ESA bafflingly declares private Minecraft servers 'illegal'

- The ESA (Entertainment Software Association) is the US trade group for major game publishers, best known for organizing E3 and lobbying on copyright law. - In a "Stop Killing Games" hearing — a consumer campaign pushing back against publishers who shut down online games, making them unplayable — the ESA argued that fan-run private Minecraft servers are illegal and amount to piracy. - This is a striking claim because Minecraft's success was built on its open modding and private-server ecosystem. The ESA's position implies that any server not authorized by the publisher infringes copyright, which critics say would threaten the entire culture of player-hosted game servers. - The "Stop Killing Games" movement emerged after publishers permanently disabled online-only titles (e.g., Ubisoft's The Crew), leaving paying customers unable to play. The ESA's testimony is widely seen as an effort to head off any legal obligation for publishers to preserve or license their games after official support ends.