Cross-geposted von: https://feddit.org/post/31996415

In a remarkably strange statement at a recent California State Senate hearing over the Protect Our Games Act (AB 1921, California’s Stop Killing Games-endorsed bill to compel publishers to provide ways to keep playing discontinued games), a representative of the Entertainment Software Association declared private servers for the likes of Minecraft and Call of Duty “illegal,” adding that, so far as the ESA is concerned, “we consider it piracy.”

In a statement to PC Gamer, the ESA wrote that, so far as it’s concerned, “Private servers infringe on the intellectual property (IP) rights of game publishers. Publishers reserve the right to exercise their rights against them.”

  • Daedskin@lemmy.zip
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    3 hours ago

    It’s blatantly a bad stance from them; but it doesn’t even touch on games that use internal client/server models even when playing single-player — which includes Minecraft. If their argument were law, would I be breaking it by just playing Minecraft at all? With the way it’s worded, I would think yes.

    That doesn’t even take into account that Minecraft in particular can turn a single-player client/server into a multiplayer with one button press. Would that be illegal? Maybe they’d argue not, because it’s LAN only (which is a flimsy argument as well). But with a little effort, you could open up that LAN server up to whomever you wanted.

    Very obvious they didn’t think it through, they just want you to own nothing.

  • Aneorthisio@lemmy.ml
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    4 hours ago

    All I heard from the ESA representative is : “If buying isn’t owning, pirating isn’t stealing.” 🦜

  • timestatic@feddit.org
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    5 hours ago

    Yeah obviously since these games don’t want private servers they provided the exact files to host your own server. Do they really believe the courts are that stupid?

  • MrMakabar@slrpnk.net
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    7 hours ago

    I was like what the hell is the European Space Agency doing with Minecraft in California…

  • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    We reached out to all gamers everywhere and a spokesman for the group responded with the following statement:

    Lol wut?

    Fucking noobs…

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
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    14 hours ago

    So it’s piracy to use the software that comes with the game? The Java version of the game, at least, has always come with the software to run your own server without needing to rent one directly from any specific vendor.

    The ESA can go fuck itself.

    • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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      12 hours ago

      The java version authenticates with Microsoft and Mojang to prove valid ownership and to make sure parental controls are applied to accounts. I believe they are talking about unauthenticated servers that allow pirated accounts to join. Its similar to private MMO servers that are setup in a similar way. Same files, used unsupervised.

      Generally this type of thing only matters with games that kids play, because people tend to try to protect kids. Games explicitly for adults seem to be able to be more free with what they allow.

      • reev@sh.itjust.works
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        7 hours ago

        Tell me you’ve never hosted a Minecraft server without telling me you’ve never hosted a Minecraft server.

      • black0ut@pawb.social
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        9 hours ago

        Microsoft’s official server binary, distributed by Microsoft themselves, has the option to not authenticate with Mojang’s servers. You don’t even need to modify it. I wouldn’t call that one piracy.

        • Axolotl@feddit.it
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          8 hours ago

          The official minecraft client jar has an option to disable authentication with mojang servers too btw

  • Kairos@lemmy.today
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    13 hours ago

    Gibbons cut in: “They’re illegal. They are not in any way affiliated with Microsoft. Microsoft, for Minecraft, has gotten a lot of criticism because of those community servers not employing the same safety standards that Microsoft does on their Minecraft servers.”

    Oh this bullshit with the EULA

    • Axolotl@feddit.it
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      8 hours ago

      I didn’t know mojang had any official servers aside from the bedrock one that was used for the mob vote

      Huh

      • Kairos@lemmy.today
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        7 hours ago

        They don’t. There’s realms. What I’m referring to is the EULA for running those servers. Mojang blocks IPs all the time.

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
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    14 hours ago

    The ESA is a mouthpiece for companies that want you to own nothing and do nothing that they don’t approve of and benefit from.

  • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    Game devs: „Here is the code to run our games on a private server. Have fun!“

    Gamers: „Cool, thanks! Will do!“

    ESA: „ISN‘T THERE SOMEONE YOU FORGOT TO ASK???“