Bukkit: It's time to say ...

Discussion in 'Community News and Announcements' started by EvilSeph, Aug 21, 2014.

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    EvilSeph

    [​IMG]


    When we first set out to add our personal touch to what hMod offered the community 3 and a half years ago, none of us foresaw the success the Bukkit project would end up having. From a rocky start that wasn't of our own making (hMod suddenly disappeared without warning while we were just starting up the project, leaving us ill-prepared to fill the void left over), we stepped up to the challenge and managed to put together a usable, respectable alternative to other server mods. We even went so far as to improve on the Minecraft server itself. I can proudly and confidently say that Bukkit was and is a success: not only were we able to provide a platform for hundreds of thousands of Developers to build upon and make use of, we were also frequently providing our Server Admins with peace of mind knowing that the latest exploits and security holes were addressed in a timely and responsible manner.

    From the get go we were plagued with issues and obstacles we needed to overcome, one of which we were sadly unable to tackle despite our best efforts: the legal barrier of licensing and permission. When starting the Bukkit project and even getting involved with hMod before that, we all knew that our work - no matter how well-intentioned - fell into a dangerous legal grey area. As such, my first priority at the start was to do things right: contact Mojang to try and get permission to continue on with the project and discuss our licensing. Unfortunately, while we did get into contact with Mojang and managed to have a chat with Notch and Jeb themselves (who have said that they don't like our methods but understand that there isn't any alternative and are thus fine with what we were and are doing), we never did get an official meeting with their business side to get legally sound permission to continue as we were and were unable to sort out our licensing issues. To this day we find our project in limbo with a half-applied license some could argue is invalid and little power on our end to do anything about the situation.

    With that realisation came a nagging unease at the back of our minds that at any point in time Mojang could decide they didn't like what we were doing and shut us down - something we were all expecting for the first year or so of the project's life but, to our surprise, never occurred. Naturally, Mojang's conscious decision to not take action on our project gave us the confidence to continue on (something which I'm sure Server Admins out there can relate to given the recent, sudden and unexpected EULA enforcement) and we even later got further confirmation from Notch himself that we were and are allowed to keep proceeding as we always had.

    Fast forward to more recent times and Mojang have made the abrupt and sudden decision to start enforcing their EULA in an effort to quell the outlook of Minecraft being pay to win. While I can completely understand where they are coming from and support their mission to shut down pay to win servers, it's difficult to be supportive of their abrupt turn-around with enforcing rules they consciously decided not to enforce since the start of Minecraft. On top of this, there are also clauses - which it would be irresponsible of us not to be aware of - within the now suddenly enforced EULA that directly affect the Bukkit project.

    Most notably: "The one major rule is that you must not distribute anything we've made". While the EULA does go on to try and clarify what is meant by "anything we've made", I feel that it only serves to confuse the situation even more so. At the end of the day, it seems that Mojang can determine what is a "mod, plugin or hack" of their game on the fly and their recent abrupt turn-around on enforcing the EULA has us understandably worried. Couple this with the fact that it isn't legally viable or acceptable to enforce the EULA piecemeal and our future is clear.

    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. From a project management standpoint, it's become increasingly difficult to find willing and able individuals to help out the project on a purely voluntary basis due to people losing interest in Minecraft or people looking for something more. Simply put, this was ultimately the final nail in the coffin.

    Nonetheless, no one can deny that we've had a fantastic run as a project. This is due in no small part to the support we received and continue to receive from both the Minecraft community and the many companies and organisations that have graciously chosen to support us with a ridiculous amount of resources, infrastructure and backing - far more than we could have ever asked for. No amount of words can adequately express the gratitude we have for all our sponsors who have supported us through our journey and ensured Bukkit had the infrastructure required to be the vast success it is today. To list all of what these sponsors have done for us would be a post equal in length to this one, so we will unfortunately need to keep it brief. We want to give huge shout-outs and thanks to: eXophase.com for getting us off our feet and hosting us at the start; Multiplay and Curse for swooping in and providing us with (emergency) hosting we continue to use to this day including dl.bukkit.org and our BukkitDev service; as well as AllGamer for providing us test servers whenever we needed a server to certify update and promoted builds or attempt to reproduce a bug report.

    Last, but definitely not least, we'd like to thank the many staff, both past and present, that have volunteered countless hours over the years. I am at a loss for words to express just how much these people have meant to the project and to myself. The core team who have constantly worked hard to update to every new Minecraft version, while adding in new API and improving the server itself. The BukkitDev staff who spend countless hours checking over the fantastic plugins our community creates. Our moderation staff keeping our forums orderly and safe for all people seeking out a great community to be a part of. Additionally, the many unsung people who have helped in various ways despite having no official title, simply because there was work to do. Finally, my administrators, who have tirelessly helped me keep the project functioning as a whole. I would especially like to thank TnT and mbaxter for sticking through it with me to the end, always ready to discuss an issue and provide me with advice.

    It's been a fantastic 3 and a half years of providing what we believe to be the absolute best modding platform for the wonderful Minecraft community to use. We really enjoyed seeing the amazing feats our many Developers and Server Admins achieved with the product we provided and continue to be amazed every day at the ingenuity our community shows. Thanks for everyone's continued support! It has and will continue to mean the world to us. Together we were able to provide a Minecraft server used by hundreds of thousands of servers out there (with our last Recommended Build having over 2.6 million downloads!), which is certainly something to be proud of and a great note to end on.

    This is the end, it's time to say goodbye. It's been an amazing run and we achieved much more than anyone thought was possible, even ultimately culminating in Mojang hiring our original core team. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and the Bukkit project has run its course, leaving me to make one final - incredibly difficult - decision to shut down the project I’ve poured 3 and a half years of my life into which means so much to me. We're no longer able to confidently distribute our modified versions of the Minecraft server and it is no longer smart for us to continue with our update process. Sadly, this means we will NOT be updating Bukkit nor CraftBukkit for Minecraft 1.8 and, since Minecraft 1.7.10 introduced the EULA enforcement, we will be placing the project under a code freeze for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, due to obvious legal reasons we will not be helping anyone else complete any updates nor sharing our methods despite any desire to the contrary. Although the project itself will essentially be no more, we'll continue to support our community, the forums, IRC and BukkitDev as long as we are able and as long as our partners support us with the resources and infrastructure to do so.

    As for us? Well, who knows? Maybe we'll find another game, program or project to be passionate about and we'll be back with a vengeance? Only time will tell, but I hope that we'll see you around the next passion-project of ours when it happens :)


    [lukegb]There's more to come on this. Please read this for more information about where we stand.[/lukegb]
     
  2. Case closed.
     
    user_90854156 likes this.
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    Jameshobbs

    What I dont get is EvilSeph was at Minecon in 2012 talking about the official API.

     
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    chaseoes

    and..? What aren't you getting?
     
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    StealthBravo

    That was long before the EULA popped out of nowhere, and that video talking about the API doesn't mean anything. He left Mojang last year.
     
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    Jameshobbs


    From the questions he answered it sounded like he was deeply invested in the development of the official API. So I am confused why he would go behind Mojang and declare bukkit is going to have a code freeze.
     
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    _Hokal_

    Would like to see some official words on what is going on exactly. The community is obviously full of questions that have yet to be answered. So until then, this is pretty entertaining to watch.

    [​IMG]
     
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    Necrodoom

    Yes - advertising unofficial builds is still not supported here, no matter how you try to twist it.
     
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    JWhy

    It's simply not legal to publish CraftBukkit builds.
     
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    Allwinda94

    However guys whoever say something about "legal", by the irony of life, you will be one of the first people using "illegal" and "unnoficial" builds. Even if you say so. Just keep it down and wait to clarify position of bukkit towards 1.8 from devs
     
  11. Offline

    Blue_Blaze72


    They've been going out of their way to make it harder for servers to exist as they have been for years. Every update gets harder to keep things intact and lately it feels like they have been breaking current functionality ("Fixing bugs") intentionally. Mojang has been slowly changing from it's dynamic open policy into what it is now. It is because of the open environment that developers flocked to minecraft, giving it the rich diversity and making it as popular as it is today. Thanks to servers, mods, youtube, and more Mojang never needed to spend on advertising. Also, the EULA did not change, they just suddenly decided after years that they wanted to enforce it. Legal or not, that isn't the way to go about it. The upper bukkit staff such as EvilSeph and TNT left for a reason, and it's beyond what's been obviously stated. No company will simply go out and say "Yeah, screw you guys, we don't want you around anymore" they are generally more subtle about it to make for better PR and keep the regular players like you.
     
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    superpeanut911

    Of course it's legal, it's open source, nor is it a violation of the license (AFAIK). I simply see no need to push away a project that has improved upon the original.
     
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    _LB

    Example?
    Being open source does not grant the right to freely distribute.
     
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    Kawaii Teen

    Is Bukkit ever going to come back?
     
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    Xenoyia

    This is disgusting.

    You talk about how you did this all for the community, yet you suddenly throw all of the people who were loyal to you for many years out on the streets. Great job screwing over the community. It feels like you're going out of your way to do this to us.
     
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    Tirelessly

    He's not disowning his son, he's giving up control of a piece of software that you play games with. Get over yourself.
     
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    buckwild307

    This is worse a joke than the EULA. If bukkit goes down then, MineCraft is gone because then they'll sue everyone else as well.
     
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    fultrim

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    uvbeenzaned

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    Tucalipe

    So... According to "the real story", Bukkit and CraftBukkit are both owned by Mojang, which will continue developing bukkit, as soon as Dinnerbone manages to move master control to him, while Wolvereness' claims are unfounded since he's incorrectly quoting the GNU licence, meaning we, mortals can only sit tight, and wait until Mojang says something public about all this?
    Did I get it right? :D
     
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    Boeing747guy

    I feel like Mojang did this just to get Bukkit completely in their hands and control.
    Though that probably means Bukkit could be released sooner now.
     
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    Enricom100

    This has been great and I'd like to thank you for making this possible. You guys are the best. I hate good byes :(. But I'll just say cya later. It's been an honor.
     
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    glasseater

    Been so nice meeting all of you. I would like to thank: timtower @Onlineids @ZodiacTheories . I know I haven't talked to you all personally, but you all have helped me in some way; for that I would like to thank you.
    Best of luck to everyone, and hope we can still keep in contact, through forums or IRC chat. Once again, thank you <3
     
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    Enricom100

    Its unfair that mojang hast to take bukkit away from you. You created it you should keep it its unfair.
     
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    Elhackandy

    Thanks for all, Bukkit is good project, Forever in memories thanks team developers
    Since 2011 - 2014 - EvilSeph and team :'(
    Gracias por todo Bukkit - Thanks for everything Bukkit
    Sorry my english is BAD
     
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    FelitonCloud

    Mojang isn't the one who sent the DMCA. They bought Bukkit along time ago once some of the Dev team transfered to work on Minecraft its self. They own it, not to mention member such as Dinnerbone and Grumm were lead contributers to Bukkit. It's absurd to say it's one mans works, not to mention that they're not "Taking it away" from him, they're just continuing the project and helping the community by doing such.
     
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    morshu9001

    Uh… so like 99% of all servers are now going to be stuck on 1.7 forever or go vanilla? Is there any alternative? This easily tops the shock I received when Facebook suddenly changed their API.
     
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    bastion

    Absolutely, Shut Bukkit Down! We don't need a 1.8 build, 1.7.10 forever if you already have it, No more builds, No more downloads, Support the DMCA shutdown of dl.bukkit.org. Support the fight against Mojang with the leadership and devs. Go Team Bukkit, No more Free Software.
     
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    wrecktify

    uhhhhhhhhhhhh?? no ^^
     
  30. Offline

    Musaddict


    Ahh, EvilSeph, it seems our time butting heads has finally come to an end, for the time being it seems. I must say, it's a little rewarding to see that you've had a taste of your own medicine:

    Your medicine: http://forums.bukkit.org/threads/so-no-tips.61214/



    That said, I'm sad to see you guys go. I have you all to thank for launching my video game development business.
     
  31. Offline

    feildmaster

    Except... He had a policy that he enforced the entire time? So... not really.
     
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