On September 3rd, 2014, a disgruntled ex-developer erased from the internet the work of over 150 developers over four years. This is the story of the Bukkit Minecraft server project's demise, and how you protect your project from its fate. Presented at Silicon Valley Code Camp 2014: http://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Session/2014/kicking-the-bukkit-anatomy-of-an-open-source-meltdown

1. Kicking the Bukkit
Anatomy of an open source meltdown

2. A little about me
● Ryan Michela (@ryanmichela)
● Plugin author
● Contributor to the Bukkit project

3. Overview
● A brief history of Minecraft
● The rise and fall of Bukkit
● How you can protect your project

4. Brief history of Minecraft
● Minecraft is a sandbox style video game
started by Markus “Notch” Presson in 2009
for Mojang Software
● 3rd best selling video game of all time
● >54 million copies
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-26-minecrafts-console-versions-have-now-outsold-minecraft-on-pc-mac

7. Brief history of Minecraft
● Beloved by children
● The defining video game of the middle-school
generation
● The Super Mario Brothers of the 21st
century

9. The genesis of the Bukkit project
● Bukkit - an open-source Minecraft server
platform
● Plugin platform for Minecraft
● Started in December 2010 by Dinnerbone,
Evilseph, Grum, and Tahg
https://github.com/Bukkit/Bukkit/commit/4e8311a6551e8d7794cff73c57a481251b47459c

10. Licensing questions plague infant project
● By January, 2011, the core team started
worrying about licensing issues
● Bukkit licensed LGPL, but built on
decompiled Minecraft source
● Decompiled Mojang code blended into
Bukkit repository
http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/where-is-my-bukkit-preview.543/

11. Mixed signals from Mojang
Nov 2010: “First of all, most “mods” that add new
features to the game are in a very gray area legally, and
I frown upon them. Most of them add really cool new
features, though. It’s highly likely that something like the
bridge mod will make it into the game.” - Notch
http://notch.tumblr.com/post/1525944516/an-update-is-coming-tomorrow

12. Mixed signals from Mojang
August 2012: “Personally, I used to feel threatened by it as
I felt it challenged my “vision,” but on the other hand, I also
know how wonderful mods are for games. We decided to
just let it happen, and I’m very happy we did. Mods are a
huge reason of what Minecraft is.” - Notch
http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/01/notch-minecraft-mod-used-to-threaten-my-vision-minecraft-creator-speaks/

13. Mojang hires Bukkit team
● Feb 28, 2012 - Mojang hires core Bukkit team to work
on official modding API
● Mojang offers to help with Bukkit
○ “We will, however, help bukkit to be compatible with
1.2, to avoid having a long gap while you wait for the
official Minecraft server to catch up.”
● Licensing fears mostly alleviated
http://mojang.com/2012/02/minecraft-team-strengthened/

15. But darkness was brewing in the
community
● Opportunistic server owners started charging for in-game
perks, calling them “donations”
● Angry parents complain to Mojang
● "I don’t even know how many emails we’ve gotten from
parents, asking for their hundred dollars back their
kid spent on an item pack on a server we have no
control over." - Notch
http://notch.net/2014/06/literally-worse-than-ea/

16. Pay-to-win becomes commonplace
● Big servers start
selling off in-game
functionality
● $10k for “rank” in a
game targeted at
children

17. Mojang updates its EULA (and fails
at public relations)
● June, 2014 - Mojang awkwardly chastises for-profit server
owners on IRC
○ “doesn't matter at all, based on plugins or not, you
cannot make money with Minecraft without our
permission :)”
○ “running servers is *NOT* A BUSINESS*”
○ “We'll ask nicely and then send really mean lawyers :)”
http://blog.tian.io/mojang-threatens-lawyers-against-pay-to-win-minecraft-server-operators

18. https://twitter.com/notch/status/474869769301409792

19. EULA changes drop bombshell on Bukkit
● “The one major rule is that you must not distribute
anything we‘ve made.”
● “so that we are crystal clear, what we have made
includes, but is not limited to, the client or the server
software for our Game. It also includes modified
versions of a Game, part of it or anything else we‘ve
made.”
https://account.mojang.com/documents/minecraft_eula

20. Evilseph shutters Bukkit project
● August 21, 2014
● Development team burnt out
● No support from Mojang
● EULA re-raises specter of infringement

21. “At this point in time, I think it's safe to say that it's no
longer worth it for us to put up a fight when it comes to
keeping Bukkit and modding alive. With large and
significant changes coming in Minecraft 1.8 that we'll be
hard pressed to provide support for and the lack of support
from Mojang with updates since acquiring our original core
team (Mojang used to provide us with mappings to speed
up the update process), there is little motivation for us to
continue limping on across various aspects of the
project.”
- Evilseph
http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/bukkit-its-time-to-say.305106/

22. Mojang owns bukkit?!
● Mojang secretly bought Bukkit when they
hired the core development team
https://storify.com/lukegb/the-tale-of-bukkit-for-minecraft-1-8

23. Mojang will finish Bukkit

25. Then the DMCA gets involved
September 3, 2014 - Wolvereness, a long-time Bukkit
developer, files a DMCA takedown notice against all
versions of Bukkit hosted on the main Bukkit download
servers at Multiplay

26. Wolvereness’ Claim
The provided license requires the use of included or linking code to
provide the original source under the GNU GPL license version 3, or any
later version. An official notice has been sent to Mojang AB, whereas the
Chief Operating Officer, Vu Bui, responded with the clear text:
Mojang has not authorized the inclusion of any of its proprietary
Minecraft software (including its Minecraft Server software) within the
Bukkit project to be included in or made subject to any GPL or LGPL
license, or indeed any other open source license
As the Minecraft Server software is included in CraftBukkit, and the
original code has not been provided or its use authorized, this is a
violation of my copyright. I have a good faith belief the distribution of
CraftBukkit includes content of which the distribution is not authorized by
the copyright owner, it's agent, or the law.
http://dl.bukkit.org/dmca/notification.txt

27. Gone from the internet
● September 5, 2014 - Wolvereness shuts
down Bukkit repo on GitHub
● September 6, 2014 - Wolvereness shuts
down SpigotMC and Cauldron, forks of
Bukkt
https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2014-09-05-CraftBukkit.md
http://www.spigotmc.org/threads/our-dmca-response.28772/

29. Great new things in the future
● Sponge Project steps up
● Microsoft buys Mojang - $2.5B
http://abc13.com/news/software-writer-in-la-marque-latest-swatting-victim/305170/
https://mojang.com/2014/09/yes-were-being-bought-by-microsoft

31. Five Reasons

32. Reason 1: Questionable inclusion of
decompiled code in an open source
project
● Bukkit built on top of partially decompiled
Mojang code
● Mojang code blended with Bukkit code in
Github

33. Reason 2: Questionable application
of (L)GPL3
● GPL3 chosen without proper consideration
of consequences
● Unmodified Mojang .class files distributed as
part of Bukkit .jar using Maven shade
● LGPL3 explicitly bans linking and distributing
non-free code

34. Reason 3: Questionable relationship
with Mojang Software
● What exactly did Mojang buy? Bukkit code?
Logos? Domains? - Nobody knows
● Mojang success was built on the backs of
volunteers
○ Reverse engineering is torturous work
○ Some developers feel they were taken advantage of

35. Reason 4: No contributor license
agreement
● 125+ developers each own their own piece
of Bukkit
● Project couldn’t re-license with more
permissive license

36. Reason 5: Unhappy developer
community
● EULA changes
● Terrible Mojang PR
● Secretly selling the project

37. It only takes one unhappy developer
to kill an unprotected project

39. Thoroughly consider your license
before your first commit
● Which license do you choose?
○ MIT?
○ Apache?
○ GPL?
○ Other?
● Changing your license after accepting
contributions is not trivial

40. www.choosealicense.com

41. ● Node
● Bootstrap
● JQuery
● Rails
● Apache.*
● Docker
● NuGet
● Android
● Linux
● Git
● Mongo (AGPL)
● Discourse

42. MIT vs. Apache
Permissive licensing
● MIT - Do whatever you want
● Apache - Patent protection

43. GPL vs. LGPL vs. AGPL
Restrictive licensing
● GPL - products
● LGPL - libraries
● AGPL - network services

44. http://oss-watch.ac.uk/apps/licdiff/

45. Thoroughly vet the licenses of all
components you modify or link
against
● If your dependencies licenses are
incompatible with your license, your license
may be invalid
● http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html
● Unlicensed code is a landmine

46. Common license compatibility
David A. Wheeler, The Free-Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) License Slide
http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/floss-license-slide.html

47. Avoid uncommon or “off brand”
licenses
● Legal ramifications less understood
● License compatibility less understood
● Don’t “roll your own”

48. Consider a Contributor License
Agreement
● Typically grants or transfers copyright to the
project
● http://www.clahub.com - for Github projects

50. Avoid pinning the survival of
your open-source project on
the good graces of a for-profit
company

51. Avoid directly linking to
closed source code in an
open source project

52. Avoid alienating your entire
developer community
simultaneously

53. Avoid operating your project
in another company’s legal
gray area

54. And especially:
Don’t secretly sell your open
source project to a for-profit
company while continuing to
accept contributions