diff --git a/inc/parser/handler.php b/inc/parser/handler.php
index 1de981b4842436d39eab4bbc256558b88e1facc3..63a4104e2c910c5b3f3765c4441691e05cb39246 100644
--- a/inc/parser/handler.php
+++ b/inc/parser/handler.php
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class Doku_Handler {
      */
     function plugin($match, $state, $pos, $pluginname){
         $data = array($match);
-        $plugin =& plugin_load('syntax',$pluginname);
+        $plugin = plugin_load('syntax',$pluginname);
         if($plugin != null){
             $data = $plugin->handle($match, $state, $pos, $this);
         }
diff --git a/lib/plugins/action.php b/lib/plugins/action.php
index 04b4f07a6458243ea1f0370282187d9125b87131..4b5eef60a8b7e23ce3517158dd7524b7952dd05f 100644
--- a/lib/plugins/action.php
+++ b/lib/plugins/action.php
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ class DokuWiki_Action_Plugin extends DokuWiki_Plugin {
     /**
      * Registers a callback function for a given event
      */
-    function register(Doku_Event_Handler $controller) {
+    public function register(Doku_Event_Handler $controller) {
         trigger_error('register() not implemented in '.get_class($this), E_USER_WARNING);
     }
 }
diff --git a/lib/plugins/config/settings/extra.class.php b/lib/plugins/config/settings/extra.class.php
index d0f99fa8ff7b3eb3130813fdee305b9d45bb8eab..83de802a3b94714f90ce94a6c185e58d4b5dcc81 100644
--- a/lib/plugins/config/settings/extra.class.php
+++ b/lib/plugins/config/settings/extra.class.php
@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@ if (!class_exists('setting_renderer')) {
             $format = $this->_format;
 
             foreach (plugin_list('renderer') as $plugin) {
-                $renderer =& plugin_load('renderer',$plugin);
+                $renderer = plugin_load('renderer',$plugin);
                 if (method_exists($renderer,'canRender') && $renderer->canRender($format)) {
                     $this->_choices[] = $plugin;
 
diff --git a/lib/plugins/plugin/classes/ap_info.class.php b/lib/plugins/plugin/classes/ap_info.class.php
index b3826b9447635ede2d5865905988169907c2324f..89b78fa2db3888864519baec0bfdda10a435c3d4 100644
--- a/lib/plugins/plugin/classes/ap_info.class.php
+++ b/lib/plugins/plugin/classes/ap_info.class.php
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ class ap_info extends ap_manage {
         usort($component_list, array($this,'component_sort'));
 
         foreach ($component_list as $component) {
-            if (($obj = &plugin_load($component['type'],$component['name'],false,true)) === null) continue;
+            if (($obj = plugin_load($component['type'],$component['name'],false,true)) === null) continue;
 
             $compname = explode('_',$component['name']);
             if($compname[1]){