ESA Calls Private Minecraft Servers Illegal, Citing 2 Lawsuits at California Hearing
Updated
Updated · ixbt.games · Jun 30
ESA Calls Private Minecraft Servers Illegal, Citing 2 Lawsuits at California Hearing
3 articles · Updated · ixbt.games · Jun 30
Summary
Jennifer Gibbons, ESA vice president for state government affairs, told a California Senate hearing that private Minecraft and Call of Duty servers are “illegal” and amount to “piracy.”
Gibbons likened community-run servers to a video-game “black market” and said the trade group is already pursuing several cases against private-server operators, with two lawsuits cited in the hearing discussion.
The remarks came as ESA opposed California’s AB 1921, the Protect Our Games Act, which sought to stop publishers from leaving server-dependent games unplayable after support ends; the bill did not pass.
Microsoft and Mojang have not publicly backed the ESA position, and many Minecraft fan servers have operated openly for years even though Microsoft is among the companies the ESA represents.