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. Offline

    Novustorious

    Bukkit, you guys were absolutely amazing. Thank you for everything! :)
     
  3. Offline

    caseif

    Check the edit and previous replies.
     
  4. Offline

    Novustorious

  5. Offline

    caseif

    ...it's not shutting down.
     
  6. Offline

    obscurehero

    when did Mojang buy Bukkit? What are the terms of that sale? Isn't that a bit odd? Even legally speaking...
     
  7. Offline

    ZanderMan9

    ...
    I am teary-eyed reading this. Watching what is possibly the greatest project ever fall to ruin because people have to be greedy stabs me in the heart. If pay-to-win servers weren't an issue, Bukkit would not be in this state.

    Let me give all the pay-to-win server owners a massive sarcastic thank-you for eating Bukkit, and shitting it back out all over the honest hard workers that made and used it.

    On another note...
    Perhaps we should boycott 1.8? Show Mojang that we refuse to tolerate being punished for others' asinine actions? I personally am staying in 1.7 regardless of whether the whole boycott thing happens or not...

    Maybe this will all blow over. IDK. Maybe once Mojang feels that pay-to-win servers are no longer around, they will loosen up and allow Bukkit to continue?

    But on yet another, and hopefully better, note...
    Thank you so much Bukkit. You are the reason I am who I am today. If not for you, I'd never have learned any sort of programming language, I'd never have met the amazing people that come from your community, I'd never have learned to think as I do today... And... I would probably have no motivation. I come home thinking How can I improve my code, What's the latest news on the Bukkit forums, How are all my good friends doing? If Bukkit is gone, all of that is gone. Never have I felt such a passion about anything else. I regret to say that as I feel Bukkit fade away, so do I feel my passion fade with it.

    Nice job, greedy, imperfect Humanity. GG.
     
    xYourFreindx likes this.
  8. Offline

    Skyost

    I think it is time to clarify some things !
    I have read too many bullshits in the previous pages (cc Otisdiver, chubykid3 and the others).
    This is not the end of Bukkit, Dinnerbone said many times that he will update it for 1.8.
    After that, I think we did not need it anymore. The modding (and / or plugin) API will replace it.

    So, here are some answers :
    Is there any solution for the servers ? Yes. As an user of Bukkit, you will not notice any change.
    And when the modding API will comes out ? The Bukkit plugins will not be compatible with it, so they will need to be rewrote.

    So please, stop saying that Mojang is killing Minecraft ! This is completely false and you know it, they do not have any interest.
    First, they implement everything you, players want in their game.
    Second, to the people who said "thei willl seling bukkit" or "realms suck !!! mojang want to impose it !!!!!". This is wrong. Here is a link to an article which says that if Mojang stops to have incomes (which is totally impossible), they still can paid their employees for ten years.

    So stop saying bullshits. Mojang does not kill Minecraft but you, you will.

    PS : Sorry for my bad language, I am from France.
     
    1mpre55, Rydian, Etian and 3 others like this.
  9. Offline

    MineStein

    I am just about done with Minecraft. Mojang seriously needs a better/new advisor.
     
    drtshock likes this.
  10. Offline

    Enzer

    No one knows, they bought the "name and code" from Curse, who apparently acquired it when Bukkit merged with them in rerturn for financial support. It is mentioned here in the third to last paragraph: http://dinnerbone.com/blog/2013/01/06/story-bone-and-bukkit/

    The exact specifics of the sale is unknown, but at the same time I don't remember the original Bukkit development team publicly discussing Curse's acquisition at the time (though I could be misremembering). Would be interesting if Mojang expanded upon it, but I doubt we will learn more.

    You should check out the rest of the thread (honestly the OP should be updated with all known information to help inform people). Mojang came out earlier today that they have owned Bukkit for the past 2.5 years and that they will not allow Bukkit to be shut down. Dinnerbone will be personally updating Bukkit to 1.8. So at least in the meantime Bukkit is not being shut down. :)
     
    obscurehero likes this.
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    ZanderMan9

    Regardless of whether Bukkit "dies" or not, I think there should be a fitting funeral for the old times, because the old times are dead. Bukkit will not be the same again no matter what happens.
     
  12. Offline

    AngryCola

    Unless the official Minecraft API comes out soon, for the modders and plugin devs minecraft isn't much any more.
    I wish I never had to say this but Minecraft may be coming its end
     
  13. Offline

    obscurehero

    Enzer - Thanks; Excellent answer to my question. Should be stickied in some way so people can contextualize this.
     
  14. Offline

    Cr4xy

    what is happening
     
  15. Invisible

    caucow

    Knowing that Spigot is just a mod of Bukkit its not likely that they will be able to keep the whole project alive and seeing as their legal situation is probably more shady than this one it is possible they might be shutting down too... Goodbye bukkit. For now at least. And when I wake up tomorrow hopefully the number of spammy tweets and emails directed at Mojang by various developers and players (as I'm sure there will be plenty) will convince them to allow the continuation of the Bukkit project and draw up some kind of legal contract to eliminate the gray space plaguing this project since the beginning. With the project on hold until further notice I can only imagine how many developers and server owners will assume the fetal position under the nearest table and suck their thumb helplessly while staring at the computer screen across the room, all source and server files set to read-only mode, unable to play BugKiller or add another exploding kitten to the world they have spent years of their life living in. Hah. And to think I was going to be able to continue working on my first plugin after the big update. RIP #ServerSideTrolling.
     
  16. Offline

    Zenok

    Bye Bukkit, bye minecraft..
     
  17. Offline

    Cr4xy

  18. Offline

    Enzer

    Mostly overreactions. EvilSeph has stepped down from developing Bukkit, Dinnerbone has stepped up to develop Bukkit for 1.8.

    Seeing that Mojang hasn't done anything to Spigot in the two and a half years they've owned Bukkit, I don't see why they would do something now. There is no EULA issue here at all outside of silly conspiracy theories. :p

    Also, please read recent information. Mojang did not shut down Bukkit, EvilSeph decided to step down from development and decided to close Bukkit when he did, Mojang said no, you cannot shut down Bukkit, and Dinnerbone will be maintaining Bukkit for the time being and has started developing the 1.8 version of Bukkit already.

    There is nothing stopping you from continuing your work on your plugin. :)

    Bukkit isn't going anywhere, EvilSeph just stepped down.

    Yes, all that is saying is that Dinnerbone will personally make sure Bukkit updates for 1.8.
     
    Cr4xy likes this.
  19. Offline

    sablednah

    So has any server been shutdown over the EULA yet? I see its now 20 days after the notice period and I haven't heard of any server shutting down* or being issued notice? According to the doomsayers we should all be buried under an avalanche of litigation by now? Where are the queues of server owners outside the courts?

    *Before someone gets smart - I mean servers that weren't loosing money before anyways - ones that as a direct result of changing income model to comply with the EULA have had to close down. And not ones that just closes as a kneejerk without even trying.
     
    drtshock likes this.
  20. Offline

    AnorZaken

    Oh. That didn't really occur to me until you pointed it out. Important observation.

    This thread (why not the whole forum) really need a "jump-to-next-post-with-likes"-button! :p Would save soooo much time reading misunderstandings and garbage.
     
  21. Offline

    Ultimate_n00b

    Look here. Dinnerbone was one of the original authors who did a lot of coding on it. Bukkit's his baby. He'll make sure it will keep on going until it's not needed (aka official mod api). We have nothing to worry about. Everything will continue on as normal.
     
  22. Offline

    Enzer

    I haven't head anything personally, though Mojang doesn't typically make public their dealings with infractions on their Brand (which is what the Exceptions to the EULA has been pushed into, for those not aware).

    They apparently have a form you can report infractions to (which they made to clear up the flood of reports they were getting through their support center). My guess is that they are waiting for the Commercial Use Guidelines (as talked about here: https://help.mojang.com/customer/portal/articles/1590522-minecraft-commercial-use-guidelines ) to be finished. After the Comerical Use Guidelines is made public they would be smart to amend an additional grace period, but who knows what they'll do. When the Guidelines are up they would send legal warning to those who are still infringing on Mojang's Brand (the same as they do with people who try to sell Minecraft merchandise without proper license) and then I assume legal takes over if the warning is ignored.

    Not to drag this into an open discussion on the EULA (I'm sure many people are sick and tired of hearing about it already), but their plan seems to be to not change the EULA, but keep the one that has been standing for some time now. Monetization will be properly covered under their Commercial Use clauses (there is no reason for it to be in the EULA to begin with). This means they can ease up on monetization issues, clarify issues and add additional exemptions without having to rewrite the EULA each time.

    Still not everyone will be happy, but the final documentation isn't even out yet at this point. *shrug*.

    That is all I really have to say on that. :p
     

  23. Wrong video.
     
  24. Offline

    sablednah


    Yeah only referring to EULA as Seph quoted it as the prime reason for quitting. And everyone is being as up-in-arms about it as ever :/

    My point was the predicted apocalypse has not occurred. I'm sure if people had received a warning they would be quite vocal about it even if Mojang aren't. I don't doubt that once guidelines are finished being translated to Legalease then some worst offenders will be noticed - and I Phear the stampede of DramaLamas the day that happens... :/ but the mass wipeout just isn't gonna happen.

    I half expect it to start showing in buzzfeed headlines - "10 amazing reasons why Evil EULA will take your children and murder your wife!"
     
    Enzer likes this.
  25. Offline

    MoeMix

    ummm... what are you talking about --> Inventory inv =Bukkit.createInventory(null, slots, "custom inventory name");
     
  26. Congrats! You created an inventory! Now change its name please.
     
  27. Offline

    Sage905

    Honestly, I'm still a little unclear on where everything stands legally...

    I understand that Dinnerbone helped create Bukkit, and that there was some sort of "agreement" when the Bukkit guys were hired by Mojang, that gives them some sort of "rights" to Bukkit.

    While acknowledging the huge contribution that he made to Bukkit, I find Dinnerbone's comments that he "wrote it" to be a bit of an overreach. I have watched a lot of commits come into my inbox in the past year that had a lot of other names on them. It is my belief that these people made no legal commitment to turn over their copyright to Bukkit and/or Mojang, so I'm confused as to its legal status. I'm still curious to know who really "owns" Bukkit, but it's probably moot.

    I'm greatly appreciative that Mojang is going to come swooping in to save the day, now that EvilSeph is burnt out. I think the thing that is bothering me the most about this whole thing, though, is that Mojang seems to mostly have ignored Bukkit development (certainly in the past year that I have been paying attention). A whole lot of people have contributed a great deal into making the Bukkit API and implementing it against Mojang's code. All the while, Mojang has apparently "owned" Bukkit, but put very little into it, instead relying on the efforts of a volunteer community to keep it alive. Now that one of the main contributors in the community has burned out of the effort, Mojang has taken an interest in it. Something about this just feels wrong, though I can't quite articulate it.

    I don't want to perpetuate any sort of flame war on this. I think that mostly, I want to say thanks. Thanks to EvilSeph, and all the core devs for keeping this thing going for as long as you have. I don't know what the future holds, under Mojang's leadership of this project, but I know that this community has created something that I enjoyed spending my time writing plugins for. Bukkit helped me rekindle an appreciation for Java, and learn a lot along the way.

    Cheers,
    Sage
     
    Skye likes this.
  28. Offline

    MoeMix

    I'm not sure I understand. What exactly is the "name" of an inventory?
     
  29. This is my understanding/prediction of the situation:
    1. EvilSeph didn't like the new enforcement of the EULA (quite rightly may I add)
    2. EvilSeph left the bukkit team, and attempted to shut it down.
    3. Mojang cancelled that and revealed that they have owned Bukkit for 2.5 years. (Wasn't a secret, but wasn't exactly publicly announced "OMG Bukkit bought by Mojang!1!1!!1!1!!!111")
    4. Bukkit is now being continued, but probably only until 1.8, then by 1.9 the plugin API should be done and then all the plugins will have to be approved by Mojang, and every single plugin will have to be rewritten.
    5. Basically Mojang is going to wreck the multiplayer community ie. they don't like people receiving donations for their hard work setting up servers. (Oh wait they don't mind donations for sh*tty things like a nickname or something. Still, they don't want people to be able to pay for stuff in game - it should be up to the server owner: if players don't like a server because its too pay-to-win then they should just find a different server).
    6. Everyone started to panic because they didn't know what was happening,
    7. The Mojang fanboys decided to start backing up Mojang saying how awesome they are.
    8. Everyone suddenly realised that Spigot is the last chance. If Mojang takes spigot down (probably for distributing Minecraft or some sneaky legal sh*t) then the majority of the Minecraft community will be dead (unless Mojang do some massive turnaround with their plan of the community. Oh wait no, that would be returning it to how Notch originally intended it. At the beginning, before it even took off)
    9. tl;dr Bukkit lead dev left. Tried to shut down. Mojang stopped. Mojang trying to ruin community. Spigot last chance.

    Don't even get me started on Realms.
     
    StealthBravo likes this.
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