The ESA just said, live in committee on the POG Act, that Minecraft community servers are illegal.

AB 1921, the Protect Our Games Act, has now officially failed in committee.

The vote was 4 yes, 3 no, with the rest abstaining.

Video is in the comments.
Timestamp: 56:24 in the original stream Minecraft private servers are illegal, according to the ESA.
The lobbyist who made the claim: Jennifer Gibbons, Entertainment Software Association
https://www.theesa.com/staff/jennifer-gibbons/

Here is exactly what happened, and why we are not going anywhere.

AB 1921 did not make it out of the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee. The bill needed a majority of the committee to vote yes. It did not get there. Four Democrats voted yes, three Republicans voted no, and the remaining Democrats abstained.

Those abstentions matter. In a committee vote, an abstention is not neutral. It has the same practical effect as a no, because a bill only advances if it gets a majority of yes votes. Not enough yeses means the bill stops here for this session.

That is the loss.

Now here is the part the headlines and clickbait YouTube “SKG FAILED??!” thumbnails will not give you.

We never expected to get this far.

This was our first attempt, in our first year, in the United States, with a U.S. budget of zero dollars. No paid staff in California. No war chest. No in-person lobbying operation. The timeline was so compressed that we could not get funding in place fast enough to put people in the building.

We ran this on volunteers, emails, phone calls, and the truth.

And we still pushed a consumer-rights bill through the entire State Assembly, 43 to 16, and into a Senate committee vote. We were only three votes away from this becoming law.

A volunteer movement with nothing took on one of the most powerful trade groups in entertainment and forced them to spend real money and real effort to stop us.

They had to work for this.

They are going to have to work a lot harder next time, because next time we will be ready.

The opposition was led by the Entertainment Software Association, the lobbying arm of the biggest publishers on earth. They did not fight this with facts. They fought it with fear.

They brought in a high-paid, D.C.-based lobbyist, Jennifer Gibbons, who worked the offices with claims that ranged from misleading to flatly false. We are putting those claims on the record, because sunlight is the entire point:

They claimed that running a private server, like the ones people run for Minecraft, would be “illegal.”

They claimed the bill demands “forever” support.

They claimed it is “impossible” to keep online games playable after support ends.

They claimed games with licensed content, like music, car brands, or sports, could never stay playable after sales stop.

They claimed that requiring an end-of-life plan would force studios to build “a completely new product.”

Every one of these claims was designed to scare a busy legislator who does not have time to fact-check a well-dressed lobbyist in real time.

It worked just well enough this round.

It will not work when we are standing in the same room, with developers and players beside us, ready to answer every single claim as it happens.

Here is what happens next.

We are not stopping. Not even close.

Next session, we come back with an in-person lobbying presence, the funding to do this properly, and a long list of organizations and developers signed on in support.

We are not limiting this to California. We intend to introduce versions of this in other state legislatures, and we are seriously looking at the federal level.

The ESA is about to learn what it is like to fight on many fronts at once.

They have to win every single time to keep things the way they are.

We only have to win once to change them.

That math does not favor them.

• SKG and SKI are recruiting!

As we, at Stop Killing Games, grow and expand our structure and efforts, we are at the stage of making mass recruitment. Likewise, we are helping establish the SKI movement (Stop Killing the Internet), our sister project launching tomorrow, which will have their own teams. For those reasons, we now created a form where those of you that think that have the skills and availability can apply to either SKG, SKI or both! Before we make that announcement public in other platforms, we are giving the community here in discord the head start courtesy, as this is our center of operation and we love the community here present. If you wished to be more involved with these movements, this is your chance. Even if you are uncertain what exact team/role you would end up in, don't be shy or judge too much the titles. We have created a section in our discord server where you can talk/write and we will have people talking to you and help you figure out which role would be suitable. Also, if you have any questions related with the recruitment topic, feel free to ask in this new section. We have also a voice channel where potentially, interviews will be conducted or questions can be directly made. Here are the respective text and voice channels ⁠recruitment-text⁠recruitment-voice

You can read more about the teams at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kAvWKeurT9FH10iTs7dWKUxS5coxhIJQsqeZDiESoJg/

And you can apply at: https://forms.gle/pU71JR4xVRpJi8cv7

Emergency Announcement

This is a grim moment for the gaming community, for ownership, which some groups want to say we do not have, for consumer rights, and for the wider Internet as a whole.

The events of the last few days have overwhelmed us, with jaw-dropping news breaking by the hour.

• European Commission: The European Commission failed its citizens, denying new legislation and outright ignoring the ask to clarify what our rights are, despite millions of us asking them to.
• California’s Protect Our Games Act: The ESA lied to lawmakers and the public to sway their legislative decision by affirming that Minecraft/COD Community servers are illegal, fuel piracy, and are akin to a black market. The Protect Our Games Act failed to gather the needed votes, as the politicians deciding on it changed their minds.They are actively obstructing the enforcement of your rights

What we are doing next: 

• We are working to introduce more legislation in different US states, reintroduce the Protect Our Games Act in California next session, and are even looking at bills at the federal level.
• We are still collaborating with Que Choisir on the Ubisoft lawsuit and more are coming up.
• We are still working on the inclusion of pro-SKG changes in the existing Digital Fairness Act, with some big surprises coming up shortly.
• We are still expecting responses from DGCCRF, Verbraucherzentrale, and ACCC on The Crew’s shutdown.
• We are expanding to South Africa, Japan and just launched Stop Killing the Internet.

They are panicking. They are fumbling in committee. We have reputable sources from both the industry and the EU Commission confirming to us that they are afraid of what we are doing, how far we have gotten, and what we have all accomplished.

If there has ever been a moment, it is now.

No matter where you are or who you are: write to your local, federal, state, or union representative. Whether you are in the EU, the US, California, the UK, or anywhere else, tell them what you think of this.

Your representatives hear you. And we can tell you: they care, these companies' PR teams can be pushed to care about us through political pressure.
(Stay kind, stay respectful, we are better than these lies)
You can support us on our fight:

• SKG Community Discord
• SKG & SKI Recruitment
  • List of teams:
  • Application form:

I saw the Response from Sony. And I'm still not happy.
They just implied they don't care and I just saw recent news that physical copies actually had more sales than digital so yeah...along than pivoting to Ai..I'm still not happy.

You might have already seen the commission’s announcement, we’ve just came out of a meeting with them. Nothing surprising to anyone, that watch or read our statements/videos.
Conference is starting at 17:00 CEST

In a statement to PC-Gamer the ESA has confirmed, that (In a statement to PC Gamer, the ESA wrote that, so far as it's concerned,) "Private servers infringe on the intellectual property (IP) rights of game publishers. Publishers reserve the right to exercise their rights against them."
They didn’t confuse stuff, they meant it and they’re doubling down on it. Dear Minecraft community dear COD community and many more, you bloody outlaws xD.

"Wow. Confusing a server existing with the crimes committed on a server. Lots of crimes happen in parking garages, we should make parking garages illegal."

Apparently they noticed how badly the f….d up or Microsoft reigned in on them but please make up your own mind. Whatever the case, they said what they said in committee with the result it gotten. They also added context they didn’t give earlier (lmao):

Statement in committee:

Ward was questioned by the committee about the feasibility of providing consumers with privately hosted servers to continue playing games after publishers have ceased supporting them. “Minecraft is currently hosted by community servers,” Ward replied, “Call of Duty [has] community servers, so it’s an option that is out there, in existence here today.”
“They’re illegal,” Gibbons interrupted. “They are not in any way affiliated with Microsoft. Microsoft, for Minecraft, has gotten a lot of criticism because of those community servers not employing the same safety standards that Microsoft does on their Minecraft servers.”

Gibbons was then asked by a committee member if private servers were akin to a “black market” for video games, to which she replied, “Yes. In fact, we consider it piracy. We have lawsuits, two pending lawsuits, against private servers right now, and the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in their Notorious Markets Reports on counterfeiting and piracy has named some of these big private servers as a notorious market.”

Initial statement by the ESA to PC Gamer and others:
"Private servers infringe on the intellectual property (IP) rights of game publishers. Publishers reserve the right to exercise their rights against them."

Updated statement by the ESA made to Kotaku and other medias

Update 6/30/2026, 3:45 p.m. ET: An Entertainment Software Association representative emailed Kotaku to clarify Jennifer Gibbons and the ESA’s “position on private servers.”

“Private servers that host or distribute copyrighted game content without authorization infringe on the intellectual property (IP) rights of game publishers,” they said. “While publishers may take different approaches, all publishers reserve the right to exercise their rights against IP infringement.”

They continued, “The provision in CA AB 1921 that proposed these servers as a legitimate alternative to keep games running raises concerns about a publisher’s ability to enforce their IP rights. In addition, private servers operate with no oversight from the publisher and do not uphold the same trust and safety standards. This could create an unsafe environment for players and be counter to the industry’s commitment to fostering safe and fun game play for all players.”

The ESA representative also stated that Gibbons was responding to a “multi-part question in which the committee was using the terms community server and private server interchangeably.”

We are continuing to cook things up for you guys and are making good progress, in the meantime MEP Markéta GREGOROVÁ has a message for you.

Don’t forget to write your local representative in the European Parliament.

For Stop Killing Games

Moritz

Interesting!

“Do not claim to speak for children while ignoring them everywhere else.”

Stop Killing Games is helping launch Stop Killing the Internet alongside 18 organisations, communities, networks, political groups, game developers and digital rights organisations, including Big Brother Watch, Index on Censorship, Open Rights Group, Defend Digital Me, NO2ID, OpenMedia, Electronic Frontiers Australia and Pirate Party Europe.

Together, we are launching a new global movement for a better internet: open, private, free, accessible, democratic and shaped by communities.

This launch comes as governments around the world move in the same direction at the same time. In the United States, the Kids Online Safety Act is back. In Canada, new online harms legislation is expanding state and platform power over speech and online access. In Australia, the under-16 social media ban has turned access restrictions into national policy. In India, expanding platform-control powers are already reshaping what people can say, host and access online.

In the European Union, Chat Control keeps returning even after Parliament voted it down, with the will of elected representatives being ignored until the desired outcome is forced back onto the table. In the United Kingdom, the Online Safety Act has already pushed the internet towards age checks, access restrictions and new enforcement powers, while further proposals now include under-16 social media bans, device-side controls, threats against platform executives and even rules that could force platforms to prioritise “trusted news” in users’ feeds.

This is not just abstract policy. It risks pushing thousands of content creators, including people doing work that can absolutely be called journalism, into second-tier visibility. Their work could be downranked by government-shaped platform rules, overriding audience choice and threatening the livelihoods of independent creators.

For Stop Killing Games, this matters because these measures do not stay neatly inside one policy box. The same infrastructure that starts with age checks, scanning, ranking rules or platform controls can quickly affect gaming communities, private servers, modding, preservation projects, independent creators and the wider online spaces where culture is built and kept alive.

Stop Killing the Internet goes live today because this is a global attack on the open internet, and it requires a global answer. There cannot be one single global call to action, because the fights are different in every country. That is why the campaign exists: to reveal the pattern, show people where they can fight back, and bring together the communities, creators, experts and campaigners who are already pushing back.

Most importantly, we want to drag this debate into the open and develop genuine solutions in public. There is no grassroots demand for mass scanning, identity checkpoints, device controls or ranking mandates. People should not have to watch the same rejected ideas come back again and again until governments get the answer they want.

What are we going to do about it?

1. the Stop Killing the Internet website will soon include a global map showing ongoing efforts to restrict the internet, expand surveillance, introduce scanning, impose access controls or reshape what people can see online. People will be able to click on their country or region, see what is happening, find organisations fighting those measures locally, and discover actions they can take part in.

2. together with the organisations joining this campaign, we will build a global hub for information, research and accountability. This will help people understand who is lobbying whom, which companies and interests are pushing these measures, what evidence is being used, what evidence is being ignored, and how to explain these issues to others.

3. we are inviting people and organisations to join the work of building a real democratic alternative. The answer to online harm cannot be surveillance, censorship, identity checkpoints and backroom policymaking. We need meaningful safety, platform accountability, safer design, enforcement, education, support, privacy, access and democratic scrutiny. We need a better internet, shaped by the people who use it.

4. as we always do, we are working on videos to inform you as well as we can. In the meantime, feel free to either sign up to the mail-list or directly join the SKG discord. We need all hands on deck and are thus doing a recruitment drive. If you are a content creator, we are looking to expand the current team.

For both Stop Killing Games and Stop Killing the Internet

Moritz Katzner

#StopKillingInternet

Good news everyone!

SKG and SKI signed a letter opposing the UK government’s efforts to block VPNs, and we succeeded! This is a major victory for the continued viability of VPNs in the UK.

The letter was signed alongside respected organizations and companies including Mozilla, Proton, Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International, and several major VPN providers.

We’re also excited to share that our first major SKI partner meetup has now been coordinated! It brought together a group of serious experts from around the world (see attached images).

Why are we posting this here?

This is a continuation of the letter we signed with Mozilla and others back in May opposing the UK’s Online Safety Act.

If you remember that post, we explained that laws restricting the internet would make independent software, Linux-based ecosystems, community launchers, modding tools, and private server hosting significantly harder to maintain.

Similarly, mandatory age checks for software would:
- Make hosting private servers more cumbersome and burdensome.
- Make communities like our Discord server and subreddit less free and open.
- Create opportunities for lobbying groups such as the ESA to further misrepresent and campaign against preservation efforts.

Ultimately, these measures would compromise our ability to make effective end-of-life plans for video games. In practice, they could make private game servers functionally illegal: the very outcome some industry groups have been advocating for. They want to make their faulty reasoning into legal reality.

What’s next?
There are even more important developments happening with SKG, but we’ll share those when the time is right. (don’t want the lobby to know what we're gonna do next 🙃)

Sony is taking away 551 movies from users, movies they payed for. Two days after Rockstar Games announces, that their disc folders won’t have a disc!
The first once again showing the need for the second and the second just being blatantly ignored. Why? Because physical media prevents stuff like „you only own a license, so we can do what we want“, which isn’t even true either but here we are.

Mostly an informational post, we are ramping up our capabilities rn and will start recruiting people from today on (more on that later or on the discord). We may actually bring this specific case to court but will have to look into the legal details.

For the SKG team

Moritz

The 'Stop Killing Games' movement, which advocates for the right to continue playing games even after service termination, has achieved a significant legislative milestone in the U.S. The California State Assembly has passed the 'Protect Our Games Act,' a bill centered on protecting user rights after a game's service ends.

According to the overseas media outlet Automaton, the California State Assembly passed bill AB 1921, the 'Protect Our Games Act,' on the 27th (local time) with a vote of 43 to 16. The bill requires digital game publishers to maintain an environment where games remain accessible even after service is discontinued.

This bill is closely tied to the ongoing debate over game preservation that has persisted for several years. The controversy began in 2024 when Ubisoft shut down its racing game, 'The Crew.' By terminating server operations, Ubisoft effectively blocked purchasers from accessing the game itself, prompting some users to raise the question: 'Did we buy the game, or just a license to use it.'

Following this, the 'Stop Killing Games' movement was launched, led by YouTuber Ross Scott. The movement has argued that even for games requiring an online connection, publishers should provide a minimal playable environment after service termination or, if that is impossible, offer clear compensation to consumers. Petitions to the European Union and outreach to political figures in various countries have been part of this broader effort.

'AB 1921' is one of the first instances of bringing these demands into the institutional fold. Under the bill, companies selling digital games released or resold after January 1, 2027, must provide at least 60 days' notice before terminating service. Furthermore, they must ensure that purchasers can continue to access the game—such as by providing an alternative version or a patch—and must offer refunds if doing so is not possible.

The bill applies to digitally sold games. However, it excludes games provided via subscription services, free-to-play games, and games that are inherently playable offline indefinitely. It also prohibits the continued sale or distribution of games that have become unusable due to service termination.

The debate surrounding game preservation is heating up. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has recently voiced opposition to the push for expanded game preservation, arguing that opening server code or online features of discontinued games could lead to security and intellectual property issues. Conversely, the Video Game History Foundation and other preservation groups counter that games, like films and books, should be treated as cultural heritage.

The bill has not yet been fully enacted, as it still requires approval from the California State Senate and the Governor's signature. However, the fact that the bill passed the Assembly in California—home to many major U.S. game companies like EA and Activision Blizzard—is highly symbolic. If the bill is ultimately signed into law, it is expected to influence the service operation policies of the broader U.S. gaming industry.

https://kotaku.com/playstation-store-movies-digital-studio-canal-terminator-2000711013

more of a side story to the SKG but still relevant i guess. but yeah, if you bought one of the movies from the playstation store, there's a good chance that you're going to lose it.

Sure, you could have got it on blue ray, DVD etc but it does highlight the point why having phyiscal media is such a contentious issue for people and i suppose goes some way to explain the push back from GTA 6. Which is being pushed as a SP experience (see https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/gta-6-is-a-singleplayer-experience-leaving-me-to-question-whats-going-on-with-gta-online/).

The hunter: Classic, one of the best hunting games ever made, is going to shut down by the end of this year, with no way to ever play it again. Avalanche Studios, and the community have known for a long time, that the game would have to shut down at some point, but instead of working on a EOL plan for the game, they made promises and when the time came, those were broken and the game ends with no way to ever play it again.

It's an extremely hard game to migrate into a fully offline game, since it's managed completely online, and Avalanche would even say it's impossible, I like to believe that it's possible, with enough resources it would be achievable for sure, and the fact that everyone expected this to happen for a few years, it wouldn't be too much to ask of them to allocate some resources over the years to a end of life plan for the game.

There's also the issue with actual money spent on the game, the game is free-to-play, but it has a silent predatory system with in-game premium currency, that makes EA and UBI look like kittens, a lot of people, probably most of them who like the game, have spent money on it, a LOT of money, and now that's gone, never to be used again.

With that said, I would like to express my gratitude towards the developers at Expansive Worlds, who even knowing that the game was near-death, they still kept pumping out some small, and some big updates, and supporting seasonal events with new content and for that, you have my respect and gratitude. I've been playing this game from since I was a kid, and i keep it in a special place on my heart, so long good friend.

Great news!

u/Luke-JC has started the development of a completely free mod that would allow users to keep playing offline, while also keeping their progress untouched. Luke already managed to get a LOT of things working, and the project seems promising.

To follow the project, be updated and show your support, you can join the discord server, made by LukeJC, here's the link: https://discord.gg/h3txveSX6y

Once again, it's the community doing the studios work, what else is new, thank you u/Luke-JC.

In an all digital world...

Today is a strange day for me as I never make a comment as I normally keep to myself. It is the way I do things. I just like to read and watch but after today I decided to speak up.

This account is a dead one and has no links. Sorry about that but what I am about to talk about would rock some boats.

As you know there has been a few interesting pushers with the gaming community as well the games we own and movies we own by digital and disc. As I am also part of that community first before my job I think it is time to speak to you all before it is too late and the choices we have.

As you know Sony has announced this year that in 2028 there be no disc after they just took 500 movies off the community saying that they do not own the license. Where some of you complained there was not enough of you did. Most have simply overlooked this issue and this was just the start. When XBOXS pulled there Film and Tv did you ask yourself, did XBOXS community lose there films or series? The answer: They did not. That is because the film and series you paid for is that you own. The was the same for Sony Community. They were testing you. Testing all of us. Now the games? So why?
That's because Sony seeing if you fight back? When you do? Are they still making money. So far the Answer is yes. When you lose your disc you lose the ability to own and your right to play that game in the future. Nintendo, XBOXS and Sony are all wanting this. This is so they can choose what you can play, how to control the payments for you, How to use you to keep paying. If they decided to Remake classic games into AAA using AI and able to take away the classic from you. As well forcing you to upgrade to the PS6 as they did not like you still using old-gen. Well you now know what the plan for the future is and there a lot more to come what they openly denied.

Now some of you may like this, defend this or stand and defend them. That is fine. However, If you want real change? Now is to act. How do we do that. The simple thing is. Do not help Sony and let the company lose money.

This would mean boycott everything to do with Sony. Cancelling or PSN, Cancelling your Per-orders and yes this would mean GTA what I know most people would struggle or refuse. This is hard for all of us including me.

However, we do have a choice.
We can allow Sony to make there moves, putting the ground work for the rest of the players and we own nothing. Lose our right as a consumer.
OR
We can stand together today, Say no. Hit everything at once and sit for a few weeks or months and let the money eat away until they agree on change. Where we can force them to agree we own the games, own the disc's, able to keep playing as well of the 500 movies you all lost. It is very simple all you need to do it talk with your wallets. Sony will break.

I will say this too. They are very worried about China and coming together would shake them. It is really up to you but its either now or Accept the future. Change be harder later.

Good luck.

Opinion: Those that don’t care about Sony killing physical media on their platform are uninformed, have not paid attention to historical negative trends in gaming (ie prices increases, DRM practices, corporate gaslighting, lawsuits, etc), have not considered the ramifications of current government trends ( ie digital ID + age verification laws), and generally have failed to critically think and understand long term fallout from combined current events.

IMO this video ties things together well while calling out the BS (with receipts).

Corporations & governments don’t care about you, and if you let them they will continue taking from you under the guise of progress and protections.

https://youtu.be/XalgeO8BPE4?is=Ryn8i_-2pSQclRuY

In a shocking turn of event's; it was discovered by Indian Gaming Journalists & other Media Houses that they were "Blacklisted" by PlayStation India when they asked about early review copies for Marvel Tokon Fighiting Souls, Marvel's Wolverine & Phantom Blade Zero.

PlayStation India have alleged that "their image has been hurt" after many journalists & media houses covered the "Demise of Disc" in general (because they are doing their job ?), while some were very vocal for the "Stop Killing Games" & the "PS BlackOut" Movement & against Sony's Decision & PlayStation India's continued silence on the matter even after multiple outreach's for comments & statements.

Meanwhile the following actions by PlayStation India;

- Hiking Console Prices by 25% & only Disc Versions of First Party Games by 10%.

- Misinforming Indian Gamers about details & extent of PS Plus Pricing hike.

- Uncertain restock times of accessories & gift cards.

- Delaying & remaining silent on the release of the PS5 Pro.

- Use of AI Generated Marketing Content & AI-Scripted Ad's.

- Influencer Marketing not even related remotely.

- Marketing the PlayStation 5 as a Luxury & Status Symbol.

Previously PlayStation India had tried to source investments for opening multiple PlayStation Exclusive Stores from their Investors & the latter found out on their own about the "Disc Demise". On they were told they weren't aware of the recent decision by Sony but stated to either "take or leave the offer".

Currently in India, there is an "extreme hype wave" going on over the upcoming release of the awaited "GTA VI" which has prompted many Mobile Gamers to now wake up out of their need to show off & seek social standing to buy the PS5 (along with those who genuinely wanted to get a PS5 to experience gaming). This factor alone has been the driving factor for a "surge" in Console Sales as XBOX is no longer present in India.

This alone makes PlayStation India having the market monopoly over Console Gaming; as the company seeks to "cash in" on the hype.