Browsercraft: Java Minecraft in the browser

Huh, is Minecraft Java edition free now? I haven't played in a long time but I thought when you download the regular client you only get to play after signing in with an account that purchased the game, how is this thing just starting the game directly?

You could always play Minecraft without an account. But you can't join most servers that enable authentication checks

Nope, this is piracy. Which you may or may not consider a bad thing, but there will be lawyers in this person's future.

Well yeah you could play without an account with a cracked launcher

> Clicking the button below will download the client from mojang.com. By clicking it, you agree to the Minecraft EULA.

It's literally just downloading the client from https://piston-data.mojang.com/v1/objects/4a2fac7504182a97dc... where mojang makes it publicly available.

It's an older version so it's not linked on their website anymore, but you can find the same download link on the wiki: https://minecraft.wiki/w/Java_Edition_1.2.5

What makes you think they will have "lawyers in their future"?

It's running minecraft 1.2.5 which was released in 2012, which mojang still makes available

A long time ago I looked for a way to download Minecraft to install on systems without any internet connection and it just wouldn't work. I even tired alternate launchers, but eventually gave up. Maybe the situation has changed and it's possible now though.

At first, there was no launcher there was just the Minecraft.jar file which you could launch to start playing. That's what the parent page is doing; it's just having us download and run the game, no need for a launcher.

One can get early Alpha and Beta versions of Minecraft through the official launcher too. I think this is a nice benefit - you buy the game once and have perpetual access to the latest version, but also all the old versions which are worth playing for various reasons e.g. Beta 1.7.3 is very popular because it's one of the last versions before the terrain and cave generation was significantly changed.

Lawyers and judges care about the overall effect of a thing, not the technical steps you take to make it happen. The overall effect is: Someone goes to your website, and plays Minecraft for free. Therefore you gave them the service of playing Minecraft for free. Which is illegal.

The fact that the file comes from Microsoft's server is one of those "technicalities" that you've heard about some people sometimes, but not usually, getting off on.

Microsoft will probably argue that the login prompt is a technological protection measure, which makes it blanket illegal to work around, due to the over-broad DMCA. That technicality is about as likely to work against you, as the "it's from their server so I didn't distribute it" technicality is to work for you...

Mandatory disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

Also Modded Minecraft is extremely popular, and the mods necessarily aren't version agnostic, so you need to be able to run a specific Minecraft version to play the pack of mods you're currently enjoying.

Right now I am playing Enigmatica 2: Expert, which is a mod pack for Minecraft 1.12

Today I need to teleport to my spaceship which is in orbit around a distant planet and then fly it back to our solar system and visit Mars, as I have neglected to obtain materials from Mars which I need to build this end game item I'm working on.

It's still recognisably Minecraft even though I'm working with a 9x9 crafting grid. It has internal consistency, dragons hoard rare metals, Plutonium is a rare metal, therefore make sure to bring hazmat handling equipment if you're about to plunder a dragon's hoard.

Start with suing the minecraft wiki then I guess

Also you should probably advice mojang to put some authentication on their download URLs, which have been publicly documented for more than a decade by now.

There is no login prompt. This project is over a year old. You are just misinterpreting the situation. This is like threatening to sue Mozilla because you can use Firefox to click on a download button, or Microsoft because double clicking on an exe on Windows runs the application.

... no, it is not like that, and I can't help you.

Yes. Downloading a game file you don't own and running it is called piracy, so beware of possible legal ramifications.

Ah cool I didn't know, I thought the download of the actual full client was gated behind a login since even third party launchers seemed to require you to log in to play, good to know!

Good thing no one is asking you for "help". You're the one threatening FUD without anyone asking for it. Go bother someone else with your nonsense, lol.