Minecraft End(er)-User License Agreement (“EULA”)

SUMMARY

This EULA is a legal agreement between you and us (Mojang AB and Microsoft Corporation, or, if applicable, one of its local affiliates listed in the Company Information section below). You should read the whole thing but here is a quick summary of some important points to help guide you - the full terms and conditions still apply though.

This Minecraft EULA and the Microsoft Services Agreement, together, apply to all Minecraft services.
Your content is yours, but please share it responsibly and safely.
Our community standards help us build a community that is open and safe for everyone.
You may develop tools, plug-ins and services as long as they do not seem official or approved by us, such as by using our logos.
Do not distribute or make commercial use of anything we've made without our permission.
We are trying to be open, honest and trusting with the hope that you hold us in the same regard.

This EULA applies to all Minecraft websites, software, experiences, and services (“Services”), except for the Minecraft Shop and Minecraft Education, each of which have their own separate terms.

Introduction

If you buy, download, or use any of our Services, or if you click to accept this EULA, that means you agree to this Minecraft EULA and the Microsoft Services Agreement, so please read through them carefully. If you are a minor and you are having trouble understanding these terms and conditions, please ask your parent or legal guardian to explain them, especially as your parent or legal guardian is responsible for the creation of your Microsoft account and the acceptance all terms on your behalf. Remember to check here and the Microsoft Services Agreement once in a while as we may update these terms and conditions, which will be effective the next time you use our Services.

ACCOUNT Terms

For the Microsoft platforms (including our website, Microsoft Store and Xbox), we use Microsoft accounts for our games and a Microsoft account is required to purchase our games or a Minecraft Realms subscription through our website, the Microsoft Store, or Xbox. The Microsoft Services Agreement has all the terms that apply to your Microsoft account.

If you purchased our games through a platform that does not require a Microsoft account, such as Sony PlayStation, Nintendo, Apple iOS, Google Play, or Steam, please view those platform’s terms as those will apply to your purchase. The Microsoft Services Agreement may still apply to the extent you use a Microsoft account in connection with our Services (such as cross-platform play and Minecraft Realms).

An exception here is Minecraft Education. Minecraft Education is provided through the group agreement in place with the school or organization that purchased Minecraft Education for your use, so please view your group’s terms for your legal agreement.

Another exception is the Minecraft Shop. Minecraft Shop is managed by our friends at Snow Commerce, who are not part of us or Microsoft. Please review their terms and conditions, as they apply to your Minecraft Shop purchases.

If you originally signed up for a Mojang Account in the past, you must migrate to a Microsoft Account in order to keep using the Services. You can find the legacy Mojang Account terms archived here: Mojang account terms.

what you can and can’t do with Minecraft software and content

When you buy our games, that means you can download, install, and play them. For the server version of Minecraft: Java Edition, you can install it on a server and host online play.

However, you must not distribute anything we've made unless we specifically agree to it. By "distribute anything we've made" what we mean is:

give copies of our game software or content to anyone else;
make commercial use of anything we've made;
try to make money from anything we've made; or
let other people get access to anything we've made in a way that is unfair or unreasonable.

And so that we are crystal clear, "the game" or "what we have made" includes, but is not limited to, the Services, plus any other games we might publish in the future. It also includes updates, patches, downloadable or Marketplace content, add-ons, or modified versions of a game, part of those things, merchandise, audio-visual content, or anything else we've made.

Otherwise we are quite relaxed about what you do - in fact we really encourage you to do cool stuff - but just don't do those things that we say you can't. We’ve put together detailed Minecraft Usage Guidelines as to how you can or cannot do things using what we’ve made, including screenshots and recorded videos of our games. These Minecraft Usage Guidelines are extra permissions that we give to the community to encourage creativity and community, but we reserve the right to change them or withdraw permissions, especially if we see people exploiting or abusing these permissions. The Minecraft Usage Guidelines often change, and we have the right to withdraw the permissions given in them at any time without notice.

USING mods

If you've bought Minecraft: Java Edition, you may play around with it and modify it by adding modifications, tools, or plugins, which we will refer to collectively as "Mods." By "Mods," we mean something original that you or someone else created that doesn't contain a substantial part of our copyrightable code or content. When you combine your Mod with Minecraft: Java Edition, we will call that combination a "Modded Version" of the game. We have the final say on what constitutes a Mod and what doesn't. You may not distribute any Modded Versions of our game or software, and we’d appreciate it if you didn’t use Mods for griefing. Basically, Mods are okay to distribute; hacked versions or Modded Versions of the game client or server software are not okay to distribute.

Any Mods you create for Minecraft: Java Edition from scratch belong to you (including pre-run Mods and in-memory Mods) and you can do whatever you want with them, as long as you don't sell them for money / try to make money from them and so long as you don’t distribute Modded Versions of the game. Remember that a Mod means something that is your original work and that does not contain a substantial part of our code or content. You only own what you created; you do not own our code or content.

When we update our games, some changes might not work well with other software, such as Mods. This is unfortunate, but it is something we don’t take responsibility for. If that is the case, try running an older version.

In order to ensure the integrity of our games, we need all game downloads and updates to come from a source that we authorize. It's also important for us that 3rd party tools/services don't seem "official" as we can't guarantee their quality. It's part of the responsibility we have to the customers of Minecraft. Make sure that you read through our Minecraft Usage Guidelines too, as we may takedown Mods or other software that violate our Minecraft Usage Guidelines.

CONTENT

The Microsoft Services Agreement says “Your Content remains Your Content”, and that applies to Minecraft. We don't own the original stuff that you create. We will however own things that are copies (or substantial copies) or derivatives of our property and creations - but if you create original things, they aren't ours. So, as an example:

a single Minecraft block (including its textures and its “look and feel”) - we own that;
your creation of a Gothic Cathedral with a rollercoaster running through it - we don't own that.

ONLINE SAFETY

Please watch out if you are talking to people in our games. It is hard for either you or us to know for sure that what people say is true, or even if people are really who they say they are. You should think twice about giving out information about yourself.

We have helpful resources here that can help you be safe on the Internet.

COMMUNITY STANDARDS FOR MINECRAFT

As an Xbox Game Studio, Mojang Studios affirms the Xbox Community Standards and all Minecraft players held responsible to those standards to participate in the Minecraft community. These Community Standards for Minecraft is a supplement to the Xbox Community Standards and is a statement of our values to keep the Minecraft community safe and fun for everyone.

Our Values

The spirit of inclusion lives in our values, which are key to sustaining a vibrant and welcoming community.

Minecraft is for everyone
Diversity powers our community
Playing with others should be safe and inclusive
Hate has no place here

Minecraft is for everyone, and diversity powers our community

Minecraft is available in countries all over the world, and it’s important that our platform feels safe and inclusive for people of all backgrounds.
Every player in the Minecraft community deserves a place to be their authentic selves and to build, craft, create, and express themselves in an environment that is inclusive to all. We aspire to be a community where Minecraft can be enjoyed by all.
The Minecraft community is yours but it’s everyone else’s too. When you express your opinions, please do so politely and respectfully. Don’t blow up like a creeper!

Playing with others should be safe and inclusive, and hate has no place here

To keep the Minecraft community welcoming and inclusive for everyone, we have a zero-tolerance policy towards hate speech, terrorist or violent extremist content, bullying, harassing, sexual solicitation, fraud, or threatening others.
The mods, skins, builds, realms, packs, and other content you craft with Minecraft can be a great way to show off what’s meaningful to you and to express your creativity. However, content that portrays hate or extreme bias or encourages illegal activity is not permitted.
Fraud is any attempt to use deceit or misrepresentation for personal or financial gain. When someone commits fraud, they circumvent the processes that keep things fair and financially secure for everyone.

The world of Minecraft is built by players, for players. Whether you’re building the grandest of castles in Creative mode or working to take down the Ender Dragon in Survival mode, player safety is a priority for Mojang to ensure everyone feels safe while contributing in their own way.

We reserve the right to suspend or permanently ban anyone who violates these Community Standards or this EULA. To learn more about our moderation policies, how to report a player, and how to appeal an active enforcement action on your account here.

REALMS

Minecraft Realms (“Realms”) is our online service that allows people to play with others on dedicated servers that are hosted by us. Realms is not included with your purchase of Minecraft; it is an add-on to the game. We make Realms available only on accounts, devices, platforms and versions of Minecraft that are compatible with the Service. A Microsoft Account with Xbox Live profile is required; some countries may have restrictions on who and how a Microsoft Account can provision an Xbox Live profile.

Realms is a subscription service and the cost is as detailed on the applicable purchase pages and / or platform at the time of purchase, or the purchase price of the redeemable card or gift code. The terms and conditions of the applicable purchase pages, platform, redeemable card and / or gift code shall also apply in respect of the purchase of Realms. Realms is a service that commences as soon as your Realm is available for use. If you decide to cancel your Realm after you have already purchased it, your cancellation will be subject to the applicable store or platform rules.

When you get your Realm you will get access to a dedicated Realm, on which you can play Minecraft by yourself or you can invite several other people to play Minecraft with you (the number depends on which version of Realms you get). However you cannot do the following:

sell, lease, rent, transfer, give away, or otherwise deal in access to your Realm or receive financial, commercial or other benefits for letting other people play on your Realm.

As we mentioned in the Content section, your Content (e.g., the worlds that you create) remains yours. However, we retain ownership of our Minecraft intellectual property, which includes the game itself (including its content like the textures of our blocks and our character skins) and our Services, and derivatives of each. When you pay for the use of Realms, you are not buying ownership of the physical server hardware supporting your Realm – you are buying a permission to use Realms in accordance with this EULA. The only permissions you have in connection with Realms are those set out in this EULA - and the specific statutory exceptions or rights (including so called fair use or fair dealing rights) that you are otherwise entitled to by law, but they will generally apply to your Content and not Realms itself.

Some versions of Realms may allow you to back-up the data from your Realm, in which case you may be able to download the data to your device and use it with your own (legitimate) version of Minecraft.

Because we provide users with the freedom to create their own worlds within their Realms, and its technically impossible for us to monitor every bit of user content in our Realms, please note that:

the views expressed in any user content are the views of the individual authors or creators and not us or anyone connected with us unless we specify otherwise;
we are not responsible for (and, subject to and to the extent allowed by applicable law, we make no warranty or representation in relation to and disclaim all liability for) all user content including any comments, views or remarks expressed in it;
by using Minecraft Realms you acknowledge that we have no responsibility to monitor or review the content of any user content and that all user content is made available on the basis that we are not required to and do not exercise any control or judgment over it;
when you communicate with other players, do not ask people you haven’t met in real life to meet up with you in real life.

HOWEVER, we may remove, reject or suspend access to any user content and remove or suspend your ability to post, make available or access user content - including removing or suspending access to your Realm or other Realms if we consider it is appropriate to do so, such as because you have breached these terms or we receive a complaint that we believe warrants such action. We will also act expeditiously to remove or disable access to user content and Realms if and when we have actual knowledge of it being unlawful.

privacy

The Microsoft Privacy Statement applies to all Minecraft Services. The sole exception is the Minecraft Shop, which is managed by our friends at Snow Commerce, who are not part of us or Microsoft. Please review their terms and conditions, as their terms will apply to your usage of the Minecraft Shop.

GENERAL STUFF

Your local law may give you rights that this EULA cannot change; if so, this EULA applies as far as the law allows.

We may change this EULA from time to time, if we have reason to, such as changes to our games, our practices, or our legal obligation. But those changes will be effective only to the extent that they can legally apply. In that case we'll inform you of the change before it takes effect, either by posting a notice on our website or by other reasonable means. We're not going to be unfair about this though - but sometimes the law changes or someone does something that affects other users of the game and we therefore need to put a lid on it.

If you come to us with a suggestion for Minecraft, that suggestion is made for free and we have no obligation to accept or consider it. This means we can use or not use your suggestion in any way we want and we don't have to pay you for it. If you think you have a suggestion that we would be willing to pay you for, please do not tell us your suggestion unless you have first told us you want to be paid and we have responded in writing by asking you to submit the suggestion.

If you want to notify us that you believe someone is infringing your intellectual property on our Services, please submit your notice here. If appropriate, we may terminate the accounts of users who are repeat infringers. We reserve the right to take down any content in our discretion.