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outlawcare · 2 years ago

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Minecraft's New Usage Guidelines Are Extremely Stupid And Dangerous, And Here's Why

Hello everyone, and welcome to a section by section breakdown of Minecraft's new usage guidelines. I do not have an education related to law or legal terminology, but I know enough to know that these usage guidelines are stupid, and downright dangerous when you get down to it.

Let's get started, shall we?

(Long post under cut)

Purpose

This section does not have many issues on its own, I'm mostly providing it for context. But, I do think that it is ridiculous that they count 'any names which are confusingly similar to our name' as part of 'their name'.

And pay attention to the assets section. That'll be important later.

Target Audience

So. I don't think banning non profits from hosting events to raise awareness using your game as a medium is a great idea. Everything else I can get, but the non profit clause strikes me as weird.

Also, this would likely apply to projects like The Uncensored Library, a project created as a collaboration between Blockworks and Reporters Without Borders. Anti-censorship is an 'agenda unrelated to Minecraft', and both of the organizations involved would fall under the groups they say cannot use Minecraft to promote an agenda.

While I understand that Minecraft likely wouldn't go after The Uncensored Library, it is discomfiting that this section appears to say that Minecraft cannot be used as a platform to promote awareness and change, at least by non-individuals.

Legal Agreements

It's good that these guidelines do not form part of the legal policies. However, I do not like the last sentence, as it implies that if they decide it is not a 'good idea' they will not 'allow leniency with respect to how you use Minecraft.'

Subject To Change

While it is common practice to have the guidelines be subject to change, most services will inform you when they change. Minecraft does not appear to be planning to do that. Also, it is unbelievably tone deaf for them to count any part of this document as having 'good intentions' with what we'll get into later.

All Uses

"If we don't like what you are doing." That is quite possibly the most concerning sentence in this entire document. That leaves them so much room to get rid of anything that they 'don't like'. What if they decide they don't like The Uncensored Library? Or if they dislike a particular content creator, so they revoke their ability to monetize content based in the game? It is also a ridiculously unprofessional statement.

Also, "feel free to make requests"? This is just asking for people to attempt to put hateful guidelines in this document. As we'll discuss later, some of the guidelines already provide a platform for hate.

Essential Guidelines

This is just a summary, but I'll use it to talk about some of the issues.

"Do not be obscene." This applies even if you are on a private server, as far as I can tell. Policing what users do on private servers is again, ridiculous. If they are on a private server and using swear words or making obscene builds, they have in fact consented to see that content. You should not censor what users are doing privately.

They don't want you to include gambling or violence. What does this mean for PVP? For chance based games on servers? This cannot end well.

The disclaimer. I get that they are trying to cover their legal bases, but I honestly think that this is stupid. The people that use it aren't the ones who Mojang are worried about, and the people that won't use it, won't use it.

I'll talk more about the other issues in the sections specific to them, but trust me, it gets worse.

"We are trying to be open, honest, and most importantly, trusting."

I don't feel very trusted right now, what with the insane restrictions, Mojang/Microsoft.

Naming Guidelines

Great to know that no one can name their videos things like "Minecraft- How to find netherite" anymore.

Also, "don't use any other aspects of any of our brand or assets as part of any related branding, including as a logo or part of a logo."

So, no one can use any Minecraft assets in their channel icons, anymore. Remember how the assets include stuff like all the blocks? Heck, they would probably count DanTDM's old logo as disallowed under this policy.

Also, it's again, horribly unprofessional to use "(we're cool with this)" and "(we're not cool with this)"

This is supposed to be a guideline for how to use their brand, assets, and name in an 'acceptable' way. They tell you to contact a lawyer if you're unsure about what the guidelines mean. I'm pretty sure most lawyers would laugh their ass off at the wording in this.

Personal Use

That's not what commercial means. For something to be commercial, it quite literally has to have the intent of making money.

So if someone has a Tumblr blog, devoted to talking about Minecraft, that they do not make money off or intend to make money off, is counted as a 'commercial thing'. Again, very unprofessional wording there.

So, let's take a look at those commercial guidelines.

Commercial Use

The commercial use section has multiple subheadings, and as such we'll go over them one at a time, starting with the first section.

Again, commercial does not mean any content that you publicly share. Commercial means something created and shared with the purpose of making money. Content shared for free, with no intention of making money, does not qualify as commercial use.

But they are counting it as such.

Let's start in on these guidelines.

In General & Domain Names And Websites

(I combined these two because the first is so short.)

In General just says not to break any laws, which is totally fine.

Now, let's look at that domain name stuff.

"Your website only relates to the Minecraft game." So, if I mention a third party game at all, even in passing, I'm in violation of this. Cool.

"Any third party advertising does not harm our brand." You haven't defined what that means. Also, what the heck is someone meant to do if they run the website through a service that puts ads on websites run through it? Or, if they post a video related to Minecraft, that advertises for a third party brand that you would consider 'harmful to our brand'? Is it on the website owner to make sure that every little thing they post perfectly aligns with what you consider acceptable for the brand?

Constructed Promotions

Oh, so individuals aren't allowed to promote charitable causes either, I guess. Or events.

Unless, of course, they gain written approval from Mojang or Microsoft.

Just think about that. You'd need written approval to build something referencing a specific charity, and post it on Reddit. You'd need written approval to make a skin that had the Make A Wish logo. You'd need written approval to build a Minecraft version of Tesco on stream.

Oh, and let's not forget, you would need written approval to post a build of anything from a movie, TV show, or video game.

Because they define anything shared publicly as being under commercial use, that means that you can't build and post a pixel art of your favorite anime character. That's not allowed. You need written approval.

You can't build the Upside Down from Stranger Things, and post it to Youtube. That's not allowed. You need written approval.

You can't build a tribute to Peewee Herman, whose actor Paul Reubens recently died, and post it here on Tumblr. That's not allowed. You need written approval.

This may be the stupidest part of these whole guidelines.

Videos, Streams, and Screenshots

Are they seriously saying that you're not allowed to monetize content that doesn't have voice over? As fireb0rn said in his video on this subject, "What about speedruns?"

The first few viral Minecraft videos didn't have commentary. And they want to make it so you can't monetize the type of videos that built this community.

Also, apparently you're not allowed to charge money for Minecraft events using big screens to showcase gameplay, or anything displaying gameplay in public. Neat. What about conventions? (Oh don't worry, we'll talk about conventions later.)

"Sponsors and any callouts must be suitable for children and minors." There are multiple groups in the US, where Minecraft and Microsoft are based, that think that transgender people's existence isn't suitable for children. Hell, there are people who think that gay people's existence isn't suitable for children. This rule could be used to push queer content creators out of the game very, very easily.

Even discounting that, can a streamer take a sponsorship for a first person shooter game? Remember, they don't want you to include 'violence' in anything relating to their brand. Can a Youtuber take a sponsorship for a self-help product? Would that count as unsuitable for children, because it discusses mental health? Where is the line?

It seems like they're going to go after anyone who's put Minecraft content on subscription services. So, people like Aphmau may be in trouble. Twitch creators who put content about Minecraft behind a subscription will be in trouble. This honestly feels like a great way to drive away some of the most popular creators currently involved in the Minecraft community, but I guess Microsoft hasn't been thinking about that.

Live In-Game Events

So, how are y'all planning to shut down live events taking place on private servers, that are being streamed? Is it terminating people's accounts? I have a feeling it's terminating people's accounts.

Also, great to know that all the constructed promotions bullshit applies here, too.

In-Person Events

Oh boy, this one is a doozie.

Let's start with the fact that they are functionally banning conventions, unless of course you have an official partnership with Microsoft.

Heads-up, banning conventions will not help grow the community, Microsoft. It'll do the opposite.

Also, these guidelines are...interesting.

The 150 people limit means that a standard elementary school couldn't host an all grades (Ages 6 through 12) party themed around Minecraft, without entering into an official partnership with Microsoft. You see why that's insane, right?

And again, you can't use any assets on marketing materials. That includes all blocks and mobs.

This is insane. They say that this is to keep community gatherings from 'becoming commercialized'.

It seems likelier to me that this is to make sure that if an event is going to be 'commercialized', to turn a profit, a significant amount of that profit will go directly to Microsoft, through their partnership program. That's why they're requiring it. Not out of some 'good of their hearts' instinct to protect the community from big, bad advertisers.

Music and Audio

Yeah, pretty sure this means you can only use royalty free music. Which is fine, but I have one question:

Does this apply to note blocks?

Would I not be allowed to create note block songs, unless I obtained proper copyright permission.

I know that under copyright law, I would be allowed to under fair use, as it's transformative, but-

Does Microsoft agree?

Servers and Hosting

Great, there goes half of the popular servers.

Because loot boxes count as gambling.

Say bye to any server that uses them.

Seriously, what does the violence rule mean? Is PVP allowed or not?

How is someone supposed to make sure pirated accounts don't access their server?

I'm pretty sure that under these rules, you're not allowed to run subscription tiers on your servers, as that would qualify as 'charging different amounts'. And I know that some popular servers do that.

And you're not allowed to have "Explicit lyrics, or other unsafe/mature content." Basically, everything has to be perfectly child friendly. And we've already discussed why I don't like that.

And what the hell do they mean by "unsafe/mature content."? What counts as 'mature'? Does saying 'hell' count? Does mentioning depression? Does saying that you're gay? Is it anything that the strictest parent would object to? I know teenagers who aren't allowed to watch a video that even mildly references anything mildly objectionable. Like references to partying. These guidelines need better definitions, if they want anyone to take it seriously.

"In short, don't do evil things to players and you'll be fine." This is wildly unprofessional and vague.

Extended Functionality and Modifications

Mmm.

So, if I use part of their mob AI code in my mod, to make it a bit easier to code my own original mob, does that violate this? What do they count as substantial?

Also, they can just decide that something 'doesn't count as a mod' and take it offline or sue the creator.

And while this is overall reasonable (I don't want people locking skins behind NFTs either!), I don't think that restricting modding is the solution they need here. I especially don't think that they should have the authority to say what is a mod and what isn't.

Books and Other Publications

Again with not using any 'assets' anywhere. Seriously, this is unreasonable. That includes every block and mob.

And of course, you're not allowed to use the word Minecraft unless it's a 'secondary title'. And it can't be in the official font. Yay.

Oh, and you must include 'enough of your own unique content'. What does that mean? Their examples leave something to be desired. Does a book explaining Redstone count as 'unique content'? Oh, and would this apply to fan-run magazines? I don't know if we currently have any going, but I want to know.

"(we're not cool with that)" great to know that I'm no longer allowed to sell any merch using your assets.

Well, any printed merch.

Oh wait.

Hand-Crafted Products

Great to know that we're not allowed to sell anything using any of the assets, unless it's subtle. Lovely that all of those great stickers of stylized diamond blocks aren't allowed anymore.

Oh, and we can't sell remixes of Minecraft sounds or music now. Or monetize it at all, in all likelihood.

Oh and let's not forget.

You're not allowed to sell more than twenty pieces of merch of any specific design.

What the fuck.

Seriously? They're restricting how much of your own damn product you can sell?

You can't make more than 5000$ off it, either.

This is going to ruin lives.

That is not hyperbole.

There are vendors who make the majority of their money off of Minecraft related merch and designs. This is going to cause so many problems on the convention scene, not even bringing into account the aforementioned ruining lives.

In Summary

This will be my summary, as well.

These guidelines do not help me understand what you do and do not want people to do.

They are overly vague in some sections, and overly restrictive in others.

These guidelines are pushing to make anything even remotely related to Minecraft entirely child friendly.

These guidelines are ripe for abuse.

Some people don't consider trans people 'child friendly'. Some people don't consider opposing views 'child friendly'.

You are taking away people's livelihoods.

And for what?

To try to prevent the game from being commercialized?

Newsflash, you're the top-selling game world wide.

You're already commercialized.

These guidelines are idiotic, and actively hinder the community that has been built around Minecraft.

If you don't backtrack, and quick, you are going to lose content creators.

You are going to lose players.

You are going to lose the community.

To my fellow players, spread this.

Make sure that Microsoft knows that we won't stand for this.

We cannot let them set a precedent of companies policing what type of content is made about their game, down to how much merch you can sell.

Down to if you can swear or not.

Down to making sure that you, as a person, player, consumer, are completely and perfectly child-friendly.

This is censorship, clear and simple.

Feel free to add to this post, and correct me if I got anything wrong here.

But most of all,

Feel free to tell Microsoft, Mojang, Minecraft

That We Will Not Be Censored

That

Minecraft Players Will Not Be Censored

#minecraft #minecraft usage guidelines #mineblr #this took over two hours to write up #i have a lot of opinions about these godawful guidelines #make sure to let microsoft know that we won't stand for this #minecraft players will not be censored #i got kinda poetic at the end there #i just really REALLY hate censorship of any form

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