I recently came across a video by Loyal Moses titled “They’re Banning Your Home Server”.
This got me thinking about what it means for anyone who likes running their own gear.
The industry lobby’s framing around private servers feels like a major mask-off moment for big tech, treating user-controlled hardware as a threat.
I have written a short piece in reaction to the video and would love to hear your thoughts.
Original content by The Unknown Universe, written by a human and not AI generated!
They do, but it certainly wasn’t Microsoft’s idea. That’s been around since before they bought Minecraft, and it’s very clear that they don’t like it. They’ve added all kinds of dark pattern bullshit, like hiding private servers way at the bottom of the page and blocking them from console users entirely (requiring third party workarounds).
I don’t think they’re lying when they say they consider it piracy.
There’s also an EULA that you have to check the box for before you download the server software that basically amounts to “I acknowledge and accept that Microsoft can shut this down whenever they want for no reason at all and I have no recourse if they decide to do that.”
They consider it piracy out of convenience. What they case about is telemetry. They want all the event data from user interaction. Any such data is a gold mine for training AI. That makes it an asset in their eyes. An asset that the poor plebs get to keep and not even use for self-interested spy shit? Microsoft: “that’s not fair! Piracy!!”