn`t even there. The reworked skills are the old ones. It`s a pity how shitty websites try to earn from others work. I hope everyone who supports me will add this website to his "banned" list. Such a behavior doesn`t help.. it`s demotivating and just PLAIN WRONG. Now i have to fight with myself to start working on the script again. If you didn`t know, editing 90 000 obfuscated lines needs fully determination and concentration and those nasty people doesn`t help maintaining my comfort level. Well, now i don`t care what i`ll release from now on. Working or not you`ll have the AI map... but i`ll rethink my future involvement with developing further updates. Good work dota-utilities. You better hire up an AI dev from now on.... that way u`ll have more interesting updates without blatantly STEALING things."
From the perspective of the DFD team, our editorial policy is clear: while we believe in the importance of distributing AI maps to the DotA community—as these are free resources—this must be done with absolute respect for intellectual property. We advocate for providing rightful credit and acknowledging the original creators, such as PleaseBugMeNot, rather than claiming work as one's own.
The technical complexity involved in maintaining these scripts, which include over 90,000 lines of obfuscated code, requires immense focus. When third-party sites prioritize traffic over ethical standards, they jeopardize the very community they claim to serve. We invite you to reflect on the actions of dota-utilities and dota-blog: is this the standard we want for the community, or should we demand better accountability for those who curate our favorite mods?