Microsoft/TracerAI withdraws copyright takedown against Luanti
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Microsoft/TracerAI withdraws copyright takedown against Luanti

Written by

the Luanti team

Previously, we announced that
Microsoft via Tracer AI had filed a DMCA notice against Luanti’s Google Play listing,
alleging that Luanti infringed upon Minecraft’s copyright. The notice has been
rescinded and the app has been reinstated on the Play Store.

The notice being rescinded means that the app has been reinstated on the Play
Store sooner than if we had to wait for the counter-notice period. It also
indicates that they have dropped this case and do not plan to file a lawsuit.
In a remarkable twist, after the previous post, we discovered that Microsoft
actually uses Luanti for research:

Project VEGA - Microsoft Research & XBOX:

For the prototypes and demonstrations in this article, our testbed is Luanti, an open-source voxel game platform.

Beyond Pixel Histories: World Models with Persistent 3D State - Microsoft Research & University of Edinburgh:

We prefer Luanti over Minecraft due to its open-source design and expressive Lua API, which facilitates data collection and experimentation.

These projects highlight Luanti’s potential as an open, flexible, and
easy-to-use platform that satisfies a wide diversity of use cases and audiences.
While we are glad that this situation has been resolved fairly promptly, it
still consumed a fair amount of our time to fight it. We would like to thank our
users, readers, and others for their support. We hope that this situation does
not happen for a third time, and that future updates about the project are about
new features rather than legal matters.

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Microsoft, through Tracer AI, had previously initiated a DMCA notice against Luanti's listing on the Google Play Store, asserting that Luanti infringed upon the copyright of Minecraft. This notice has since been rescinded, resulting in the application being reinstated on the Play Store sooner than the standard counter-notice period. This withdrawal suggests that Microsoft has dropped the legal action and does not intend to pursue a lawsuit regarding this matter. The authors note that while the resolution was timely, the process required significant time.

In a noteworthy development following this legal situation, the team discovered that Microsoft utilizes Luanti for internal research purposes. Specifically, Luanti serves as a testbed for prototypes and demonstrations in Project VEGA, a collaboration between Microsoft Research and XBOX, where Luanti functions as an open-source voxel game platform. Furthermore, the authors highlight a preference for Luanti over Minecraft in projects such as Beyond Pixel Histories, a collaboration involving Microsoft Research and the University of Edinburgh. This preference stems from Luanti’s open-source design and its expressive Lua Application Programming Interface, which are considered advantageous for facilitating data collection and experimentation in research settings.

These examples demonstrate Luanti's potential as an open, flexible, and easily utilized platform capable of serving a diverse range of use cases and audiences. The experience underscores the platform's viability, although the authors expressed a hope that future project updates will focus on new features rather than legal entanglements. The source code and content of Luanti are licensed under the MIT license.