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DMCA Claim Over GPL Non-Compliance Shuts Off Minecraft Plug-Ins
New submitter Maxo-Texas writes One of the primary programmers, Wesley Wolfe (Wolvereness), who contributed over 23,000 lines of code to the Bukkit project (which enhances Minecraft server performance and allows others to write mods and plugins) submitted a DMCA request September 5th, preventing use of his code in the popular Bukkit or Spigot (and numerous other Minecraft plugins, mods, and other open source enhancements that depend on them). This has the effect of freezing all further development for multi-player server Minecraft based on these add-ons until the issue is resolved.
The programmer says that Mojang must release the Minecraft server code to the public domain since decompiled, deobfuscated versions of the Java code are included in the Bukkit project before he will withdraw the DMCA. Mojang has never released the real source code and has stated they will not open source the server code to meet the GPL and LGPL licensing requirements. This approach might be a risk for other GPL and LGPL projects out there which are derivative of or enhance non GPL programs or products. Mojang COO Vu Bui writes in a post at the Bukkit forums The official Minecraft Server software that we have made available is not included in CraftBukkit. Therefore there is no obligation for us to provide the original code or any source code to the Minecraft Server, nor any obligation to authorize its use. Our refusal to make available or authorize the use of the original / source code of the Minecraft Server software cannot therefore be considered to give rise to an infringement of any copyright of Wesley, nor any other person. Wesley’s allegations are therefore wholly unfounded.
The programmer says that Mojang must release the Minecraft server code to the public domain since decompiled, deobfuscated versions of the Java code are included in the Bukkit project before he will withdraw the DMCA. Mojang has never released the real source code and has stated they will not open source the server code to meet the GPL and LGPL licensing requirements. This approach might be a risk for other GPL and LGPL projects out there which are derivative of or enhance non GPL programs or products. Mojang COO Vu Bui writes in a post at the Bukkit forums The official Minecraft Server software that we have made available is not included in CraftBukkit. Therefore there is no obligation for us to provide the original code or any source code to the Minecraft Server, nor any obligation to authorize its use. Our refusal to make available or authorize the use of the original / source code of the Minecraft Server software cannot therefore be considered to give rise to an infringement of any copyright of Wesley, nor any other person. Wesley’s allegations are therefore wholly unfounded.
Since I don't play Mindcraft or pay attention to any of the politics of the game, I'm a little foggy on what exactly the issue is. If I understand things correctly Wesley Wolfe issued a DMCA takedown notice because he contributed code to one or more projects that relied on the closed source game Mindcraft. And now he or others are trying to use this to force Mindcraft to be opened?
If that is the case, boo hoo hoo perhaps you should check the licensing before contributing code next time.
OK, I don't get it either. If somebody is using GPL code and refuses to issue source, it's cut and dried, guilty. But I can't make out whether this is what is going on.
From what recall from hearing about this the other day, it went something like guy decompiles/deobfuscates MC code (it's Java bytecode), makes Bukkit. Bukkit guys get hired by Mojang, eventually someone gets butthurt, decides to DMCA Bukkit. More butthurt happens, and now they're trying to claim GPL on MC because Bukkit used decompiled MC code, thus it is "linked with" MC and GPL viraled.
tl;dr: reverse-engineer code, release it with GPL mods, try to claim GPL viral on original code that was reverse-engineered. I'm pretty sure the GPL doesn't work that way.
A derivative can't affect the licensing of that from which it is derived or adds to. It does work in the opposite direction - an original can force derivatives to follow the same license as the original, but that is a one-way thing. He has no leg to stand on here.
As I understand the story:
So Bukkit and CraftBukkit are both dependent on Server. That does not make Server a derived work. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Server does not include any code from Bukkit or CraftBukkit, right? It runs without them, and the company that owns Server distributes it without them, right?
I don't see how the situation creates a GPL violation. It sounds, in fact, like the copyright that is violated is the copyright Mojang holds for Server, and Mojang has been kind enough to not press charges.
It sounds like the corporate statement made by Vu Bui is spot on, and Wesley Wolfe is trying to spin his own violation as if it were their violation, which is completely backwards. Further he is being a GPL troll, creating the very sort of situation that make companies wary of getting involved with open source communities at all.
To Wesley Wolfe: Thanks a lot, asshole.
craftbukkit (the server software) has always depended on illegally decompiled minecraft server code in order to function as a mod API for the minecraft server. so technically this makes craftbukkit not in compliance with it's own GPL licensing because it uses propritary code which cannot be released under the GPL
one of the top contributors, who knew all along that he was working on a project that was legally grey area, got butthurt and DMCA'd his own contributions.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
I am pretty sure if someone took the binary for GCC and generated source code from it and declared it to be some other license then the FSF might have some objections. Reversing some binary and distributing that work looks to violate the Minecraft license in the first place.
As I understand it Bukkit is a mod licensed under the GPL. The Minecraft server is proprietary. They don't share any code, so individually they're not derivates of anything. CraftBukkit combines the server code with the mod code. This is illegal both ways - the server license doesn't let you link to Bukkit, the Bukkit license doesn't let you link to the proprietary server. Mojang could have shut down CraftBukkit any time they wanted to. But so can any of the Bukkit developers, because it's not in compliance with the GPL either. In this case it looks like neither side has seen in their interest to shut this down - until now.
They're not using the DMCA against the server. They're not claiming they have any legal rights to the server. What they are doing is shutting down any mod or add-on that depends on illegal linking and saying the only way to make this legally compliant is if Minecraft decides to GPL their source code. If they don't all these derivates will remain illegal and the copyright will now be enforced. They're hoping that the Minecraft community has become so dependent on these illegal derivates that Mojave will cave and release the code. Yes, he is using the code for extortion by first writing the code knowing it would be used in violation of copyright and then using copyright law as leverage once it's popular. But this is all the legal kind, you can never be charged for threatening to enforce the law.
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WTF do you want him to do? Contribute his code and then roll over when his license is violated, just so that you can enjoy his work for free? Would you expect any author of proprietary code to do the same? His code is in a project which doesn't depend on the Minecraft server code. It is also, illegally, used in a mod which does depend on the server code. This violation has been going on for a while, but unlike trademark violations, copyright violations don't invalidate the claim if they're not fought.
His code *always* violated this license in this way. That was his decision when he wrote and submitted the code. No one else is violating his license, he was violating theirs. So, yes, I expect him to roll over when people continue using his code exactly the one and only possible way it could ever have been used, which was unambiguously his intent in contributing it in the first place.
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