Open Source Mods

I think more mods on Planet Minecraft should be open source and licensed. Why, you ask? First off, what do those even mean? Well, open source refers to a category of mods where it's source code is viewable by the general public. (via Github, CodePlex, SourceForge, etc) Licensing refers to the act of associating one's project (code or not) with what's called a license, which is just a written document, so that if anyone is caught doing things with one's project that goes against what the license states, then the developers of the project have the right to take action against the perpetrators, and end their disrespectful act.

I think this will greatly help anyone who's new to the modding community to get a better feel for how these mods are made, they will also serve as a great reference guide for anything that someone has trouble working with (i.e. NBT Data, Modeling, etc). Open source mods exist for that particular reason. I greatly benefit from looking at the code of open source mods such as Equivalent Exchange 3 and BuildCraft because I get to see how these professional mod-makers do all of this cool stuff with their mod. Sure, if you're starting out, then it's going to be really hard to understand, since a lot of referencing to other methods and classes are needed to keep the mod manageable. However, once you get a good grasp on Java and modding for Minecraft, then reading the code is like reading a book, it's quite easy to learn what's going on.

Now about the licensing. Most mods these days don't seem to be protected by anything. That's not a very good thing, since anyone with a brain can steal someone else's unprotected mod. Now I know there aren't many cases on PMC where someone is stupid enough to steal someone else's mod, mostly because it's usually a very popular mod and the description says nothin about the mod itself, and since those mods are licensed, then those popular mods are even more protected against idiots such as those. Sometimes, though, the stolen mods aren't licensed at all, and the perpetrator is usually too stupid to point that out. Most Minecraft mods use free licenses to protect them, like the GNU GPL, Apache Free License, etc.

Licensing goes hand-in-hand with making a code project open source, since open source mods can be stolen much more easily. Although a license doesn't completely protect everything, it does a good job at it, and it's usually pretty easy to tell if someone's project is stolen or being used in the wrong way. If you want to be a mod developer, then consider what I've stated here. I've actually created a free license that anyone who wishes to make a Minecraft mod and protect their work can use. An official copy can be found here: http://diabolusneil.weebly.com/public-license.html If you want to keep up with the changes made to the license, then you can check out the Github repository: https://github.com/DiabolusNeil/DMML.

Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!