> A children's block game is not going to help us build nukes or anything, so the sanctions excuse doesn't make sense especially since I already own it.<p>While I agree with that sentiment, and while I admit that I don't know exactly what the sanctions entail, it is quite possible that this is a legal compliance issue and not strictly Microsoft's doing. And of course it could also be a "better safe than sorry" policy when it comes to legal compliance.
From my experience with and in Iran: every western sanction leads to more products and services from China. Life becomes a bit more difficult, yes. But the government does what it wants to do. And China essentially takes over the economy. At the expense of the West. Is the Western behavior wise? I do not know. Sometimes, I hear a "boom" in the air, coming from far away. Those are the bottles of champagne that Chinese entrepreneurs open to celebrate new sanctions on Iran.
It would be up to Microsoft to say why they did it. It's probably buried somewhere in the sanction documents. [1] If Microsoft are complying with a sanction then perhaps they may have issues getting a refund, but could at least open a ticket to get an answer if they have not already. Maybe there is a corporate lawyer on here with experience in this matter?<p>[1] - <a href="https://ofac.treasury.gov/sanctions-programs-and-country-information/iran-sanctions" rel="nofollow">https://ofac.treasury.gov/sanctions-programs-and-country-inf...</a>
Good thing Java edition is a trivial game to pirate. Microsoft stole my legit copy of the game by demanding I sign up for a Microsoft account and accept a new TOS. So I downloaded a third party launcher and commented out the account verification code. There are also prebuilt "cracked" clients of course.<p>Pirate servers with friends is more fun anyway, people can change their nicknames on a whim as they can on IRC/discord. And you don't have to worry about the built-in snitchware banning you for talking shit with your bros, or daring to be born in a country the state department is mad at.
> Why have they banned us on a game and deprived it from us when we already bought it? Isn't that theft and illegal?<p>You paid money, but it is possible that the transaction didn't come with full unencumbered ownership.
One side effect of such bans is that when something stops working in Iran, you can't easily figure out whether it is blocked by the operators inside the country, or by the operators outside the country...
Instead of actually doing anything serious about the regime, they have chosen to do meaningless stuff that only strengthens the military dictatorship regime. I wonder what kickbacks the politicians get from literally helping them.
> The Minecraft reddit moderators didn't even show my post, and downvoted it too. Real "inclusive" of you, guys.<p>Inclusivity is selective... Always has been, always will be.
I don’t play Minecraft, but I’ve noticed that there are plenty of what appear to be open source Minecraft clients and servers. Presumably one could connect an open source client to an open source server without any particular involvement from MS. It’s not even immediately obvious that doing so would infringe on any of MS’s rights.<p>So why do people, especially in places like Iran, use Microsoft’s Minecraft implementation? Is it just ease of use?
Just to clarify, no it isn’t theft. For most games and software that cost money, you never really buy it, but rather you’re buying a license to use it, with strings attached for rules on the possibility of being banned, of which there is usually some vague, overarching “if the company feels like it” or “if the government asks us to” clause.<p>Not saying that this is the way it should be, but at least read the ToS before agreeing to it.
It is known and at least somewhat documented that some criminal organizations have used video games "for children" for communication. US intelligence agencies see multi-player video games as a way for terrorists to communicate, so it makes sense they would sanction if that's their fear.
I just realized how scary this is.<p>I've been pretty concerned about Microsoft since their quality is low and their customer service is AOL tier.<p>My kid loves minecraft, I've made some cool worlds, my wife is/was into it. I have realized that everything ends, and I think Minecraft is going to end before and of us 3. It has got to be Greed at this point? Minecraft becomes p2p or similar.<p>I'm really hoping the FOSS variants can catch up before its too late.
Minecraft is a psyop platform used to cultivate certain personality types, to be exploited by other organizations that buy the data. Many intelligence organizations built them specifically to use them for recruiting tools. Iran being blocked suggests to me that the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence was using it too...