Open Letter to our non-friendly forks
WARNING: This is a long script about Ethics and Morals between L2j and their Forks.
Over the past 6 years L2j has been working openly and widely with the community as any Open Source Project, providing as many tools and information as possible for their users, community and other projects to use, distribute and modify L2j as they wish to.
We in L2j believe that:
- An Open Source Project is about people producing free and open software and contributing to something as a team for the benefit of others.
- Open Source Projects reflect the spirit of collaboration and fun while learning new abilities and gathering community feedback and providing good support for further development.
- Open Source Projects are open to the participation of anybody who can contribute value and is willing to work with the community.
A good thing about an Open Source Project is that when you cannot get the software to meet your needs, GNU GPL allows you to Fork this software and create your own version, and make the necessary changes to the code to meet your needs. There are other reasons of why to Fork a GNU GPL software, If they don’t accept your features or patches, If the core developers reject to go in a direction that community members want, If the core developers don’t agree between themselves on what direction to go in.
Not liking or not trusting the core developers of the project is not a good reason to fork the project. Also, being worried that the core developers, at some time in the future, will do something you won’t like is not a good reason to fork the project.
Forking divides efforts as the two projects often take slightly different turns. The result of the fork is that the two versions of the code diverge, even though they share the same interface and most of the background logic. This creates a series of problems, of a technical nature, that reflects on the non-technical attributes of a program.
(Note: to integrate the projects there must, once again, be a common base of code all projects use.
A forked project reuses a big part of the code from the original project. This causes code duplication, with its usual problems, and one in particular: security risks. A forked project is usually vulnerable to the problems the original project had, unless that part of the code has been rewritten or modified with time. As the forks evolve, authors often miss the security issues fixed by their ancestor, making it harder for developers to track the issues down.
Another common problem is the division of users’ contributions. Users usually just report issues to one project, the one they use. So either the developers of the two projects exchange information about the bugs they fix in the common code, or the problems will likely be ignored by one of the two projects, making the distance between the projects increase.
GNU GPL nature is about FREEDOM, you are free to fork if you want to, there’s nothing wrong with that, also forking provides more distribution ways for the project, making it widely spread over all the other child projects it ensure that the project will exists even if the father project cease to exist, the freedom not only to use and modify the sources, but also to distribute and resell our releases under another brand name.
We in L2j ARE NOT against the forking of our software, we are PROUD of it. There is no good open source project without a fork.
But something that concerns us is the lack of responsibility and respect toward the original L2j Project, their Community, their Developers and the lack of attribution to the work that the L2j Community does.
We have seen how some forks take the L2j source code and remove ALL the L2j copyright notices from any of the source files or documentation. They also remove the author credits from source code, comments, and documentation. We have seen some (worse) cases when *forks* rebrand L2j as their own *created* software claiming themselves as the original authors.
We have tried to contact them but the answers that we have commonly received are:
- F**K OFF!!! *you have been banned from this channel*
- You are S**T and L2J is S**T too
- GTFO!!!
- We don’t care…
- <no reply>
This believe it or not, is a common scenario in L2j relationships with their un-friendly Forks when we ask for the attribution that we DESERVE for all the work we do, for free, for all of you, and for *them* and *their* users, because those “groups” that we refuse to call Forks steal our code and rebrand it as their own, for their “perfect working” software with “all features enabled”.
They intentionally make false accusations against the original L2j Project, about the lack of updates, lack of features and terribly performance and coding, they claim that their own versions have over 50% better performance (witch they have shown no proof of) all exploits fixed and no bugs, badmouthing the original project in order to get more attention to their own one.
Then, when you look at their repositories trac/svn, you find, that most of the “features” and “fixes” that they have added are just leeched from L2j repositories, but they don’t mention it, they dont give credit back to the people who made it, just with a simple “sync to xxx l2j” they copy-paste code taken from our sources with previously removed credits, and then claim that they “fixed it!” They do not even credit the original authors of the software or code patches.
So, how would you feel good about this if it happened to you? Your work, that takes you weeks, months or years to complete is *stolen* by a group of thieves? Not only your work as a Developer, but also, the work of your Community that gives their biggest effort into making good contributions and publish them in our forums. Have you noticed how many their “features” and “fixes” have been taken straight from our forums and they don’t even give a “Thanks” for it; neither giving attribution to where they found it nor mention the author of that public contribution?
Bork, fork, bork, fork, bork, fork!
Whilst the people who work hard on creating the software really despise this attitude, it has to be very clearly stated this is in fact not violating the GNU GPL at all. For as long a third party offers the binaries and the sources and in compliance with the GNU GPL, it is legal.
This is, of course, not counting the people who remove the copyright and license sections. That IS illegal, violating the GNU license which we use.
GNU GPL Freedom let you modifiy the code as much as you want, and that includes any line of code even if those lines contain author attribution info. Its’ a common practice in OSF to retain the original author attribution info comments in the source untouched, only modified to ADD your own attribution info below the original one. The only exception would be if you have COMPLETELY rewritten the function or piece of code of such author, then you could ”update” the attribution info to yourself. However, whereas GPL implies this kind of freedom, it doesn’t allow to deny or violate associated copyrights.
All Free Software projects benefit from free distribution, and there’s no reason to be ashamed of it by hiding that with obscure brands and refusing to credit the makers.
Such practice can be found in L2j Source Code in many places, also in our Trac when some changeset is done, authors are mentioned and given proper attribution, if the code submited has @Author info, those arent removed, but that is not the case with some un-friendly forks, and as we in L2j dont have the time to put a fight with a group of underground punks, we have just ignored them for a long time.
But every new day comes and we receive mails and comments from users about this, and we can’t not just sit idle without feeling frustration about this; it even discourages us to keep working on this project. Maybe many of you can remember our past April Fools Joke, so many people believed it because it was so close to the reality, that it was almost a certain future for L2j.
In fact, we can just make L2j a Private Open Source Developement, and sell licences to get access to the binaries and source code, and this in compliance with the GNU GPL, it is legal.
But we in L2j don’t work for money, we have never asked for money for our work (donations are used to pay server rent fees). We work for the spirit of collaboration and fun, if gives us more satisfaction to know that a lot of people is using our software happily, meeting with people from all places around the earth and FOR TEH LULZ.
We also collaborate with friendly forks, working hand in hand responsibly. Some of them are members of the Team or participate on our forums actively.
We are sending this open letter to the whole community to understand our position, and maybe… the measures that we would have to take in order to confront this situation. There are several ways to make L2j “hard-to-fork” without violating the GNU GPL, we could close the Trac, disable the “View/Download Diff” function, we could also bump big changesets with over 9000 changes instead of several small patches but that would hurt the whole community of people who really cares and contribute. That’s not our goal.
With this letter we make a final call to our un-friendly forks to show some ethic and comply with L2j in a few things:
- Choose the same license type as the original L2j project, GNU GPL v3.
- On your project web site make it clear that you are a fork of L2j, explain why if you want to. Dont confuse the people about the nature your project.
- Do not remove the names of developers or copyright notices from any of the source files or documentation.
- If you Sync to our repository, make clear which version or revision was synced, hyperlink to it if possible.
- You cannot use any logo from L2j websites without permission of the (c) owners.
That’s it!
We are not asking nothing else, we are not asking to stop their development or activities, we are not asking to change the direction of their project or their ideals, we are just asking for the attribution that the whole L2j Community deserve.
Regards
The L2j Team
they doesnt deserve to leech anything just commit the heavy updates and lets see their asses
Very true! I hope this will enlighten forks to keep their work honest and to respect the copyright of L2J.
Well said you guys… seriously some forks are really ridiculous.. :/
Years ago when i started the whole l2j thing i was using a fork (don’t want to mention which) and i didn’t even know about the original project (that’s probably cause the fork had like no credits of original project at all) but after discovering the original l2j and its awesome community i changed right away.. i mean even IF another fork was indeed 50% faster and no bugs etc l2j would be still better just because of its community.. i could give some real examples of how awful the community of some (if not all) forks are.. but never mind there is no point to go that far.. im sure you know what i mean anyway.
Im with you all the way guys.. i hope some people actually read this and show some damn deserved respect… i mean seriously.. :\
I really do admire the l2j team because although they know many people steal their credit and hard work they still do EVERYTHING 4 FREE and they don’t charge 4 their brains being fried on pc’s all night……..
And for rhes so called “unfriendly-forks”
I got you all condoms,since you act like dicks you should dress the part to !!!!!!
I completely back you up on this one, I use your work for self testing purposes for my own learning benefit, including setting up database, playing with the database, testing bots, testing packets, providing a truly private testing environment for myself and up to 50 members and I respect your work.
I hope the retards start to wake up and see the work you all have done.
I am rooting for you,
mpj123
Total nonsense….
L2j is the only one i have ever used or help build. you all rock thanks 100x over and over again for letting us all have so much fun with this project. it is stupid and selfish of them to take your work and not share any of theres. not help in Forums ect. worst part of all these fork projects is a newbie trying to learn everything and gets confused with all the cross info you find because there are so many projects. it causes mass confusion and im shur alot give up due to it and just take the pre built files. LAME your not only part of the problem your creating more prolbems for everyone cant we all just get along and be a spork wouldnt the end goal be better for everyone.
I’ve been doing programming for the lineage2 for many years, and very often come across stolen copyrights, almost everyone who wants to, but do not know how to show him myself, trying to get ahead on assignments of other people.
For me, during the existence of l2j are only three teams, open sourced. Grinhope, violator, and you guys, all of you since that time.
You – mothership of all l2j projects, keep up your impressive work, never mind about this forks, they just ugly.
I know how you feel when you find their work under other people’s copyrights, but that they had washed it all, let them be themselves and feel worthless, after all, you experience something amazing, when your code, albeit under foreign copyrights in great success.
Thank you for your work!
L2J-Forks
Absolutly right with all comments exposed here, I have to add that using forks that those people are sharing, stealing codes and credits, shouldn’t be used.
Maybe thoses guys, have added some usefulls customs, but, the lack of ethics doing what they did and the way they have answered to you, lack of education and respect, say a lot of them.
Their work shouldn’t be used.
Let me adding some fun, if you go to restaurant and you hear to the waiter “go to the hell, fuck you, piece of shit” will you take a sit and let them server you? This is same case, just for selfish, if you want the best for you, those forks should be away from your hands.
Just to finnish, I don’t want be longer than the resume above
I have to be thankful for whole the work and the attitude that you put on this GNU.
I LOVE L2JServer and L2J TEAM !!!
вы отцы L2j, я уважаю ваш продукт
You fathers L2j, I respect your product
Thank’s From french Guys for Your perfect Work 6 years Past and always here for L2J ..
Close the trac, and make heavy updates!! F?Uk L2DC! they are all liers, using L2j, and claiming it is better! l2j is best F&ck the LEECHERS!
Nice post, I had the same thoughts many times regarding different kind of L2J forks that keep all code changes secret and as already mentioned, remove the L2J credits.
Without you people coding L2J they would have nothing, I fail to understand how they can’t understand that.
I always worked with original source in mind, having a Open SVN and giving bug fixes etc. back to the original community.
It is a shame that not every fork administrator has the same point of view.
I guess they didn’t even bother to read the GPL.
Keep up the good work you have done over so many years, and THANK YOU for providing me with a project that made it possible for me to learn coding.
That ladies and gentlemen, is the best part of L2J!
Stay yourself! You are the best team I’ve seen. Thank you for your work!
estoy de acuerdo con dejar los creditos para l2j, yo en mi caso los elimine para colocarlos en otro lugar, creo que para mi es lo mismo.
hay gente que solo los elimina en sus foros solo colocan que ello han creado el server y lo unico que realizaron es la edicion de eliminar los creaditos y o agregar un par de cosas, y se quedan con el credito.
repito yo cambie el lugar de estos para una mejor estetica.
L2DC is 100% better than l2j cuz they are more expierenced developers…
Yo siempre dejo los créditos de todos los trabajos de quien sea ya sea que me los pasó como GPL o porque me dio permiso exclusivo o porque me los regaló y me cedió todos los derechos.
El autor de algo es el autor, nadie se lo puede quitar.
Por más que otros borren los créditos de alguna u otra forma lo terminaremos sabiendo siempre.
Y bueno, yo opino que es un acto tonto pero lo hacen por ignorantes. Son el tipo de personas con quienes no vale mucho la pena relacionarse. Al menos hasta que aprendan que lo que están haciendo está mal y se corrijan.
Saludos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssmr76gFLwM
Hello,
My Skype: soulhound-
Add Me “ThePhoenixBird” I’m Interested in.
I think I can Help you guys
“In fact, we can just make L2j a Private Open Source Developement, and sell licences to get access to the binaries and source code, and this in compliance with the GNU GPL, it is legal.”
Unless you own all the code (ie its entirely copyrighted to you) this is not actually true.
the GPL puts the distribution with a large meaning on purpose, which enforces one thing:
if you distribute binaries to anyone, free or paid, you must provide the sources to *everyone*. you may ask a fee for these sources that is no more than your own costs to send the said sources (usually its just free since hosted on servers but it could be like 0.1$ for bandwidth or $5 for a cd via the post office)
And yes, people ripping copyrights should be pursued. Actually if you do own all the copyrights you could make easy money. You win 1 time in court (easy win in that case) and get probably $10 000, then you automatically win all other cases (at this point just sending a cease and desist is enough for people to stop infringing the law)
ops per my previous post:
“Unless you own all the code (ie its entirely copyrighted to you) this is not actually true.”
in that case it also means you relicense the code under a non-GPL license, or dual license it of course.
Gentlemen, the developers say when the next release?
I work hard (and alone, as all members who used to work with me are all in private projects), and i try to keep (always) the original credit from whoever the code was writter.
I agree people should (and must) use the GPL and never use others code’s as their own.
I guess i speak for a huge ammount of developers who uses the stability and good codes from L2jServer to improve their own source. I do that and never removed a single word of ownership or instruceted any member who worked with me to do the same. I hope you guys keep up the good work, and also think that sharing is the best way to evolve. Nobody can know all the things at all times, and often the knowledge you think to be unique is also known by other people, and the same occurs fot things you don’t know or not understand yet, someone probably know it, and that don’t mean you have to steal that person knowledge just to contiune to believe you are ‘the one’.
All my sources are open source, and anyone is welcome to criticize me.
Hey guys im new to l2j i used to play l2 in private servers some years ago, now im about to graduate in systems engineering, so i decided to try to learn to make my own private l2 server. searching i found this project, and let me tell you guys im REALLY IMPRESSED. When i found out its based on java language, i was really happy and counftable
but the coding must have been a hard work and giving it out for free??? THX!!!! really im transforming the code for my own server but let me tell you that all the copyright its from you guys im not doing nothing but changing a little your complete and great developed code!!! 
thx so muchh FROM COLOMBIA 
From last facts, as I know, You are now private closed source project. In public svn are published only some non-important buxfixes and features.
So from now I can call all active developers from l2j project hipocryts. No wonder – many from l2jserver developers are owners of own private servers, so no deal to publish work and share with community.
Its nothing wrong, but stop complaining about “non-friendly” forks. And please, stop using l2jserver name from now – You are fork of old, opensourced project named l2jserver, estabilished many years ago by L2Chef and supported by many programers who contribute zillion line of code to project.