Since Mojang changed the EULA, we're forced to accept their EULA before running a server. The most important rule is: You're not allowed to earn money in any way with Minecraft. This doesn't make any sense at all and it also destroys the community. Let me explain that last thing:
Server owners will stop running servers because they're not allowed to earn money with it, so they can't pay the bills and developers. Minecraft artists, who make parodys, drawings and more, aren't allowed to sell their work as it's using Minecrafts content. Mojang has to change this, or it'll destroy the game and its community.
I don't see the big deal. What is written in the EULA is vague at best and open to interpretation. I don't see anything changing, and Rakanoth summed it up nicely.
Ugh, great. I was hoping the overgrown sense of entitlement that has been flying around Twitter and Reddit lately wouldn't spill over into our forums... At least I get to post this early on in this topic.
Here's what I think: No. To all of your post. First and foremost, Mojang didn't "change" the EULA. The whole "you can't sell (parts of) our game" and stuff have always been there, they just never bothered to point out how people were violating it.
Literally no company allows you to profit off of the hard work they put into their videogame.
...
Please explain why should Minecraft be any different.
..
Because Mojang is randomly changing something that literally fuels the entire minecraft multiplayer experience. . This community and network has been growing for over 3 solid years without Mojang's interference. People make above minimum wage creating plugins, minecraft artwork. This community is EXTREMELY robust and growing rapidly. Please don't destroy it.
Do you want to know why these server owners are making so much money? Because we are dedicated, passionate and strive to create more and more. It's called innovation, Mojang is communist to knowingly kill it.
Erik Boes, a mojang employee has been HARASSING server owners. Not something very mature.
If posting that link is against the rules, I will photoshop it out. However; this is Erik Broes, in a minecraft owner skype chat telling a owner the link to the largest's minecraft server's network files. A very horrible and illegal crime. GG Mojang, well played.
Do you want to know why these server owners are making so much money? Because we are dedicated, passionate and strive to create more and more. It's called innovation, Mojang is communist to knowingly kill it.
No, they're trying to stop people from making money from their game. I would have done the same. Who said that donations are illegal? Also, you know what communism is, right?
Erik Boes, a mojang employee has been HARASSING server owners. Not something very mature.
If posting that link is against the rules, I will photoshop it out. However; this is Erik Broes, in a minecraft owner skype chat telling a owner the link to the largest's minecraft server's network files. A very horrible and illegal crime. GG Mojang, well played.
Granted, my opinion of that cesspool of testosterone- and immaturity-fueled entitlement called "Reddit" is even lower than my opinion of Mojang, so chances of me signing a petition that started are exceptionally low but I'll hear you out, Bjarn...
Since Mojang changed the EULA, we're forced to accept their EULA before running a server. The most important rule is: You're not allowed to earn money in any way with Minecraft. This doesn't make any sense at all and it also destroys the community. Let me explain that last thing:
Server owners will stop running servers because they're not allowed to earn money with it, so they can't pay the bills and developers. Minecraft artists, who make parodys, drawings and more, aren't allowed to sell their work as it's using Minecrafts content. Mojang has to change this, or it'll destroy the game and its community.
/facepalm
OK, I don't now how old you are, but let me explain something: THIS IS NOT HOW THIS WORLD WORKS.
There's no way in heck Mojang didn't already have this in the EULA already. Maybe it was worded poorly, but I'm sure it was already there somehow. Minecraft is their business, their product, their livelihood, not the fans. The fans are the consumers. Mojang put the resources, time and talent into developing Minecraft. The fans didn't. So if you are not on Mojang's payroll it's not your right to make money off of Minecraft.
I agree that the fans are very important in the success of Minecraft. But like it or not, we live in a capitalist world, that's just reality, and that reality means you don't get to be a parasite like this, making money off someone else's product without an expressed and legal business arrangement. Like with any other trademarked and copyrighted product, Minecraft isn't public property and the relationship between Mojang and the fans isn't a co-op.
And one last thing. I've been around many, many fandoms. Some, like D&D, Star Trek and Dr Who fandoms are ancient by comparison to Minecraft, and in those fandoms there are lots of people making artwork and fan fiction and whatnot. Yet no one who's genuinely fan in those communities is looking to make a profit. They do it because it is what they love. This idea that these moochers and parasites represent the Minecraft community is shameful and insulting to the fans who want to be part of the community simply out of love of the game and have no other motivation.
I hate most servers because the use minecraft to make money! Well, this is how the world works.
Server space isn't even close to free, and decent servers don't constantly beg for money.
This also hurts mod/content creators as they cannot collect ad revenue on their hard work -- in most cases, work that is better than Mojang's horrible excuse for an optimized game.
You'd really think that with the MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of dollars they've gotten they could fix their game, and pump out content faster than the rate of a snail rolling around in honey, covered in salt.
I honestly think this is just another larger push towards their Realms Servers so that they can expand the size of their pools to fill with money. I don't see any other reason for them changing the EULA or making it more self-apparent.
I honestly think this is just another larger push towards their Realms Servers so that they can expand the size of their pools to fill with money. I don't see any other reason for them changing the EULA or making it more self-apparent.
This does seem something that they would be doing. I didn't even think of that but it's rather obvious.
Let's kill all the servers so people are forced to buy ours!
PSN:
Can't you read? I said I only play PC Minecraft
Member Details
I do not support changing the EULA. For one, we accepted their terms when we bought the game, and we accept their terms when they change it. We have no right to complain since we willingly accepted to buy the game with our money. Were we forced to pay for it, did we have our money taken from us & just put into the "Buy now" screen? No, we (should have) read the EULA, and we accepted to the terms.
Also, Mojang is in the game to make money. If they were not interested in making money, then they probably would released the game for free, or a very small fee. It makes sense to wipe the competition (the people making money off of Minecraft without giving some of that money, or all of it, to Mojang) so that their product is the only product of that type.
70% agreed. What I agree with is how much Mojang has been changing the rules, terms and conditions, and EULA recently. First, I got mad with how they said trolling was against the rules. They even said to "look at ZekyZek and see how bad his Trolling Series is". Now this. What I don't really agree on is how people are getting THOUSANDS of dollars, yes, THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS from all the hard work Mojang puts into Minecraft (did I say hard work? No, that's what they used to do. Now, they mess around and jump all over the office). However, the profit community is rapidly growing and if it gets messed up, well, everything gets messed up.
The reason I think they are doing this, is for Realms. That's just like saying, "Hey everyone! Jeb here, and now, you can't go on servers anymore! Now you have to drain your wallets of your money with our new Realms program to go on servers! Have fun!". I can't believe how much Mojang's reaction to the public has changed ever since their first player. Whenever I bought Minecraft, I actually read the rules, and they sure didn't say this!
Let's kill all the servers so people are forced to buy ours!
Exactly.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I wonder why Sonic isn't really as popular as it was in the early 2000's. Maybe it was and Sonic 06 that ruined the series' reputation. Well, it one of the most WORST games I've ever played.
BTW, I support this:
Way back in 2011 (I thought it was 2012, checked it, 2011 was beta 1.4_01) when I bought minecraft, considering it was roughly 3 years ago, I don't really remember there being any terms that you had to agree to.
That being said, this whole "You must agree to the EULA and cannot sell things on your server! Hahaha!" makes me fairly upset, though I think Mojang is not doing anything wrong.
Yes, I wish we could all buy our stacks of diamonds and our gold ranks on servers ([side note]From what I've heard, Hypixel spoke with Mojang and his server won't be affected by this portion. His server will still be selling things in the shop[/side note]) and if Mojang decides to force this EULA on users and take down servers that do sell stacks of diamonds, then so be it. Mojang must make money, or else the "slow development" will halt and be the slowest i can be-- no development.
In the long run, this whole situation (the "oh no mojang is killing mincraft servers and artists pay" situation) has at least one upside: People will actually read through an amount of the EULA.
tl;dr Mojang is doing the right thing but I'm minorly upset >:c
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Ahh, summer break, the time of the year where I do nothing.
Normally, I don't reply to forum posts and tend to stay quiet as these things tend to get messy, however, I would like to think that some good can come out of this both for the community and the game that many adore. Before you reply to this, read it. Don't skim this over and make a hasty comment, look through what I am about to say and consider your choice of words. I do not claim to be any authority on commercial practices, legalities, or the game whatsoever. These are my thoughts and what I have noticed as I dig through many of the forum posts, uploaded contents, and many, many, MANY YouTube videos that are uploaded on a per day basis. You may feel free to point out that I might be wrong or may be missing something as well as you are entitled to your own opinion. One last warning before I begin my tear down, I am warning you, the reader, that this is going to be very long, cover multiple subjects, but overall help you to understand this matter clearly from the perspective of Mojang and the players. If I haven't bored you with that wall of text, let us start, shall we?
Since Mojang changed the EULA, we're forced to accept their EULA before running a server. The most important rule is:
You're not allowed to earn money in any way with Minecraft. This doesn't make any sense at all and it also destroys the community. Let me explain that last thing:
Server owners will stop running servers because they're not allowed to earn money with it, so they can't pay the bills and developers. Minecraft artists, who make parodys, drawings and more, aren't allowed to sell their work as it's using Minecrafts content. Mojang has to change this, or it'll destroy the game and its community.
As of the time I am writing this, Mojang's End User Agreement License (EULA) was last updated December 11, 2013 and this is what should concern those that have the latest version of the game, even if you are a veteran player from back during Alpha or even Survival Test. You find these on EVERY SINGLE WEBSITE and almost everyone will usually dash to the "I agree" so they can play the game or use a certain program. I've also included the Guidelines for Name, Brand, and Assets for Any of their games, last updated November 28, 2013. I have provided screenshots of the timestamps (there is not going to be any imgur or photo sharing links here as I want to keep the evidence as clean as possible from anyone suspecting of me Photoshopping the pictures) so you can see that you are already under their Terms and Conditions of the use of the game. If they are changing their EULA, it is most likely to clarify the point, other than that, the matter of not making a profit off any of their assets has always been in there since it's update, just not a major concern. You are expected to, as a paying customer, read and understand what you are getting into. Skipping reading all of that will land you into exactly this kind of trouble and you want to complain that it is unfair to you, the owner of a digital copy of said product? No matter what country you live in, a contract you sign into online is just as binding as a paper document.
Here is a direct copy-paste from their Agreement which you agreed to abide by and many people are already in violation of that has made YouTube videos or even ran a server that sold diamond gear for X amount of dollars.
ONE MAJOR RULE
The one major rule is that you must not distribute anything we‘ve made. By “distribute anything we‘ve made” what we mean is “give copies of the game away, make commercial use of, try to make money from, or let other people get access to our game and its parts in a way that is unfair or unreasonable”. So the one major rule is that (unless we specifically agree it – such as in brand and asset usage guidelines) you must not:
give copies of our Game to anyone else;
make commercial use of anything we‘ve made;
try to make money from anything we‘ve made; or
let other people get access to anything we‘ve made in a way that is unfair or unreasonable.
…and so that we are crystal clear, what we have made includes, but is not limited to, the client or the server software for our Game. It also includes modified versions of a Game, part of it or anything else we‘ve made.
I have underlined that very clear rule that everyone should be made aware of. This includes, but is not limited to, selling server items, creating a project and distributing the world saves with the use of Adfly or Adfocus, selling server plugins, or commissioning builds for a fee. All of these immediately breaks Mojang's EULA and is subject to you by legal action. You agreed to it, you are using their assets, no matter what you do with it, profiting from their work is a big NO. Anything you do that involves their work and money is a violation. It does not matter that you spent 400+ hours working on a super mega dome for Hypixel, you are using assets made by Mojang: their code, their textures, their copyright, you cannot and should not make a profit off the game whatsoever.
Now, server owners do not reply yet with your cries of "But the cost of running a server...!" or "We need the money!!" That is still a violation of their Terms of Use. You were not forced into making a server, nobody said you were required to, it was your voluntary decision to create a server and it is up to you to maintain it without earning it from the game that was not made by you. Unless you are with the staff at Mojang, none of us created the game which means that we are not entitled to profit from it. It is their game, they were the ones that coded it and hope to make a living off of it, we should not be. You are voluntarily buying a dedicated world to share with friends that also enjoy playing the game, it should not be about the love of the money, but rather the love of the game.
Ugh, great. I was hoping the overgrown sense of entitlement that has been flying around Twitter and Reddit lately wouldn't spill over into our forums... At least I get to post this early on in this topic.
Here's what I think:
No. To all of your post. First and foremost, Mojang didn't "change" the EULA. The whole "you can't sell (parts of) our game" and stuff have always been there, they just never bothered to point out how people were violating it.
Literally no company allows you to profit off of the hard work they put into their videogame.
Literally every videogame require you to accept their EULA when you install it. You know, the large pile of words people automatically and blindly click "I accept". 1.7.10 just makes sure you don't have any crappy "I didn't agree to anything" excuse because there's literally nothing forcing you to accept the pile of words, blindly or otherwise, since it's all tucked away in an optional page on Mojang's website.
Please explain why should Minecraft be any different.
If you ask me, this whole situation is being blown out of proportion. There are communities that are alive and well even though they've never been allowed to profit out of the videogame. The only people this could actually drive away are all the people trying to profit off of Mojang's work, so I'm all for it.
I would say that I am deeply sorry that you can't just sit back and turn a videogame you did not develop, or its assets, into your livelihood by scamming kids out of their parents' money, but I hold no shred of empathy for those kind of people.
This is a very great explained post and I wish to expand upon it, just a little bit, but not too much as I think this post is starting to get a bit too long even for my liking. Minecraft, just like any other game, has its rules and terms, you agreed to them, at least take a few minutes to skim them over. We have had EULAs and Terms of Service (ToS) agreements for many years now, it should be common sense to glance them over in case a clause like this should ever appear. Companies work hard so that they can stay alive in harsh economic environments which is even harder when many people come to profit off their hard work. How would you feel if you made a game, someone else came along and created a server, making money off of all the coding you put into it? I certainly wouldn't feel too good about it and I'm guessing nobody else would either.
Over the years, the community has gotten greedy and felt as if they deserve a share of money that does not belong to them. What happened to the love of the game? The common interests among friends who also enjoy the things you enjoy? It is not yours, do not profit off of it in any way, there are no excuses to justify profiting off of it. If you cannot conceivably run a server without having to sell in-game items, then my suggestion would be to not start up a server at all unless you have a job or some other form of income to sustain its upkeep.
Because Mojang is randomly changing something that literally fuels the entire minecraft multiplayer experience. . This community and network has been growing for over 3 solid years without Mojang's interference. People make above minimum wage creating plugins, minecraft artwork. This community is EXTREMELY robust and growing rapidly. Please don't destroy it.
Do you want to know why these server owners are making so much money? Because we are dedicated, passionate and strive to create more and more. It's called innovation, Mojang is communist to knowingly kill it.
Erik Boes, a mojang employee has been HARASSING server owners. Not something very mature.
If posting that link is against the rules, I will photoshop it out. However; this is Erik Broes, in a minecraft owner skype chat telling a owner the link to the largest's minecraft server's network files. A very horrible and illegal crime. GG Mojang, well played.
Mojang is not "randomly cahnging the rules," they have been there for MONTHS before this incident came up. I'm not saying you should read them daily, but it is up to you, the owner of a digital copy of the product, to be up-to-date on their EULA. Enforcing a rule that was already there is not going to destroy the community, it will continue to thrive, just from a smaller market. You are still allowed to create artwork, plushies, or even cooking mats, the thing that you cannot do which is in direct violation of the rules is to use any of the code within the Minecraft game as a means of profit: diamond swords, experience, even Creative gamemode as it was created by them and not you.
And the Communism part, that's just...I'm not even going to get into that: Google it, that is a can of worms that I am not going to open now or possibly ever.
I hate most servers because the use minecraft to make money! Well, this is how the world works.
Exactly why it is being brought up now. Many today believe that "if it's on the internet, it's free and should remain that way." I'm starting to get tired, but I'll try to explain this as the best as I can while trying to wrap it all up. A global-wide free economy could never work on the basis of the need for supply and demand. Economics is not one of my stronger subjects, but basically we need that balance to keep people from taking all and giving nothing in return. Without this balance, people would die of starvation, nobody would want to work, hoarding would run rampant (I might be exagerating, but these are possibilities nonetheless) which is why it is there. You work hard to earn money to purchase bread that someone else also worked hard for to sell to you. This is an extremely simplified version of how commerce works, but the point is there. Because those who don't want to work, but still want the money, are profiting off something that they did not make, this hurts the economy in multiple ways, from the very top down to the consumer.
Again, piracy is something that I don't want to get into, that is another can of worms and I'm really not black or white about that and I feel like most of you have fallen asleep by now.
Once more, these are my opinions from observations I have made as well as researched into. Some things I might be wrong about and you are all more than welcome to clarify me, just be civil about it. I am a human and bound to make a mistake. End rant, going to sleep now, too much energy put into this one post //pass out.
Anyway, would YOU want people to make undeserved money off of your game that you put a lot of work into? I think not. Surprise, they're not the only people with this rule; thousands of other video games have this rule but their servers still allow donations, and when they say not to make money off their things, it means not to redistribute their files through the use of, say, AdFly links. Mods and servers would still be donatable to because Mojang didn't directly make them.
Even if it is the way you depict it to be, don't think of it as a bad thing: less and less servers will be forcing users to pay monthly fees to use certain blocks, items and entities.
My only opposition against this is the fact that this part of the EULA will greatly affect the advertisement of Minecraft, which won't be devastating since the game is very popular, but it will cause great outrage for many people that earn money doing so.
Since Mojang changed the EULA, we're forced to accept their EULA before running a server. The most important rule is: You're not allowed to earn money in any way with Minecraft. This doesn't make any sense at all and it also destroys the community. Let me explain that last thing:
Server owners will stop running servers because they're not allowed to earn money with it, so they can't pay the bills and developers. Minecraft artists, who make parodys, drawings and more, aren't allowed to sell their work as it's using Minecrafts content. Mojang has to change this, or it'll destroy the game and its community.
This seems like a good change. I stopped playing multiplayer altogether because every single server I played on was a ball of garbage. Even the one my friend ran suddenly became one of those "Donator" servers where you "donate" by buying actual items, like overpowered pickaxes and swords. I thought that was an isolated case but the server it merged with had the same thing. Pushing people to become members on their enjin forum, for example.
Note that the EULA does not prevent <REAL> donations, since donations are not considered Earnings, but rather nontaxable income. Also Videos/Derived art is still perfectly allowed, and can be sold or used for ad revenue. Mojang has made that perfectly clear in the past.
What they are changing is going to be good for bitcoin The Minecraft community in terms of servers, because it will destroy the profitability of running a server.
This is NOT a bad thing because it means that the people running servers are running servers because they like the game and want to be a positive force in the minecraft community- not as part of their next big scam.
Any server that accepts "donations" and provides rewards is a scam, and anybody who does that should be ashamed of their actions. It's even worse when the server owners try to shame the players into donating "OMFG the bills they are so pricey the server can't stay up forever derpaderp". If you cannot afford to run a server, don't.
Since Mojang changed the EULA, we're forced to accept their EULA before running a server. The most important rule is:
You're not allowed to earn money in any way with Minecraft. This doesn't make any sense at all and it also destroys the community. Let me explain that last thing:
Server owners will stop running servers because they're not allowed to earn money with it, so they can't pay the bills and developers. Minecraft artists, who make parodys, drawings and more, aren't allowed to sell their work as it's using Minecrafts content. Mojang has to change this, or it'll destroy the game and its community.
Minecraft 1.7.10 update forces you to accept the EULA: http://www.reddit.com/r/admincraft/comments/27dy0q/1710_forces_you_to_accept_the_eula_before_you_can/
Grum (Mojangsta) said the following: http://www.reddit.com/r/admincraft/comments/27dy0q/1710_forces_you_to_accept_the_eula_before_you_can/chzvg68)
Help us, and stop Mojang destroying the community.
Support and share your love by sharing this petition.
https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/mojang-change-your-eula
Regards,
Bjarn
Gonna do the right thing, signed!
the force is strong with this one.
Miner's nightmare preset
Miner's nightmare preset (original terrain)
Killing the Ender Dragon, no damage (no armor/potions/enchantments/pumpkin)
Because Mojang is randomly changing something that literally fuels the entire minecraft multiplayer experience. . This community and network has been growing for over 3 solid years without Mojang's interference. People make above minimum wage creating plugins, minecraft artwork. This community is EXTREMELY robust and growing rapidly. Please don't destroy it.
Do you want to know why these server owners are making so much money? Because we are dedicated, passionate and strive to create more and more. It's called innovation, Mojang is communist to knowingly kill it.
Erik Boes, a mojang employee has been HARASSING server owners. Not something very mature.
If posting that link is against the rules, I will photoshop it out. However; this is Erik Broes, in a minecraft owner skype chat telling a owner the link to the largest's minecraft server's network files. A very horrible and illegal crime. GG Mojang, well played.
No, they're trying to stop people from making money from their game. I would have done the same. Who said that donations are illegal? Also, you know what communism is, right?
Link to the post or it's a photoshop.
My fan fiction of the game: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1957118-programmer-my-first-fan-fiction/#entry24096758
/facepalm
OK, I don't now how old you are, but let me explain something: THIS IS NOT HOW THIS WORLD WORKS.
There's no way in heck Mojang didn't already have this in the EULA already. Maybe it was worded poorly, but I'm sure it was already there somehow. Minecraft is their business, their product, their livelihood, not the fans. The fans are the consumers. Mojang put the resources, time and talent into developing Minecraft. The fans didn't. So if you are not on Mojang's payroll it's not your right to make money off of Minecraft.
I agree that the fans are very important in the success of Minecraft. But like it or not, we live in a capitalist world, that's just reality, and that reality means you don't get to be a parasite like this, making money off someone else's product without an expressed and legal business arrangement. Like with any other trademarked and copyrighted product, Minecraft isn't public property and the relationship between Mojang and the fans isn't a co-op.
And one last thing. I've been around many, many fandoms. Some, like D&D, Star Trek and Dr Who fandoms are ancient by comparison to Minecraft, and in those fandoms there are lots of people making artwork and fan fiction and whatnot. Yet no one who's genuinely fan in those communities is looking to make a profit. They do it because it is what they love. This idea that these moochers and parasites represent the Minecraft community is shameful and insulting to the fans who want to be part of the community simply out of love of the game and have no other motivation.
Formerly known as ORabbit around these parts.
Server space isn't even close to free, and decent servers don't constantly beg for money.
This also hurts mod/content creators as they cannot collect ad revenue on their hard work -- in most cases, work that is better than Mojang's horrible excuse for an optimized game.
You'd really think that with the MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of dollars they've gotten they could fix their game, and pump out content faster than the rate of a snail rolling around in honey, covered in salt.
This does seem something that they would be doing. I didn't even think of that but it's rather obvious.
Let's kill all the servers so people are forced to buy ours!
Also, Mojang is in the game to make money. If they were not interested in making money, then they probably would released the game for free, or a very small fee. It makes sense to wipe the competition (the people making money off of Minecraft without giving some of that money, or all of it, to Mojang) so that their product is the only product of that type.
The reason I think they are doing this, is for Realms. That's just like saying, "Hey everyone! Jeb here, and now, you can't go on servers anymore! Now you have to drain your wallets of your money with our new Realms program to go on servers! Have fun!". I can't believe how much Mojang's reaction to the public has changed ever since their first player. Whenever I bought Minecraft, I actually read the rules, and they sure didn't say this!
Exactly.
BTW, I support this:
That being said, this whole "You must agree to the EULA and cannot sell things on your server! Hahaha!" makes me fairly upset, though I think Mojang is not doing anything wrong.
Yes, I wish we could all buy our stacks of diamonds and our gold ranks on servers ([side note]From what I've heard, Hypixel spoke with Mojang and his server won't be affected by this portion. His server will still be selling things in the shop[/side note]) and if Mojang decides to force this EULA on users and take down servers that do sell stacks of diamonds, then so be it. Mojang must make money, or else the "slow development" will halt and be the slowest i can be-- no development.
In the long run, this whole situation (the "oh no mojang is killing mincraft servers and artists pay" situation) has at least one upside: People will actually read through an amount of the EULA.
tl;dr Mojang is doing the right thing but I'm minorly upset >:c
https://account.moja.../minecraft_eula
http://prntscr.com/3q3cab
https://account.mojang.com/terms#brand
http://prntscr.com/3q3d65
As of the time I am writing this, Mojang's End User Agreement License (EULA) was last updated December 11, 2013 and this is what should concern those that have the latest version of the game, even if you are a veteran player from back during Alpha or even Survival Test. You find these on EVERY SINGLE WEBSITE and almost everyone will usually dash to the "I agree" so they can play the game or use a certain program. I've also included the Guidelines for Name, Brand, and Assets for Any of their games, last updated November 28, 2013. I have provided screenshots of the timestamps (there is not going to be any imgur or photo sharing links here as I want to keep the evidence as clean as possible from anyone suspecting of me Photoshopping the pictures) so you can see that you are already under their Terms and Conditions of the use of the game. If they are changing their EULA, it is most likely to clarify the point, other than that, the matter of not making a profit off any of their assets has always been in there since it's update, just not a major concern. You are expected to, as a paying customer, read and understand what you are getting into. Skipping reading all of that will land you into exactly this kind of trouble and you want to complain that it is unfair to you, the owner of a digital copy of said product? No matter what country you live in, a contract you sign into online is just as binding as a paper document.
Here is a direct copy-paste from their Agreement which you agreed to abide by and many people are already in violation of that has made YouTube videos or even ran a server that sold diamond gear for X amount of dollars.
ONE MAJOR RULE
The one major rule is that you must not distribute anything we‘ve made. By “distribute anything we‘ve made” what we mean is “give copies of the game away, make commercial use of, try to make money from, or let other people get access to our game and its parts in a way that is unfair or unreasonable”. So the one major rule is that (unless we specifically agree it – such as in brand and asset usage guidelines) you must not:
http://prntscr.com/3q3fdj
I have underlined that very clear rule that everyone should be made aware of. This includes, but is not limited to, selling server items, creating a project and distributing the world saves with the use of Adfly or Adfocus, selling server plugins, or commissioning builds for a fee. All of these immediately breaks Mojang's EULA and is subject to you by legal action. You agreed to it, you are using their assets, no matter what you do with it, profiting from their work is a big NO. Anything you do that involves their work and money is a violation. It does not matter that you spent 400+ hours working on a super mega dome for Hypixel, you are using assets made by Mojang: their code, their textures, their copyright, you cannot and should not make a profit off the game whatsoever.
Now, server owners do not reply yet with your cries of "But the cost of running a server...!" or "We need the money!!" That is still a violation of their Terms of Use. You were not forced into making a server, nobody said you were required to, it was your voluntary decision to create a server and it is up to you to maintain it without earning it from the game that was not made by you. Unless you are with the staff at Mojang, none of us created the game which means that we are not entitled to profit from it. It is their game, they were the ones that coded it and hope to make a living off of it, we should not be. You are voluntarily buying a dedicated world to share with friends that also enjoy playing the game, it should not be about the love of the money, but rather the love of the game.
This is a very great explained post and I wish to expand upon it, just a little bit, but not too much as I think this post is starting to get a bit too long even for my liking. Minecraft, just like any other game, has its rules and terms, you agreed to them, at least take a few minutes to skim them over. We have had EULAs and Terms of Service (ToS) agreements for many years now, it should be common sense to glance them over in case a clause like this should ever appear. Companies work hard so that they can stay alive in harsh economic environments which is even harder when many people come to profit off their hard work. How would you feel if you made a game, someone else came along and created a server, making money off of all the coding you put into it? I certainly wouldn't feel too good about it and I'm guessing nobody else would either.
Over the years, the community has gotten greedy and felt as if they deserve a share of money that does not belong to them. What happened to the love of the game? The common interests among friends who also enjoy the things you enjoy? It is not yours, do not profit off of it in any way, there are no excuses to justify profiting off of it. If you cannot conceivably run a server without having to sell in-game items, then my suggestion would be to not start up a server at all unless you have a job or some other form of income to sustain its upkeep.
Mojang is not "randomly cahnging the rules," they have been there for MONTHS before this incident came up. I'm not saying you should read them daily, but it is up to you, the owner of a digital copy of the product, to be up-to-date on their EULA. Enforcing a rule that was already there is not going to destroy the community, it will continue to thrive, just from a smaller market. You are still allowed to create artwork, plushies, or even cooking mats, the thing that you cannot do which is in direct violation of the rules is to use any of the code within the Minecraft game as a means of profit: diamond swords, experience, even Creative gamemode as it was created by them and not you.
And the Communism part, that's just...I'm not even going to get into that: Google it, that is a can of worms that I am not going to open now or possibly ever.
Exactly why it is being brought up now. Many today believe that "if it's on the internet, it's free and should remain that way." I'm starting to get tired, but I'll try to explain this as the best as I can while trying to wrap it all up. A global-wide free economy could never work on the basis of the need for supply and demand. Economics is not one of my stronger subjects, but basically we need that balance to keep people from taking all and giving nothing in return. Without this balance, people would die of starvation, nobody would want to work, hoarding would run rampant (I might be exagerating, but these are possibilities nonetheless) which is why it is there. You work hard to earn money to purchase bread that someone else also worked hard for to sell to you. This is an extremely simplified version of how commerce works, but the point is there. Because those who don't want to work, but still want the money, are profiting off something that they did not make, this hurts the economy in multiple ways, from the very top down to the consumer.
Again, piracy is something that I don't want to get into, that is another can of worms and I'm really not black or white about that and I feel like most of you have fallen asleep by now.
Once more, these are my opinions from observations I have made as well as researched into. Some things I might be wrong about and you are all more than welcome to clarify me, just be civil about it. I am a human and bound to make a mistake. End rant, going to sleep now, too much energy put into this one post //pass out.
Even if it is the way you depict it to be, don't think of it as a bad thing: less and less servers will be forcing users to pay monthly fees to use certain blocks, items and entities.
My fan fiction of the game: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1957118-programmer-my-first-fan-fiction/#entry24096758
This seems like a good change. I stopped playing multiplayer altogether because every single server I played on was a ball of garbage. Even the one my friend ran suddenly became one of those "Donator" servers where you "donate" by buying actual items, like overpowered pickaxes and swords. I thought that was an isolated case but the server it merged with had the same thing. Pushing people to become members on their enjin forum, for example.
Note that the EULA does not prevent <REAL> donations, since donations are not considered Earnings, but rather nontaxable income. Also Videos/Derived art is still perfectly allowed, and can be sold or used for ad revenue. Mojang has made that perfectly clear in the past.
What they are changing is going to be good for
bitcoinThe Minecraft community in terms of servers, because it will destroy the profitability of running a server.This is NOT a bad thing because it means that the people running servers are running servers because they like the game and want to be a positive force in the minecraft community- not as part of their next big scam.
Any server that accepts "donations" and provides rewards is a scam, and anybody who does that should be ashamed of their actions. It's even worse when the server owners try to shame the players into donating "OMFG the bills they are so pricey the server can't stay up forever derpaderp". If you cannot afford to run a server, don't.