A question about licences.

So I am making a Bukkit plugin I plan to upload when I finish I read the guidlines and everything. But when I was looking at what you do have to do in order to make a project, it said "Pick a license". So if I were to pick "All Rights Reserved" would it now be copyrighted or all licence of the plugin taken care of? Or do I need to figure out how to manually copyright it.
Thanks in advance
Wampy

 

Copyright is automatic. Simply by the act of creating a work you have the copyrights to it. You can register your work with the government. See http://copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf for information on how to register and what it entails (this is assuming you're in the US).

 

Firstly, please, no one go off on a huge long discussion/debate about CraftBukkit's license issues and the DMCA and Wolvereness and whatnot.

Now: Don't all plugins that are compiled against craftbukkit.jar violate CraftBukkit's license if they're not (L)GPL-compatible? I'm pretty sure that All Rights Reserved isn't compatible with (L)GPL.

 

Yes, though this has been brought up before and seems to be yet another case of playing fast and loose with licensing (which mostly means looking the other way and not enforcing the license).

See:
https://forums.bukkit.org/threads/b...ns-are-breaking-copyright-law-or-worse.38412/

Build using Bukkit.jar and you must be GPL-compatible. This is doubly true if API's remain copyrightable (stupid ruling, but doesn't really alter anything as the Bukkit.jar contains more than just what constitutes an API). A similar situation with CraftBukkit.

Edit:
Also I know you don't want to bring up the current issues, but concerns about the exact situation we're currently in were raised over three years ago.

*cough*

 

LokiChaos Ahahahahahh.... And, from that same thread:

Don't you love it how things like this can blow up in everyone's faces?

Edit: Wait a second, you're right, I don't want to go off on a legal debate... let's make this the last thing about it.

 

Plugins neither modify Bukkit code, nor re-distribute Bukkit code in the plugin.jar (except in rare instances).

 

It creates a derivative work with it. From the Bukkit wiki, on making a plugin:

Code:

    package {$GroupName}.{$ArtifactName};
     
    import org.bukkit.plugin.java.JavaPlugin;
     
    public final class {$ArtifactName} extends JavaPlugin {
     
    }

http://wiki.bukkit.org/Plugin_Tutorial#Creating_the_Plugin.27s_Class

How the GPL applies to this case:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#OOPLang
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#LinkingWithGPL
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLStaticVsDynamic

Unrelated, but worth reading for on Bukkit/CraftBukkit could have handled its licensing originally:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLPluginsInNF
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLIncompatibleLibs

 

That's not how derivative works are defined in copyright law. If merely using an API in your code makes it a derivative work, then there is no such thing as non-derivative works. For example, by that logic you could say that Bukkit is a derivative work of Sun/Oracle, which is obviously not the case.

The GPL is a license which grants you rights to do things that would otherwise be protected by copyright law. If you are not infringing on the copyright in the first place, then the terms of the GPL don't apply.

 

from what I understand in short is that GPL is not a direct copyright.

but instead GPL implies that the code is not ment for any commercial purpose, and thereof protects the persons whoever made the software his right that the software must be free, and also includes the same license.

however there are also author related copyrights automatic added to the person who made it, but I don't know how these are called plus I know these are very dificult per country aswell.

 

You are right, it is copyleft.