Okay, I understand you want to monetize your servers, this is not a bad thing, but some of your kits, server bonuses, and ranks violate Mojang's Licenses. Let's talk server monetisation! "Hello! Let’s get one thing clear: we love it when Minecrafters host servers. Tiny or massive, running vanilla or modded Minecraft, we think they’re all great. Playing with friends in persistent worlds is awesome. Everyone knows that. Over the past week there’s been lots of discussion about Minecraft servers and your right to monetise them. Legally, you are not allowed to make money from our products. There has been one exception to this rule so far - Minecraft videos. We’re about to make a second exception - Minecraft servers. Hosting servers can be expensive. We want to give hosts a way to cover their costs. That said, we don’t want our players to be exploited or to have a frustrating time unless they pay. The following rules, which may be tweaked at a later date, have been created with these points in mind. You are allowed to charge players to access your server Basically, if you’re charging for access to your server, you are selling a “ticket” and there can only be one type of ticket, regardless of how much people are willing to spend. You are allowed to accept donations You are allowed to provide in-game advertising or sponsorship opportunities You are allowed to put adverts in your Minecraft worlds to help with costs. Used within reason, adverts and sponsorship can be appropriate ways to fund a server. You are allowed to sell in-game items so long as they don’t affect gameplay We don’t mind you selling items in game, but they must be purely cosmetic. Pets, hats, and particle effects are OK, but swords, invincibility potions, and man-eating pigs are not. We want all players to be presented with the same gameplay features, whether they decide to pay or not. There is one exception to this rule - capes! We have a lot of fun making cool capes for extra-special members of our community and Minecon attendees. We’d like to keep them as exclusive as possible. So, yeah, no capes please, even if you’re giving them away for free. You cannot charge real-world cash for in-game currency We don’t mind in-game currencies which are earned through playing, but you are not allowed to sell them for real-world cash. Remember - if the stuff you sell affects gameplay, we’re not cool with it. Don’t pretend to be us. Provide your customers with loads of info If you do decide to monetise your server, you must clearly state that the purchase is not associated with Mojang, declare who the money is going to, and provide a purchase history and contact details. You should also check the legality of selling digital items in your specific region. Thanks for reading! As I hope you’ve noticed, these rules are making attempts to prevent Minecraft servers becoming “pay-to-win.” We hate the idea of server hosts restricting Minecraft’s features to players who have already bought our game! It seems really mean. We’re hoping that these rules will give hosts opportunity to continue creating awesome Minecraft worlds, and for our players to enjoy them without being forced to spend. I’m sure we’ll get loads of questions about this subject over the next few days. I’ll prepare a follow-up post once I’ve gathered your queries. Have a good day! Owen - @bopogamel, and your buddies at Mojang." As far as I can tell, things like "Extra Utilities Kits", and tying anti-grief block counts to monetized ranks directly provide in-game effects. This looks to me like a (possibly unintentional) violation of Mojang's terms of use agreement.
follow up- " Hello! Thanks for all the questions you’ve sent over regarding last week’s EULA post. It’s a lively topic. A group of Mojangstas met this morning to discuss the most common questions we received over the weekend. The following post is the result of that discussion. Though we’re happy to clarify, most of these points were mentioned in last week’s explanation of the EULA. Please give it a read before diving into this more detailed Q+A. Are any servers exempt to the EULA? Do server hosts have a grace period to implement changes to their servers? Can I charge for access to my server? Yes. How players join a server is up to you. Single entrance fees or subscriptions are both allowed. How often am I allowed to charge players to access my server? You can charge players as regularly as you like. You can even charge for timed access if you think it’s the best way to monetise your server. What counts as a server? Are proxies one big server, or lots of smaller ones? A server is something a user connects to with their client. The user is on a different server when they leave one and manually join another (in the multiplayer screen). Virtual servers and proxies make no difference; to the client it’s the same server. Can I charge access to a specific part of my server, such as a minigame or world? No, you cannot charge for any part of a server. Only the access. Once on a server, all players must have the same gameplay privileges. You may make a different server which features “premium” areas, and charge for access to that server instead, but the benefits cannot carry between servers. So can I charge for my minigames or mods? Yes, so long as all players on your server have access to the features. Can I offer a limited trial period for all users? Yes. So long as both trial and paying users have access to the same gameplay features during the trial, we’re cool with it. Can I give paying users priority access to my server? Yes, but you cannot restrict gameplay elements to specific users. Does the EULA still apply for access to user-created mods? Yes. It doesn’t make a difference who made the mods, or how they were implemented onto your server. All mods require Minecraft to run. You are not allowed to charge for Minecraft features which affect gameplay. What do you mean by “hard currency” compared to “soft currency”? Hard currency is real money or anything that can be converted into real money, including Bitcoins. Soft currency is available in-game only, and has no real-world value. The restrictions in the EULA only apply to hard currency; you may unlock things in-game with soft currency. Can I sell “kits” for hard currency if I provide a balanced alternative for non-paying users? If the “kits” contain gameplay-affecting features they are not allowed. Gameplay balance is not relevant to the EULA. If the items included in the kit are purely cosmetic, you can charge real money/hard currency. My server features a currency that you can earn through gameplay, but which can also be bought for hard currency. Is that OK? Soft currencies that are earned in-game are fine, but you cannot sell in-game currency for hard currency. Hybrid/dual currency systems are not allowed. Can I sell boosters, which provide faster gold gain, XP, or other in-game resources for hard currency? No - boosters, item generators, and all other features that affect gameplay are not allowed. So how do I make real money from selling cosmetic items? You can sell cosmetic items for hard currency directly or allow players to fund an “account” specific to your server. It’s up to the host of the server to decide how this works. Remember that capes are the exception to this rule - you are not allowed to give them away or sell them. Can I sell ranks on my server? Yes. Ranks are allowed so long as any perks gained are cosmetic. Coloured names, prefixes, special hats etc. are fine. Can users purchase something that affects the entire server, such as a temporary XP boost? Yes, but everyone who can access the server must be able to use the feature, regardless of whether they purchased it or not. Can I award all players with a gameplay feature if I reach a donation goal within a time period? Yes, so long as all players receive the benefit regardless of who donated then it’s OK. Can I charge for access to server commands? Yes, as long as their effects are purely cosmetic. Commands that affect gameplay, such as a command to fly, cannot be sold for hard currency. If all players get access to a feature such as a plot of land, can I sell access to multiple plots for hard currency? No - that would be a gameplay affecting change, so it’s not allowed. All player who access your server must have the same gameplay features offered to them. The same rule applies to items, such as potions. How should servers deal with users who have already spent hard currency on features that affect gameplay? Users may keep the perks they’ve paid for on the condition that the same perks are available to other players on the server (directly or purchasable using soft currency). It’s up to the server host to decide how to compensate users for previous transactions. Phew. That was a long one. Thanks for reading everybody! Owen - @bopogamel and the Mojangstas"
OK but these are donations that are used towards making the server better and donations are allowed where as the kits they aren't game changing so I don't see the issue
I'm not sure of the point of this thread. It's our belief that we are in compliance and no one has stated otherwise. Again I don't see the point of posting this here.
The shop's Terms of Use states this: All perks, all items, everything, is still owned by the server. Players are gifted these perks, items etc, as thanks for donating. There is nothing in the EULA against gifts. Whilst most donators are gifted in return, there is no guarantee that a donation will result in these gifts. The server can, and will reclaim any gifts if cause for doing so arise. Donators are also not above any of our rules. Their punishment for breaking a rule is the same as any other player. Back on the old Monster server (1.6.4), if memory serves (I wasn't even a moderator back then) we had a few starter-kits for Rotarycraft & Reactorcraft, mods created by Reika. Now, he contacted MyM, and said he didn't want MyM to sell his stuff, and guess what, they were removed from the shop instantly. While Minecraft (And every mod that exists) are owned by Mojang, the next-in-line for deciding about a mod, is indeed the mod-author. We complied with the mod-authors wishes instantly, and will continue to do so immediately if any mod-authors or Mojang itself raises concerns for their (own) property. If you still thinks this is BS, then let me simply state this: Mojang has been in contact with numerous communities/servers, and whilst they have not taken any legal actions, they have informed them about the infringement. I've been here for 1.5 years now, and as far as I know, we have not been contacted by Mojang. As Lucid here says, as far as we see, we are in compliance with Mojang's EULA.
Please realize the difference between breaking a law and breaking a contract between two private entities. Whether MyM is in compliance with the EULA agreement or not, there is no law being broken. Posts with titles and subjects such as this, serve no purpose other than to cause a rise in the readers. As Pi has stated, we believe we are in compliance with Mojang's EULA. Just off the top of my head I can name at least 5 other major networks that offer almost exactly the same perks we do to their donators, none of which have been contacted by Mojang and asked to remove them, nor have we.
The point of the thread is to call attention to a possible violation of Mojang's Terms of Use agreement, and suggest that you might want to look at some of the services the server sells to avoid possible complications. from the shop page: "We are not a fan of pay2win but have to pay our bills, which is why we don't sell op perks like creative on survival servers and why perks like godmode don't work on pvp servers. The kits are designed to save about 3-4 hours of playtime to gather the basics but don't give any end game content." While the whole 'These are gifts for donation levels" is a neat dodge, but it's a dodge that will only work as long as Microsoft doesn't pay any attention. And I am simply trying to point out something you might not have seen. If you wish to disregard it, that is entirely your choice, but Micro$oft is coming.
No matter if or not compliant, enforced or not. The heavy modded minecraft servers (with our optimizations) need 8-10 times the resources a vanilla bukkit/spigot server would need per player. That means we need to get that much more money in, in order to pay the upkeep alone. Frankly the shop strategies mineplex, shotbow and a like are doing would mean the financial death for us. We believe that we have pretty fair and very low game impacting things that can be bought within the market of heavy modded minecraft servers and by far not falling fully under the radar of the intent/reasons of this eula clarification. (After all it wasn't a allowed -> not allowed change, it was a not allowed -> allowed under these circumstances change.) Btw. those blog posts talk about a coming eula change/clarification/allowance of limited monetization that never made it into the eula. So strictly by the eula mineplex, shotbow and a like are not compliant. (not a lawyer so don't take anything for granted.)
while i agree with you set up his concerns are valid (and if hes like me he doesnt want the servers to be shut down ect) well ... to be fair its flying a bit close to the wind Can I sell “kits” for hard currency if I provide a balanced alternative for non-paying users? If the “kits” contain gameplay-affecting features they are not allowed. Gameplay balance is not relevant to the EULA. If the items included in the kit are purely cosmetic, you can charge real money/hard currency. Can I sell boosters, which provide faster gold gain, XP, or other in-game resources for hard currency? No - boosters, item generators, and all other features that affect gameplay are not allowed. Does the EULA still apply for access to user-created mods? Yes. It doesn’t make a difference who made the mods, or how they were implemented onto your server. All mods require Minecraft to run. You are not allowed to charge for Minecraft features which affect gameplay. Can I charge for access to server commands? Yes, as long as their effects are purely cosmetic. Commands that affect gameplay, such as a command to fly, cannot be sold for hard currency. dont get me wrong i think u should sell kits but the kits would come under the quotes above. i belive mojang need to grow up and understand that you dont run your servers on hope dreams and magic beans they are run on cold hard cash and slind put it perfectly modded mc is a total pain to run server or client but mym funds all this on donations also remember they pay devs ect so the moneys not actuly going into the founders pockets like on most servers so hopefully even if mojang did see that mym are sort of breaking the eula a little bit(not much compared to some) they will release why and that what staff here like lucid, slind, sirwill ect do to balance the books and keep the servers running perfectly for us all is amazing. side not can someone please change the title because its just so click baity civil law aka EULAs not "breaking the law" in any way as others have stated
This was... horrible to read. Anywho, since I think my opinion on this matter is pretty similar to John's, I used to be pretty against the idea of donations for kits, as it hit a little too close to the microtransactions that have in the past ruined games for me. Over my time here, however, I came to realise the crucial difference MyM's donations have compared to the horrors of mobile gaming. The microtransactions in most free-to-play games provide a relatively easy early game, before requiring payment in order to have any real progression. MyM donations, on the other hand, provide a way to avoid the early game to skip straight to the midgame. This only provides a minor advantage in the early days of a server, and although it does allow donors to pillage the world early on, that is only a minor issue that doesn't cause much of a problem because of /rt. Naturally, I would still prefer for the server not to have any sort of donations, but the current form is the best it could feasibly be without causing the server to cease to exist, which would obviously be a worst-case scenario.
The EULA is poorly defined, I thought about making a thread like this, but in all honesty, it doesn't matter. The administration team, and I, will will not always agree on some ideas, and that is fine. I have shown that on at least on one level I support the current donation setup, by being a donater. I running a server would probably only provide cosmetic effects, but I would not have the costs of a modded network, I do not see myself ever running a modded network in the near feature. I think this boils down to screwed if you don't =! Possibly screwed if you do. If MyM doesn't offer somewhat game altering kits, less people will donate. Than MyM will cease to exist, dedicated servers aren't cheap. Not at the amount that a network such as this needs. While the vanilla servers can run 1-2 GB servers and it can run smoothly, you need anywhere from 32 - 128GB's here. That's a vast difference in money. While I would like to see a step back from game altering perks, I can guilty say I do enjoy them. I didn't donate just for the perks though, MyM was a network I saw myself being on, so I donated.
The Eula Has Major Loopholes most servers can get through. A few exceptions are servers like guildcraft who have been blacklisted from the 1.9.3 and above patches from Mojang. " IE. Microsoft" the MYM network is in compliance with the current EULA and have no worries.
