[Question] What's Allowed?

[ghost]

Hello.

I have a lot of confusion about what's allowed with Craft.Net and it's source code. I know it's MIT and all, but wouldn't that mean modifying is allowed? I don't think it is without contributing back. I would really appreciate it if I could know exactly what's allowed and what's not with the library and source.

-Dan

[ghost]

No answer? :(

[ddevault]

The license is quite liberal. You are permitted to modify it as you please, though you are required to distribute the original license (with copyright in place) and note any changes you've made. However, maintaining a separate or closed source fork is strongly discouraged. I've selected the MIT license to maximize the freedom people have with this library. However, if this is abused, I will likely change the license. The following activities are encouraged:

• Linking Craft.Net without modification against a closed source or separate project
• Modifying Craft.Net and submitting your changes as pull requests

The following is allowed, but strongly discouraged:

• Modifying Craft.Net and not offering contributions back
  • You must document your changes if you do so, and keep the original license in place for unmodified code.
• Maintaining an unofficial fork of Craft.Net

The following is not allowed:

• Discarding or modifying the original license/copyright
• Significantly rebranding Craft.Net, which prevents the original source from being recognizable

If you abuse the "strongly discouraged" category of activities, I'll likely change the license to a more strict one (which hurts everyone). If that happens, all past code (MIT licensed) will remain such, but you will not be allowed to use future updates in the same way.

[ghost]

Thank you very much!

[ghost]

What about using the library?

[ddevault]

In what way?

The following activities are encouraged:

• Linking Craft.Net without modification against a closed source or separate project

See PartyCraft for an example of the ideal way to use Craft.Net in your own projects.

[ghost]

I meant doing what PartyCraft does, linking Craft.Net with modification, under an open-source license.

[ddevault]

PartyCraft does not modify Craft.Net.

[ghost]

Without*

Typo, sorry.

[ddevault]

Yep, that's totally fine. Include it as a git submodule, or just include binaries (if you also include the license).

Note: PartyCraft does not relicense Craft.Net. Your software can be distributed under another license, so long as it's clear that Craft.Net isn't included under that license.

[ghost]

Alright. Thank you very much. I'll be linking Craft.Net to one of my projects soon :+1:

[ddevault]

Be aware, there's some major breaking changes coming soon. Keep an eye on the refactoring branch.

[ghost]

Alright. Thanks for the heads up.

[ghost]

Also, do the same rules apply to LibMinecraft (I know it's defunct and all, but not supported)? https://github.com/vatt849/LibMinecraft

[ddevault]

Yes, but allow me to strongly suggest that you forget LibMinecraft exists.

[ghost]

Alright.

[ghost]

Also, what's going on with the refactor branch? Is that what master is going to look like later?

[ddevault]

Correct.

[ghost]

Also, for Craft.Net, are you allowed to do, for example, instead of referencing it, you add the source to your project, but full credit and copyright for it is given to you? So modifications, but you have full copyright permission to use any of it.

[ddevault]

You are allowed to add it to your project IF you keep the license and copyright in place and disclose your changes, but this is highly discouraged and abusing it will likely lead me to change the license.

[ghost]

Alright. So I can do this if I keep the license right there, if I give you credit in the Readme, description, etc, keep your copyright, and document my changes, it's all good? Can you please define "abusing"?

[ddevault]

In this case, "abusing" probably means "doing it at all." You're on a very short leash, and you have been very abusive of the license in the past.

Why do you want to use it like this so badly?

[ghost]

Not sure. I'm most likely not going to use it.