Given that the API is to be released under GPL. Does this mean that all plugins for it must also be open sourced? Most plugin authors include their source in the .jar file, but not all. In many cases, that is probably that they didn't bother. However,that is not likely to be the case for all. What counts as a derivative work is still reasonably grey for GPL with regards to plugins. Some say that plugins are completely separate programs and some say that are effectively a combined work. OTOH, the actually linking is being handled by the end user. Ofc, you guys seem to be planning to have a central location for plugins, so that brings it back to being distributed from one source.
Fair enough. I searched for link and exception in the text on github and didn't see an explicit exception. It looks like the standard GPL text. However, granted I am not a lawyer (or willing to read the whole text line by line ).
The licensing of the Bukkit Project is currently as follows: Bukkit - GPL with NO exceptions CraftBukkit - LGPL Before you say anything we are aware that using the GPL will force plugin authors to GPL their plugin too and are considering changes to our choice of licensing. Though this has no legal weight, you can be rest assured that we will NOT be forcing people to GPL or open source their code and are looking for the best licensing for us to use. Once we've looked into this issue enough we'll be announcing our license choices - and our license WILL likely change from just the GPL, but until then the Bukkit is under GPL with NO exceptions (this is not due to us wanting this; I am clarifying that we have not specified any exceptions on the license we've currently applied to Bukkit) and CraftBukkit is under LGPL.
Why? No offense intended, but we are all running other peoples code on our servers so what is the point of all the security stuff from bukkit with certs, MIM Attack mitigation, etc, if the code for the plugins themselves are not available to be audited for security by being open source themselves? Yes, most people who do plugins are wise enough to release the source, but it only takes one bad apple.
