Comment Re:Bass Ackward (Score 1) 354
You're completely correct, but you're missing a key point: the derivative wasn't based on the original, but rather on an illegally reverse-engineered version of the original, and now the company that owns the original owns the derivative, as well as the legal responsibility to stop using the illegally-included code in the derivative.
Basically:
1) A community-built derivative (Bukkit) is dependent on an unlicensed, illegally reverse-engineered version (henceforth, UIREV) of the original (Minecraft Server).
2) The derivative is being distributed with the UIREV, but the UIREV is stolen and thus isn't (L)GPL'd, which means it legally cannot be included in the project.
3) For a number of years, everyone chose to ignore that inconvenient fact.
4) Instead of C&Ding the derivative, the original company hires the derivatives devs and buys the rights to it, but doesn't tell anyone it bought the rights.
5) Two years go by.
6) Drama ensues between the community and the company over something unrelated, and a lead contributor to the derivative tries to pull the plug on it.
7) The company keeps the derivative alive by revealing that it owns the rights.
8) The contributor figures that now is a good time to point out that the derivative has been operating illegally this whole time.
9) The contributor demands that the company fix the issue by replacing the illegal code with code that is properly licensed under the (L)GPL.
10) The company says, "no".
11) The contributor demands that the company remove his code from the derivative.
12) The company points out that he gave up his rights to his edits at the time that he contributed them.
More or less, the DMCA claim is likely unfounded, since he likely did give up any rights he had to the code he contributed. Moreover, IANAL, but it would appear to me that the only entity which would have any legal standing for asserting in court that the derivative is infringing on the (L)GPL would be the one whose proprietary code is being illegally included...and they're the ones who own the derivative now, so they have no reason to do so.