[aur-requests] [PRQ#25316] Deletion Request for multimc-lhaus-git

[Christopher Snowhill (kode54)]

From what I've gathered from watching the list on these launchers, at least the official TLauncher Legacy: Apparently, the AUR doesn't like to get into enforcing end user license agreements, or EULAs, and tracks that EULAs are not legally enforceable. I'm not entirely sure where to stand on this issue, since the launchers are not supplying the pirated game, only allowing downloading it from Microsoft's own servers, using the same method as the official launcher, which doesn't guard this download process behind any DRM.

The only thing they do which may be considered a circumvention device, is spoof the authentication or session information to the game's own API calls, so that it will actually run and think that it's genuinely connected to Microsoft's servers and authenticated with either a Mojang or a Microsoft account via the launcher. They also spoof the email address or user name that allegedly authenticated, so technically you could try to connect to any Minecraft server as any user that you want, and it will just generate an arbitrary deterministic UUID for your fake account when you "log in" to offline mode.

So, not so much just an EULA violation, but also a copy protection circumvention device. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Anyone who is willing to, is welcome to use a VM or something to install all these various launchers one by one and verify whether they let you play the game "offline", and if so, if that can just connect to arbitrary Minecraft servers using a spoofed deterministic UUID. Then we can decide whether it's in the AUR's best interest to ban these clients, or just stick to saying "we only host the recipe to install and/or build the app, not our problem".

> On Jul 19, 2021, at 5:23 AM, xcfrg <xcfrg at protonmail.com> wrote:
> 
> That launcher does indeed support "offline mode" but my request for the package seemed to get denied because "it wasn't hosted on the aur". That doesn't make any sense, the package is still on the aur and at the very least, it's enabling piracy.
> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
> On Saturday, May 8th, 2021 at 4:23 PM, Christopher Snowhill <kode54 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> While we're narcing on Minecraft launchers, may as well look into tlauncher as well, I hear that one's been on AUR since at least 2015, and possibly supports the same "offline" mode.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Thursday, May 06, 2021 at 6:59 PM, notify--- via aur-requests <aur-requests at lists.archlinux.org <mailto:aur-requests at lists.archlinux.org>> wrote:
>> xcfrg [1] filed a deletion request for multimc-lhaus-git [2]:
>> 
>> This package allows one to play minecraft without purchase in full
>> (not demo mode), making it illegal and piracy. You can find the
>> offending code here,
>> https://github.com/lhaus/MultiMC/commit/1642383dcfe9f9e4b0edfb49b6e6803e3c798059.
>> 
>> [1] https://aur.archlinux.org/account/xcfrg/
>> [2] https://aur.archlinux.org/pkgbase/multimc-lhaus-git/
> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/aur-requests/attachments/20210719/ae8cd327/attachment.htm>