software licensing
Minecraft - must you accept EULA if you write your own server software?
<p><em>Note: This question is just for my curiosity</em></p>

<p>So from what I know, it is 100% legal to write your own Minecraft server software that is interoperable with the Minecraft client. This can be done by reverse-engineering the protocol, without looking at Minecraft's server code.</p>

<p>So in this case, must you still abide to the EULA (end-user license agreement) of Minecraft server's? The  Vanilla server software require's you to accept this by typing "true" in a text file, but this doesn't apply with custom server software.</p>

<p>Legally, no. However Microsoft has means other than legal ones to enforce their rules.</p>

<p>They can, for instance, blacklist servers that do not adhere to their EULA. That means unmodified clients (ie: your players) will not be able to connect to your server. It doesn't matter if you're legally bound to the EULA or not.</p>

<p>The result is effectively a death sentence for any server, and that's why many servers using 3rd party code still abide by the Minecraft EULA.</p>
