We’re Updating Our Legal Documents

Hello!

We’re updating our EULAs, Brand and Asset Guidelines, and Website Account Terms today, as well as releasing some brand-new Commercial Use Guidelines. I know that’s an intimidating first sentence but you don’t need to panic. If you want to jump in at the deep end, view all of our legal documents at account.mojang.com/terms and minecraft.net/terms

The majority of the changes won’t affect most of you, but we think it’s worth trying to explain the reasons behind them. The changes go into effect on November 20.

How our Commercial Use Guidelines affect videos and streams
Though we’ve explained the ways you can make money from Minecraft in the past, our Commercial Use Guidelines represent the first time the rules have been laid out in a formal way, and in multiple languages.

Again, there’s nothing to worry about here – you can still monetize your servers and videos. The most significant change is that, if you decide to restrict your stream to paying users, the video must be made available for free 24 hours after the original broadcast date. Just like all user-created Minecraft videos, you’re free to monetize your work with ads, if you please.

We’re happy for you to make money for your hard work and to feature an exclusivity period for dedicated fans, but we don’t like the idea of permanently restricting Minecraft content to a select group of players. That’s not in the spirit of the game.

How the new Commercial Use Guidelines affect sales of hand-crafted Minecraft things
Minecraft inspires lots of people to create lots of cool things. Considering the nature of the game, it’s no surprise that people create bespoke, real-life items and want to share them with the world. We’re OK with you doing this, but for obvious reasons we need to include a few caveats: your designs must be unique, you can only make 20 versions of each individual item, and you can’t make over $5000 from sales each year.

There’s a lot more to this, so if you’re selling real-life items inspired by Minecraft we strongly recommend you check the full Commercial Use Guidelines.

Changes to the EULA and Terms of Use
We use EULAs and Terms of Use at Mojang. As you might have heard, Mojang is now owned by Microsoft, a U.S. company. For that reason, we needed to make some changes to abide by the law and Microsoft’s policies. To reiterate, these changes won’t affect the most of our community, but here’s an attempt at explaining what’s been changed and why.

First: indemnity. The old terms used to say that anyone who caused us legal trouble would have to pay us if the issues cost money to fix. Now, you don’t have to pay us. Instead, new terms say that we’re no longer responsible for any of your damages. This is Microsoft’s policy, and since we’re not in the habit of suing our customers, it seems like a good idea to us.

Next, arbitration and class action waiver. This change only applies to U.S. residents. Lawsuits can take a long time and can be expensive. Microsoft moved to an arbitration policy beginning in 2011, which makes potential issues simpler, faster, and less expensive to to resolve on an individual basis. That’s a very simplistic way of describing what an arbitration policy is so, if you’re interested, read Microsoft’s explanation.

Third-party owners complaining about stuff
The agreements now state where IP owners should send complaints if they find an IP infringement on our servers or websites. For example, if someone is linking to an illegal download link from in-game chat on a Realms server, they know who to call; it’s us. This doesn’t affect YouTube videos, third-party servers, or anything else you’ve created. Any complaints about those things will need to be sent elsewhere.

All of our legal documents, localised in most major languages, are available at account.mojang.com/terms and minecraft.net/terms

Thanks for reading, people! Be good! Follow the law! Eat your greens!

Owen – @bopogamel

Continue reading...

 

Bloody hell, everyone should read this.

 

Wait, does this mean that you can once again do stuff like XP x2?

 

Only if you read nothing further than "Changes to the EULA"

Basically all that's changing is that you no longer have to pay Mojang if you cause legal trouble that Mojang would have to fix. Now Mojang is not responsible for the damages. Now, for US residents, Mojang will no longer sue them but instead using an "arbitration policy" and they linked an explanation in the post.

Nothing's been changed about what's against the rules and what isn't.

 

They've been able to do this since Microsoft bought Mojang over a year ago. Microsoft literally changed EULA to allow game-changing monetisation benefits 3 hours after they bought Mojang.

 

Microsoft literally didn't change Mojang's EULA at all, (until now). The EULA existed before all the controversy and still does. All they did was make it more widely understood about the consequences of it.


Please look up your facts before you start saying False information.

 

Yet the biggest server in Minecraft lets you pay $89.99 to get something that only that rank can get that isn't cosmetic, and has done ever since Microsoft bought Mojang?

 

Give Proof that this server has a $89.99 package giving a gameplay advantage. please.

 

I would but that'd be advertising, its not exactly hard to go onto the biggest server's website store, find the rank which is $89.99 and look for "Player Server", which also gives exclusive access to retired games that non-donators aren't able to play.

 

No, saying the name of a server is not advertising, saying the ip is. People say things like hypoxel and mineplex in the shoutbox all the time.

 

that doesn't prove your point. if I go and kill someone does it make it ok? oh there is a law against it? same with the EULA. the fact that someone disobeys the law doesn't mean you should also do so.

 

How is killing someone and selling unfair donator ranks related in any way whatsoever?

If Mojang was going to enforce the EULA that "apparently" exists, they would've stopped it now.

 

yea my example was bad, what I meant to say is that if someone disobeys the law (killing someone) and doesn't get punished doesn't mean its all right.
and about the enforcing, I think its important to stay on mojangs/microsofts nnice side.

 

Why would staying on Mojang's "nnice" side matter if the second biggest Minecraft server doesn't have to?

Mineplex can get 43k players. Wynncraft rarely hits 1k players anymore. If any server's gonna be shut down or even noticed by Mojang for breaking the EULA, it'll be Mineplex before Wynncraft.

 

Although, personally I would not want donor priveleges even if there was no EULA. It is unfair to users who cannot, or don't want to donate, including myself.