1 Updated: 20 September 2017 09:55
3 MINECRAFT END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
5 In order to protect Minecraft (our "Game") and the members of our
6 community, we need these end user license terms to set out some rules for
7 downloading and using our Game. This license is a legal agreement between
8 you and us (Mojang AB) and describes the terms and conditions for using
9 the Game. We don't like reading license documents any more than you do, so
10 we have tried to keep this as short as possible. If you break these rules
11 we may stop you from using our Game. If we think it is necessary, we might
12 even have to ask our lawyers to help out.
14 If you buy, download, use or play our Game, you are agreeing to stick to
15 the rules of these end user license agreement ("EULA") terms. If you don't
16 want to or can't agree to these rules, then you must not buy, download,
17 use or play our Game. This EULA incorporates the terms of use for the
18 mojang.com website ("Account Terms"), our brand and asset usage
19 guidelines, our privacy policy, and, if you live in the United States,
20 our Arbitration Agreement. By agreeing to this EULA you also agree to
21 all of the terms of the foregoing documents, so please read through them
24 BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER IF YOU LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES
26 For those that who live in the United States, please click here to
27 review the binding arbitration agreement and class action waiver that is
28 part of this EULA. Under the agreement, we both agree to use a neutral
29 arbitrator to decide any individual claims that may arise and thus agree
30 to waive our rights to bring individual claims in court for consideration
31 by a judge or jury. We also agree that class action lawsuits and
32 class-wide arbitrations are not allowed under the terms of the agreement.
34 The complete Arbitration Agreement is on this page. You and we agree
35 to it; please read it.
39 The one major rule is that you must not distribute anything we've made
40 unless we specifically agree to it. By "distribute anything we've made"
43 • give copies of our Game to anyone else;
44 • make commercial use of anything we've made;
45 • try to make money from anything we've made; or
46 • let other people get access to anything we've made in a way that is
47 unfair or unreasonable;
49 unless we specifically agree to it. And so that we are crystal clear, "the
50 Game" or "what we have made" includes, but is not limited to, the client
51 or the server software for our Game and includes Minecraft and Minecraft:
52 Java Edition on all platforms. It also includes updates, patches,
53 downloadable content, add-ons, or modified versions of a Game, part of
54 those things, or anything else we've made.
56 Otherwise we are quite relaxed about what you do - in fact we really
57 encourage you to do cool stuff - but just don't do those things that we
62 You have been granted a license to the Game so you can play and use it,
63 yourself, on your devices.
65 Below we also give you limited rights to do other things but we have to
66 draw a line somewhere or else people will go too far. If you wish to make
67 something pertaining to anything we've made we're humbled, but please make
68 sure that it can't be interpreted as being official and that it complies
69 with this EULA and the brand and asset usage guidelines and above all do
70 not make commercial use of anything we've made.
72 The license and permission we give you to use and play our Game can be
73 revoked if you break any of the terms of this EULA.
75 When you buy our Game, you receive a license that gives you permission to
76 install the Game on your own personal device and use and play it on that
77 device as set out in this EULA. This permission is personal to you, so you
78 are not allowed to distribute the Game (or any part of it) to anyone else.
79 This also means you cannot sell or rent the Game, or make it available for
80 access to other people and you cannot pass on or resell any license keys.
81 You may however give gift codes that have been bought through our official
82 gift code system. This is important to help us stop piracy and fraud and
83 to protect our Game. It is also important to prevent members of our
84 community from buying pirated versions of our Game or fraudulent license
85 keys - which we may cancel, such as in the case of fraud.
87 If you've bought the Game, you may play around with it and modify it by
88 adding modifications, tools, or plugins, which we will refer to
89 collectively as "Mods." By "Mods," we mean something original that you or
90 someone else created that doesn't contain a substantial part of our
91 copyrightable code or content. When you combine your Mod with the
92 Minecraft software, we will call that combination a "Modded Version" of
93 the Game. We have the final say on what constitutes a Mod and what
94 doesn't. You may not distribute any Modded Versions of our Game or
95 software, and we’d appreciate it if you didn’t use Mods for griefing.
96 Basically, Mods are okay to distribute; hacked versions or Modded Versions
97 of the Game client or server software are not okay to distribute.
99 Within reason you're free to do whatever you want with screenshots and
100 videos of the Game. By "within reason" we mean that you can't make any
101 commercial use of them or do things that are unfair or adversely affect
102 our rights unless we've specifically said it's okay in this EULA, allowed
103 it through the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines, or provided for it in a
104 specific agreement with you. If you upload videos of the game to video
105 sharing and streaming sites you are however allowed to put ads on them.
106 Also, don't just rip art resources and pass them around, that's no fun.
108 Essentially the simple rule is do not make commercial use of anything
109 we've made unless we've specifically said it's okay. Oh and if the law
110 expressly allows it, such as under a "fair use" or fair dealing" doctrine
111 then that's ok too - but only to the extent that the law applicable to you
114 In order to ensure the integrity of the Game, we need all Game downloads
115 and updates to come from an authorized source. It's also important for us
116 that 3rd party tools/services don't seem "official" as we can't guarantee
117 their quality. It's part of the responsibility we have to the customers of
118 Minecraft. Make sure that you read through our brand and asset usage
121 OWNERSHIP OF OUR GAME AND OTHER THINGS
123 Although we license you permission to install on your device and play our
124 Game, we are still the owners of it. We are also the owners of our brands
125 and any content contained in the Game. Therefore, when you pay for our
126 Game, you are buying a license to play / use our Game in accordance with
127 this EULA - you are not buying the Game itself. The only permissions you
128 have in connection with the Game and your installation of it are the
129 permissions set out in this EULA.
131 Any Mods you create for the Game from scratch belong to you (including
132 pre-run Mods and in-memory Mods) and you can do whatever you want with
133 them, as long as you don't sell them for money / try to make money from
134 them and so long as you don’t distribute Modded Versions of the Game.
135 Remember that a Mod means something that is your original work and that
136 does not contain a substantial part of our code or content. You only own
137 what you created; you do not own our code or content.
141 If you make any content available on or through our Game, you agree to
142 give us permission to use, copy, modify, adapt, distribute, and publicly
143 display that content. This permission is irrevocable, and you also agree
144 to let us permit other people to use, copy, modify, adapt, distribute, and
145 publicly display your content. You are not giving up your ownership rights
146 in your content, you are just giving us and other users permission to use
147 it. For example, we may need to copy, reformat, and distribute content
148 that you post on our website so others can read it. If you don't want to
149 give us these permissions, do not make content available on or through our
150 Game. Please think carefully before you make any content available,
151 because it may be made public and might even be used by other people in a
154 If you are going to make something available on or through our Game, it
155 must not be offensive to people or illegal, it must be honest, and it must
156 be your own creation. Some examples of the types of things you must not
157 make available using our Game include: posts that include racist or
158 homophobic language; posts that are bullying or trolling; posts that are
159 offensive or that damage our or another person's reputation; posts that
160 include porn or someone else's creation or image; or posts that
161 impersonate a moderator or try to trick or exploit people.
163 Any content you make available on our Game must also be your creation or
164 you must have permission or the legal right to do it. You must not and you
165 agree that you will not make any content available, using the Game that
166 infringes the rights of others. '
168 We reserve the right to take down any content in our discretion.
170 Please watch out if you are talking to people in our Game. It is hard for
171 either you or us to know for sure that what people say is true, or even if
172 people are really who they say they are. You should think twice about
173 giving out information about yourself.
177 We might make upgrades, updates or patches (we call them all "updates")
178 available from time to time, but we don't have to. We are also not obliged
179 to provide ongoing support or maintenance of any Game. Of course, we hope
180 to continue to release new updates for our Game, we just can't guarantee
181 that we will do so. With updates come changes that might not work well
182 with other software, such as Mods. This is unfortunate, but it is
183 something we don’t take responsibility for. If that is the case, try
184 running an older version.
186 OUR LIABILITY, GOVERNING LAW, AND PLACE TO RESOLVE DISPUTES
188 The terms of this EULA do not affect any legal (statutory) rights that you
189 may have under the law that applies to you for the Game. You might have
190 certain rights which the law that applies to you says cannot be excluded.
191 Nothing we say in these terms will affect those legal rights, even if we
192 say something which sounds like it contradicts your legal rights. That’s
193 what we mean when we say “subject to applicable law”.
195 SUBJECT TO APPLICABLE LAW, When you get a copy of our Game, we provide it
196 "'as is"'. Updates are also provided "'as is"'. This means that we are not
197 making any promises to you about the standard or quality of our Game, or
198 that our Game will be uninterrupted or error free. We are not responsible
199 for any loss or damage that it may cause. You bear the entire risk as to
200 its quality and performance. You have to accept that we may release games
201 well before they are complete and so they may (and often will) have bugs
202 -but we prefer to release these features early than make you wait for
203 perfection. If you would like to notify us about a potential bug, we have
204 a site for that here.
206 If you and we ever have a dispute in court (and we hope that won't happen
207 just as much as you do), the exclusive forum (that is, the place it will
208 be handled) will be a state or federal court in King County, WA (if you
209 live in the United States) or a court in Ontario (if you live in Canada).
210 (If you live in the United States, most disputes go to arbitration, not
211 court.) The laws of your state or province govern this EULA and all
212 disputes, including disputes relating to it, our Game, or our Website,
213 regardless of conflict of laws principles, except that the Federal
214 Arbitration Act governs everything related to arbitration.
218 If we want we can terminate this EULA if you breach any of the terms. You
219 can terminate it too, at any time; all you have to do is uninstall the
220 Game from your device and the EULA will be terminated. If the EULA is
221 terminated, you will no longer have any of the rights to the Game given in
222 this license. You do still have the right to things you have created
223 yourself with the game of course. The Arbitration Agreement (if you live
224 in the United States) and the paragraphs about "Ownership of Our Game",
225 "Our Liability" and "General Stuff" will continue to apply even after the
230 Your local law may give you rights that this EULA cannot change; if so,
231 this EULA applies as far as the law allows. Nothing in this license limits
232 our liability for death or bodily injury resulting from our negligence or
233 fraudulent misrepresentations.
235 We may change this EULA from time to time, if we have reason to, such as
236 changes to our games, our practices, or our legal obligation. But those
237 changes will be effective only to the extent that they can legally apply.
238 For example if you use the Game only in single-player mode and don't use
239 the updates we make available then the old EULA applies but if you do use
240 the updates or use parts of the game that rely on our providing ongoing
241 online services then the new EULA will apply. In that case we'll inform
242 you of the change before it takes effect, either by posting a notice on
243 our Website or by other reasonable means. We're not going to be unfair
244 about this though - but sometimes the law changes or someone does
245 something that affects other users of the Game and we therefore need to
248 If you come to us with a suggestion for any one of our Websites or Games,
249 that suggestion is made for free and we have no obligation to accept or
250 consider it. This means we can use or not use your suggestion in any way
251 we want and we don't have to pay you for it. If you think you have a
252 suggestion that we would be willing to pay you for, please do not submit
253 your suggestion unless you have first told us you expect to be paid and we
254 have responded in writing by asking you to submit the suggestion.