[Note: This article was a momentarily radical personal opinion and is for reference only. I no longer think this way now.]
The Free Software Foundation once stated: “The only purpose of purchasing proprietary software is to study it for the development of free software.”
Minecraft Education Edition has swept campuses around the world as a brand-new educational tool, but we have ignored its risk: proprietary software.
Recently I saw an article on Hacker News:
Is It Even Worth Working on FOSS Anymore?
It mentioned one point: why do people make open source projects on top of closed-source software and still talk about it with relish?
The article says “Do not contribute open source projects for closed-source software” (Don’t work on FOSS that supports a SaaS or proprietary product.), and so it discussed that Minecraft (My World, Dangge Chuangshishen, Maikuai) mods also have this phenomenon.
This is a problem worth discussing. Most users do not realize the value of free software, and Minecraft has precisely this flaw. Even when other alternatives exist, users still pour effort into developing works for the proprietary software Minecraft.
To discuss this issue, we have to begin with the definitions of free software and mods, then discuss the relationship between mods and Minecraft. After that, I will explain why, if you want to support free software, you should not continue playing Minecraft.
0. Terminology#
Proprietary software is closed-source software. Users cannot view or modify the program source code, and they cannot distribute it freely, otherwise it constitutes piracy.
By comparison, open source software is free software. The code is public, and some terms stipulate that if you modify the code after distributing it, you must also open source it and contribute it back to the community.
Free software has nothing to do with price. Software that is free of charge is not necessarily free software; and free software can also charge money as long as its source code is public.
A mod is a form of software that modifies gameplay. Some are developed by players cracking games on their own, while others are made by players using APIs officially provided for mod creation. Usually, for games with many mods, game developers do not control players too much, unless players turn the tables and sell the game bundled with mods.
1. Minecraft Is Proprietary Software#
Is Minecraft open source software? No. It has always been proprietary software. Please see the EULA written by Mojang, which specifies the obligations buyers must follow. These include “you may not freely distribute this game,” as well as “we allow distribution of Mods, but not cracked or modded versions of the game client or server software,” and “you only own the content you create; you never own our code or content.”
Minecraft does not allow free distribution, and the source code has never been officially released, whether Java Edition, Bedrock Edition, Education Edition, Raspberry Pi Edition, or China Edition. Even though the Raspberry Pi Edition can be obtained for free, it only has binaries and no source code. So Minecraft is proprietary software.
Then why do some people say it is open source? Usually they are referring to the versions obtained by the modding community after decompiling Java Edition Minecraft and then creating mapping tables to make it run with mod loaders for easier mod development. For example, the developers of Forge and Fabric provide their respective mapping tables.
Even if the modloader is open source, that does not change the fact that Minecraft itself is proprietary software.
2. The Relationship Between Minecraft Mods and Proprietary Software#
Minecraft is divided into Java Edition and Bedrock Edition, and they need to be discussed separately. Java Edition is commonly called the PC version, while Bedrock Edition is the cross-platform version written in C++, including Windows/phones/game consoles.
In the EULA, Mojang writes the following about mods and player-created content:
Any Mods you create for the game are yours (including pre-run Mods and in-memory Mods), and you have absolute control over them, provided that you do not sell/attempt to profit from them and do not distribute modded versions of the game. Remember, Mods are your original content, and this content does not include substantial parts of our code or content. You only own what you create; you never own our code or content.
Java Edition#
The Forge mod loader is licensed under LGPLv2, allowing part of the code to be referenced without open sourcing the work. Fabric is licensed under Apache 2.0, and it can also be used without publishing source code.
As well-known large mods become more famous, most gradually become open source. In fact, we have also seen cases where mod developers hide their source code and do not publish it, causing conflicts with other mods and requiring communication with the author to fix them, such as the disputes between early GregTech and Tinkers’ Construct.
In addition, player-made mods can charge money. But Mojang’s EULA states that mods cannot be “sold.” Therefore, technically, mod authors use platforms like Patreon to require users to “sponsor” them before obtaining mod files, which avoids the problem of selling. An even simpler method is to make the download link into a short URL containing many ads and passively earn income.
Up to this point, we have still been talking about Java Edition. The situation with Bedrock Edition is different.
Bedrock Edition#
Bedrock Edition once had a period when playing mods depended on a third-party mod loader similar to Forge, namely Zhouwei Zhang’s “BlockLauncher,” also known as the “ModPE Script” era, which could only run on the Android platform. BlockLauncher is open source software licensed under Apache 2.0. Although the author made free and paid versions to distinguish features, the source code was published on Github.
The mod format that later became popular was “Add-On,” which became an officially supported API provided by Mojang and could be guaranteed to work on Bedrock Edition across platforms. Because these APIs are reliable, they gave creators the opportunity to list works and make money on the marketplace officially operated by Mojang. However, Minecraft’s EULA still states that mods cannot be sold, so at most the marketplace sells maps that contain mods. Players also began to develop mods and share them for free like Java Edition, and Bedrock Edition gradually formed an online modding community without requiring purchases from the marketplace.
In addition, Bedrock Edition now also has the Russian InnerCore community developing mods similar to BlockLauncher. Its mod loader uses a proprietary license, but its momentum is far smaller than the officially promoted Add-On.
Therefore, the situation with Bedrock Edition Add-On is completely different from Java Edition mod loaders. The Bedrock Edition mod loader is built into the game, so even the mod loader is not open source. In terms of openness, it is even worse than the Java Edition mod ecosystem.
3. The Positive and Negative Effects of Minecraft Mods#
If mod authors do not choose an appropriate open source license, copyright remains all rights reserved. But according to Minecraft’s EULA, player-made mods cannot be used for commercial purposes.
Mod developers will more or less encounter the question of whether to open source, because mainstream mod APIs do not require mandatory open sourcing. Worse still, mod developers may steal one another’s code without notification, or in countries with weak legal awareness, someone may steal open source mods for commercial sales and turn them into closed-source software.
That is enough about the chaos of the modding world. Let us talk about the positive effects. The development of Minecraft mods up to today has brought the game even greater popularity. Vanilla Minecraft can already be played for a long time, and after installing mods, it becomes another world, not to mention multiplayer gameplay with servers and the like! Mojang maintains an open attitude toward mods. Even in Bedrock Edition, Mojang also publishes officially supported mod APIs, which helps extend the life of the game. Many developers discovered the joy of programming through making mods, which also made Minecraft an educational tool, even leading to Minecraft programming camps.
4. Playing Minecraft Mainly for Mods Is Still Supporting Proprietary Software#
Returning to the question discussed at the beginning of this article: why are people happy to make open source mods on closed-source software?
This problem may be due to community factors. Only when there are enough players and a large enough audience will more developers be attracted to invest effort, forming a cycle where the big get bigger. Mods appeared in Mojang’s official promotional video for the Java Edition & Bedrock Edition bundle, showing that Mojang officials still hold a positive attitude toward mods. Making mods gives people a sense of honor when their names become known by many.