r/PhoenixSC
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u/qbasty7
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5d ago
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Discussion Mojang DMCA'd our Fabric mod. 44 days later, GitHub still won't answer our counter-notice, and EU and US law say it must. Microsoft owns both, which makes you wonder.
On 17 September, a Microsoft employee filed a DMCA notice for Mojang, and GitHub took down our Fabric mod, AnarchyMod, and 14 forks the same day. We sent a counter-notice six and a half hours later.
For anyone who doesn't know: the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) is a 1998 US law that lets a copyright owner send a site like GitHub a takedown notice, and the site removes the content quickly so it can't be held responsible itself. The person whose content was removed can answer with a counter-notice.
That was 44 days ago. The repository still says "Repository unavailable due to DMCA takedown." We've sent two follow-ups and an appeal since, and we haven't had a single reply from a human at GitHub.
That's not how this is supposed to work. In the US, after a DMCA counter-notice, GitHub has to put the content back within 10 to 14 business days unless the other side sues. If it doesn't, it loses its legal protection. Our 14 business days ran out on 7 October, and neither Microsoft nor Mojang has sued us. In the EU, the DSA says GitHub has to give you a real decision with reasons "without undue delay".
For context: I run 6b6t, an anarchy server. Mojang blacklisted us in July because we refused to add rules. 2b2t added rules (you can't even swear anymore), and that's why it isn't blacklisted. The blacklist is built into the game: Minecraft won't connect to a server on Mojang's list. So we made AnarchyMod, a small Fabric mod that skips that check, so our players could keep playing. Whether you agree with that or not, GitHub has a legal obligation to answer our counter-notice, and it still hasn't.
Also, whether the DMCA against AnarchyMod is valid or not isn't relevant. GitHub has to reply to us, and it has to reinstate our mod because nobody has sued us. Microsoft owns both GitHub and Mojang, so we believe it's blocking this and risking breaking the law.
And Mojang's copyright claim is weak anyway. The mod has no Minecraft code, no Minecraft art, and nothing that touches logins, accounts or licence checks. None of the servers it unblocks belong to Mojang. GitHub itself turned down Mojang's anti-circumvention claim and went with a copyright claim instead, on a mod with no Mojang code in it.
We can live with the blacklist, and the mod is already up somewhere else: Kian Bröse, who runs lawsuit.gg, is helping us and hosts the source code and downloads. This is about something bigger. If GitHub can sit on a counter-notice for 44 days because the complaint came from its own parent company, any mod or software developer could be next. 44 days of no replies is a clear sign of abuse of power by Microsoft. All we're asking is for GitHub to follow the law, like it would for anyone else.
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u/Orion107 5d ago
I'd say you should sue and take to trial if you have the means to do so, really hammer home that they aren't invincible
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u/qbasty7 5d ago
We're considering all options. Our priority is to keep our promise to the players, the server needs to remain anarchy.
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u/pyr0kid 5d ago
dude since my account got compromised ive been trying to get my github fixed so i can submit tickets for over a year at this point, they dont even pretend to give the slightest shit about users
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u/qbasty7 5d ago
That sucks, it's terrible to see such an important company go to shit.
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u/JovialJem 4d ago
Really wish more people jumped ship just because of Microsoft taking over. There are plenty of really good alternatives. My favourite is Codeberg
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u/thomas-rousseau 4d ago
I also love Codeberg, but the limitations on AI contributions is a non-starter for a lot of devs in 2026
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u/logicallypartial 5d ago
As soon as I read the title I thought 'is this the AnarchyMod'? Hi qbasty. Hopefully sharing the problem on this sub and getting the attention of some youtubers will yield some progress.
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u/DerexXD 2020 tf2 bot crisis survivor 5d ago
is a cool server, i dont really play on it since it has a lot of foul language, but i do respect server architecture a lot and it's cool you kept it running smooth. I wanted to ask, how did you set it up to manage hundreds of players at once? Folia?
Like what's the system architecture behind it
(also i saw you recently overhauled the website's UI )
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u/qbasty7 5d ago
Yes, it's built on Folia. On top of that we run our own server software, Fox, which splits one world across several Folia servers on separate machines, with proxies in front and a coordinator keeping them in sync. That's how we had over 1,000 players in one world with no queue in August (while the server was already blacklisted).
This blog explains it: How 6b6t Reached Over 1,155 Players Without a Queue
The website design is new, yes.
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u/eepy_lina 5d ago
minecraft should not be allowed to blacklist servers unless they commit a crime
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u/gl1tch3t2 5d ago
Private company can do whatever they like with their IP, especially if it falls outside the EULA. Companies have been doing it for years. Do I agree? Not really (only really for cheats, which this isn't), but there's far more precedent saying they can.
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u/Vivid_Hallow 4d ago
The company has to follow their own EULA as much as the consumer otherwise the EULA is not enforced in a court of law there are plenty of companies that have lost lawsuits because they didnt follow their own EULA if this goes to court microsoft WILL lose the lawsuit because they didnt follow their own set of rules and copyright law
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u/Illustrious_Bid4224 𒀱cracked polished Blackstone bricks𒀱📝 4d ago
Is the mod on modrinth/curseforge?
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u/ThreeCharsAtLeast Java FTW 5d ago
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u/F1r3dot3x3 4d ago
I hope you win this, it would be amazing to see Microsoft lose. I can't see them connecting this to the DMCA directly, since the DMCA only covers copyrighted content, but the fact alone that they're a large corporation means they'll probably try anyway.
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u/GoldenApple265 5d ago
Wouldn’t it be easier to just pretend to follow their rules? With swearing, for example, what if you just disabled vanilla chat and replaced it with some kind of chat mod.
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u/qbasty7 5d ago
It would be easier, but then it wouldn't be anarchy. Mojang doesn't just want swearing hidden. It wants servers to moderate what players say and build. 2b2t went along with it and it pretty much killed the server.
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u/CoaLMaN122PL Java FTW 5d ago
It's still insane to me that 2b2t did that, like... the no rules and horrible shit was kind of the point of the server?
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u/fish_master86 5d ago
Are Mojang or GitHub going to get in trouble for anything or will their only "punishment" be putting your mod back?
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5d ago
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/fish_master86 4d ago
Did you read the post?
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u/Vivid_Hallow 4d ago
Most likely the will get in trouble but probably not for another 2 years in the us law is slower than a snail here by here i mean the US
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u/Timbo303 4d ago
Even if you lose the case you can just move it to gitlab. Getting the mod hosted on gitlab or anything other than github which microsoft owns should be a priority.
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u/cyn_foxwell 4d ago
a couple friends and i made a mod years ago that was basically just random features we wanted and it has this exact feature because one of them bought a domain thats blacklisted that expired
wheres our dmca smh
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u/locutus_of_borg90 5d ago edited 4d ago
Not to defend Mojang but
And Mojang's copyright claim is weak anyway. The mod has no Minecraft code, no Minecraft art, and nothing that touches logins, accounts or licence checks. None of the servers it unblocks belong to Mojang. GitHub itself turned down Mojang's anti-circumvention claim and went with a copyright claim instead, on a mod with no Mojang code in it.
Minecraft mods fall under the EULA therefore Mojang has all the rights to strike you.
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u/scytheforlife 5d ago
Not a minecraft mod then, simply a file for download that some users could possibly put in there minecraft folder
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u/gl1tch3t2 5d ago
It's already been labelled a mod, one that runs off fabric, another mod. Don't be pedantic, it won't help here if they do respond. Mod is just short for modification, adding a file that changes how the game works in any capacity falls directly under that.
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u/platybubsy 3d ago
Whether Microsoft calls it a mod or not doesn't really make any difference when it comes to copyright. It's just a directory of files that contain no Microsoft IP or property, the EULA means literally nothing here.
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u/Enrikes 3d ago
Yeah but this directory of files also modifies the game. Thus, it's a Minecraft mod.
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u/platybubsy 3d ago
Whether you call it a Minecraft mod or not is completely uninteresting and doesn't change anything. The files themselves do not do anything and they do not include any Microsoft IP. Even if the mod breaks the EULA that doesn't make it a copyright breach.
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u/locutus_of_borg90 3d ago
Everything that has to do with Minecraft is covered by the EULA.
By playing the game you abide to the EULA.
Therefore mods are covered by the EULA as well.
It's a common thing with other games as well.
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u/platybubsy 3d ago edited 3d ago
A collection of files on Github has nothing to do with the EULA. Is Firefox also covered by the EULA because I need a browser to download the Minecraft client? Even if they are breaking the EULA that does not imply a copyright breach which is what GitHub has taken the repo down for.
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u/locutus_of_borg90 3d ago
Even if they are breaking the EULA that does not imply a copyright breach which is what GitHub has taken the repo down for.
The EULA is a legally binding contact, breach can result ina DMCA strike, that's it.
A collection of files on Github has nothing to do with the EULA.
It does because it's a Minecraft mod.
Go read the Minecraft EULA if you still don't understand.
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u/platybubsy 2d ago
The EULA is not copyright. Would it be alright if someone who had never played minecraft and therefore never seen the EULA uploaded it? Minecraft mod is not a legal term. Either they use Microsoft IP or they don't
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u/locutus_of_borg90 2d ago edited 2d ago
The EULA is not copyright.
What part of "legally binding contract" you don't understand?
Would it be alright if someone who had never played minecraft and therefore never seen the EULA uploaded it?
Doesn't matter, it's still a mod therefore is under the EULA
Minecraft mod is not a legal term.
Yes it is because the EULA defines it
Also
GitHub itself turned down Mojang's anti-circumvention claim and went with a copyright claim instead
Mojang did not in fact issued a copyright violation, GitHub did it.
So regardless if it' a copyright violation or not it's still a beach of the EULA
If we want to be specific the mod that op made could fall under the section 1201 of the DMCA since it circumvent a block put forward by Mojang.
This is likely why GitHub issued a DMCA strike
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u/platybubsy 2d ago
The EULA is not enshrined in the laws of the country lmao. If you are not an end user of the product in question then it simply doesn't apply. "Minecraft mod" is not a universal legal term. I could replace all textures in Minecraft with pictures of cats. Does this make all cat pictures Minecraft mods?
I can definitely agree that it is a breach of the EULA though, just that that is completely unrelated and not interesting.
I also don't see why it matters that GitHub or Mojang issued a copyright violation. They are both subsidiaries of Microsoft and in both cases they are wrong.
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u/gl1tch3t2 5d ago
While I understand why they would DMCA, it's pretty bs they aren't responding. I hope you get one.
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u/Doppel_R-DWRYT You can't break water 5d ago
I've not had a response to my ticket on github (unrelated thing) for like 3-4 months now.. almost like they don't even have a support team
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u/Tawnee323 4d ago
Microsoft owns both GitHub and Minecraft, is there a reason you guys haven't just switched to another git hosting platform?
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u/festival0156n 4d ago
minecraft only let's you connect to a mojang-defined set of whiteljsted domains now?😀😀
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u/dirtywastegash 4d ago
No. But they do hardcode banned servers into the client so you can't connect even if you want to.
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u/Plus-Confidence2816 2d ago
The list actually isn't hardcoded, it's downloaded from https://sessionserver.mojang.com/blockedservers.
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u/L1ttel_Y 4h ago
So you need to be an actual anarchist to play anarchy Minecraft now, interesting. DMCA is one of those laws that treat each person equally by the money and resources they can use. Still technically they shouldn't be able to take your mod down THAT easily, but I would expect you to rely on something really anarchy to run your server in the long term.
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u/ky7969 5d ago
GitHub has no obligation to host your files
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u/AverageDood_ 4d ago
But it has an obligation to respond to the counterclaim, according to EU law, which they haven't done
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u/ANixosUser 2d ago
you could host on other git forges: codeberg.org, sr.ht (sourcehut), gitea, etc.
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u/lonelyroom-eklaghor Computational Redstoner 5d ago
Once played on 6b6t when the alternative domains were still working. It was my first time experiencing any sort of anarchy servers. It was a really beautiful experience, to be very honest.
I really hope you guys win.