Return the sale of Minecraft accounts

[User]

... in some capacity. I'd like for this to be a good place to discuss the concept in general, so I'll try to briefly state my main thoughts on the matter and potential ways to solve these issues, and allow others to expand on them in ways that I might not be able to.

1. Minecraft's EULA is not legally binding. Based on what I've researched, EULA's can only be legally binding to those that have expressly agreed to the terms and been given ample time to read and understand them. [source, court precedents]

2. Minecraft's EULA has been repeatedly broken by many other sites and services, that Mojang has taken no action towards, even if they may have threatened to do so. For example, 90% of all Minecraft servers created in the past 5 years, many of which are larger and more active than MC-Market.

3. Services/products that violate their respective TOS' are still present on MCM. nfdegreu3i23r22r has mentioned many of these, including Youtube channels [source from an official Youtube team email; it is not illegal, but it is not supported, similarly to the way Minecraft account selling functions], Fortnite/Valorant/Epic accounts/items [source], PayPal currency conversion [source], and so on. Yet, these sections remain untouched.


My proposed solution:

Allowing Minecraft accounts to be sold EXCLUSIVELY with transaction ID. The transaction ID is only sent once to the original owner of an account, and as most mail services are infinitely more secure than Minecraft, the likelihood of an account with TID being cracked or illegitimately obtained is very slim. With Mojang likely allowing accounts to be directly linked to a secure Microsoft email in the near future [source], TIDs may not even be needed in the future for any accounts that have gone through this migration process. This would address the vast majority of concerns that these accounts are unethically obtained, leaving the only issue to be that of account selling breaking Mojang's TOS. Now, besides the EULA not being legally enforceable, nor taken seriously by the majority of the community, Mojang has gone against their own rules and even against certain privacy laws (specifically, the GDPR laws regarding personal info), as well as removing access to accounts from legitimate users that have never broken a single rule in Mojang's TOS or EULA. Mojang has done just as much as MC-Market has, if not more.


Any legal experts are free to weigh in on the legality of these practices and the likelihood that MC-Market would face a lawsuit, or even to lose the lawsuit; I'm not a professional, I'm just a normal user that doesn't want to see the sites community die off.

 

[Ache]

+1 and stuff

 

[OAliverpool]

They wouldn't risk their site getting shut down over accounts man, simply not worth

 

[User]

They wouldn't risk their site getting shut down over accounts man, simply not worth

But see, that's the thing. Their site wouldn't get shut down over this, since it's not legally enforceable in the slightest. And that EULA, by the way, applies exclusively to end users; therefore, MC-Market being a platform for those that must follow the EULA would not then force MC-Market to also follow that EULA. The EULA neither applies to MCM nor is it enforceable, so any threat MC-Market may get will be an empty one.

 

[Sloth]

In all seriousness I understand why they removed accounts but when a vast majority of their site still violates rules one way or another it’s simply silly. As User stated, an EULA isn’t Law. Just because a site allows the selling of Minecraft products doesn’t mean they’ve engaged into a legally binding contract. If that were the case, every site that has anything Minecraft related on it would be subject to Mojang’s will (including large sites like eBay and Amazon.)

My one concern about this suggestion is that while the chances are slim, accounts have still been stolen with the TID being present.

 

[shmokintooka]

But see, that's the thing. Their site wouldn't get shut down over this, since it's not legally enforceable in the slightest. And that EULA, by the way, applies exclusively to end users; therefore, MC-Market being a platform for those that must follow the EULA would not then force MC-Market to also follow that EULA. The EULA neither applies to MCM nor is it enforceable, so any threat MC-Market may get will be an empty one.

When MCM is getting into legal bullshit. But anyway +1 I totally agree. Lets try and keep this alive.

 

[User]

In all seriousness I understand why they removed accounts but when a vast majority of their site still violates rules one way or another it’s simply silly. As User stated, an EULA isn’t Law. Just because a site allows the selling of Minecraft products doesn’t mean they’ve engaged into a legally binding contract. If that were the case, every site that has anything Minecraft related on it would be subject to Mojang’s will (including large sites like eBay and Amazon.)

My one concern about this suggestion is that while the chances are slim, accounts have still been stolen with the TID being present.

That's true, but that applies to everything on the internet; every graphic, every premade build, every setup, every line of code, every written document, every domain, every gift code, every video game item on this entire site COULD have been stolen, and to be honest, the likelihood of some of those being illegitimately obtained is far higher than the likelihood of accounts being stolen with the TID.

 

[OAliverpool]

But see, that's the thing. Their site wouldn't get shut down over this, since it's not legally enforceable in the slightest. And that EULA, by the way, applies exclusively to end users; therefore, MC-Market being a platform for those that must follow the EULA would not then force MC-Market to also follow that EULA. The EULA neither applies to MCM nor is it enforceable, so any threat MC-Market may get will be an empty one.

Why would they risk it though? Makes 0 sense. Especially if they were contacted it means that Mojang clearly cares. Therefore, they shouldn't ignore. Shocking to you this can have real world consequences this isn't just sitting behind a screen selling block game accounts.

 

[Sloth]

That's true, but that applies to everything on the internet; every graphic, every premade build, every setup, every line of code, every written document, every domain, every gift code, every video game item on this entire site COULD have been stolen, and to be honest, the likelihood of some of those being illegitimately obtained is far higher than the likelihood of accounts being stolen with the TID.

I completely agree and understand. I’m just pointing out what the staff will use to immediately shoot this down.

 

[User]

Why would they risk it though? Makes 0 sense. Especially if they were contacted it means that Mojang clearly cares. Therefore, they shouldn't ignore. Shocking to you this can have real world consequences this isn't just sitting behind a screen selling block game accounts.

It's a lot better to risk the slim chance of your site shutting down than to risk the essentially imminent possibility of your site losing a massive source of income and activity. And no, Mojang contacting them does not mean they necessarily care. Trust me on that; I've worked for several big teams that have been contacted by Mojang specifically regarding EULA violations, and we've suffered absolutely no losses as a result of entirely ignoring it, for the first, and no benefits for accepting it (after a lengthy period of time) on the second.

 

[OAliverpool]

It's a lot better to risk the slim chance of your site shutting down than to risk the essentially imminent possibility of your site losing a massive source of income and activity. And no, Mojang contacting them does not mean they necessarily care. Trust me on that; I've worked for several big teams that have been contacted by Mojang specifically regarding EULA violations, and we've suffered absolutely no losses as a result of entirely ignoring it, for the first, and no benefits for accepting it (after a lengthy period of time) on the second.

Congrats that's so cool! Still as an established brand you don't want to lose this. This may be some people's jobs (I imagine it is wouldn't know fully) So imagine putting your income on the line for some accounts, not worth

 

[Sloth]

Why would they risk it though? Makes 0 sense. Especially if they were contacted it means that Mojang clearly cares. Therefore, they shouldn't ignore. Shocking to you this can have real world consequences this isn't just sitting behind a screen selling block game accounts.

Mojang can be concerned all they want about people selling accounts, it doesn’t mean we have to listen to them or meet their demands. Their wishes won’t hold up in a court of law.

 

[User]

Congrats that's so cool! Still as an established brand you don't want to lose this. This may be some people's jobs (I imagine it is wouldn't know fully) So imagine putting your income on the line for some accounts, not worth

They're putting more income on the line with this than they would be by allowing the sale of Minecraft accounts to continue, most likely. Even if you don't support account selling yourself, you have to understand that this branches out more than just "Mick doesn't want to lose his site".

(p.s; the established brand of MC-Market was already lost when they removed their signature tag of being the #1 Minecraft trading forum; now Minecraft account sales, which is easily the most well-known part of the site, is removed. Their "brand" has already been killed, but I'm hoping it can be revived.)

 

[Sloth]

Congrats that's so cool! Still as an established brand you don't want to lose this. This may be some people's jobs (I imagine it is wouldn't know fully) So imagine putting your income on the line for some accounts, not worth

If your primary source of income relates to Minecraft you’ve already put yourself in an incredibly risky situation. What if Mojang just decides it wants to stop people from selling anything relating to Minecraft beyond just accounts?[DOUBLEPOST=1600739950][/DOUBLEPOST]

Congrats that's so cool! Still as an established brand you don't want to lose this. This may be some people's jobs (I imagine it is wouldn't know fully) So imagine putting your income on the line for some accounts, not worth

Also, what if someone’s job was selling Minecraft accounts

 

[User]

Annie, would you like to state why you disagree? You're free to do so, of course, but I'd like to see counterarguments as to why this suggestion shouldn't be accepted.

 

[inferno]

sorry to say but its not gonna work, they won't risk a lawsuit lol mcm isn't equipped for that shit

 

[Annie]

Annie, would you like to state why you disagree? You're free to do so, of course, but I'd like to see counterarguments as to why this suggestion shouldn't be accepted.

I just disagree. They removed it to abide by mojang's EULA, this would completely undo that. So I disagree

 

[Sloth]

I just disagree. They removed it to abide by mojang's EULA, this would completely undo that. So I disagree

I didn’t know we have to abide by Mojang’s EULA when using Mc-Market...

 

[User]

sorry to say but its not gonna work, they won't risk a lawsuit lol mcm isn't equipped for that shit

Nor is Mojang. It's been 8 years since there's been any lawsuit with them, and since then, there's been several cases that have come out of this community in which Mojang has avoided any form of legal intervention at all costs.

 

[Annie]

I didn’t know we have to abide by Mojang’s EULA when using Mc-Market...

All users who have a minecraft account must accept the EULA. So by selling accounts you are inherently accepting, and violating Mojang EULA. I never said what you said, so don't twist my words. MCM is simply enforcing Mojang's EULA as per Mojang's request. Legally binding or not, MC-Market made the ethically correct move, and legally correct (even if not necessarily required).

I've also seen all major Minecraft related forums lose access to PayPal recently. I have no clue why, but one could wonder if it's relating to Mojang's crackdown on their copyrights and eula violations. And if MC-Market has to pick between a resource section (it uses the PayPal API) and advertisements, or selling accounts. They're going to pick the resource section and advertisements.

Even so; Let's say Mojang has no ground to stand on, they can still open a law suit against MC-Market with their Microsoft lawyers. Would you want to go to court with their lawyers even if you were pretty sure you'd probably win? You'd likely avoid it. It's one of those things that they would rather be safe then sorry and I entirely understand.