They STOLE and SOLD this Minecraft Mod…

Theft. A growing problem within  the official Minecraft Marketplace.   This is a problem that can take on many different  forms, with today’s video being about the theft of   one of Minecraft’s Java’s all-time most  famous mods. At the beginning of 2022,  

A group of developers known as SNDBX took  it upon themselves to re-create the Aether   mod from scratch for Minecraft Bedrock Edition.  They published this re-creation to the Minecraft   Marketplace for 1690 Minecoins, or just under  $10, and they titled it Aether Dimension, which  

I’ll call, Dimension. On the surface, Dimension  looks like a fairly faithful recreation of the   Aether Mod. If I had been told that Dimension was  a project made with the blessing of Gilded Games,   the developers of the actual Aether mod, I  could have very easily believed that claim.  

I’ll break down just how many similarities  these two projects share in a moment,   but the key point here is that the group that  developed this re-creation allegedly did so   without consulting or obtaining permission from  Gilded Games at all. Okay, time out for a second.  

Just how stupid would you have to be to  green-light a rip-off project of this magnitude.   This clearly took a lot of time and effort  by some very talented artists and developers,   but now that’s all gone to waste. Another item  worth considering is that the original Aether  

Mod’s creator, kingbdogz is an employee of  Mojang, the company that MAKES Minecraft,   and he has been for over 2 years now. While  commenting on this situation back in January,   he stated in a tweet “Yeah, this was not approved  or created by the original creators such as myself  

And they are making money off copying content  without our permission”. Hoo, wow. The fact that   this project was allowed to be published to the  Minecraft Marketplace at all could spell DISASTER   for Mojang legally. It’s certainly a complicated  issue, so all I’ll say for now is this. I am a  

Veteran creator, with over a decade of experience  witnessing a variety of issues with Mojang’s   treatment of Minecraft, and now, I am blowing  the whistle on just how flawed this game is   getting as a whole. So let’s take a moment to pay  some bills, and then let’s break this issue down.

In December of 2021, I made a video about an  earlier instance of Minecraft Marketplace theft   wherein one of Minecraft’s most famous texture  packs was hijacked and put up for sale on the   marketplace against the original creators wishes.  I’ll link that video for those who are curious.  

A frequent comment left on that video questioned  how much that situation even mattered in the   grand scheme of things. In my opinion, the people  who held that viewpoint weren’t ever considering   the bigger picture. If one seemingly minor  instance of Minecraft Marketplace theft were to go  

Completely unpunished, what would stop another  one from coming along and being worse than the   one that came before it? And now, that is  exactly what has happened. Let me show you.   The first Aether Mod had you craft a glowstone  portal in order to enter the Aether itself.  

Dimension does that too. Once you activate Aether  2’s portal, you’ll spawn within an outpost that   allows for you to prepare for the adventure ahead.  Dimension… has a very similar structure, with a   similar layout on the first floor, and also has a  wool roof. Both outposts have a sitting merchant  

That provides you with some basic information  to help you along. Upon leaving this outpost,   you’ll notice that the main oak-like tree  is called, the Skyroot tree, and that the   main birch tree is called, Wisproot. One of your  primary resources is a purple ore is named Zanite,  

With this yellow ore being named Ambrosium, in  both cases. Once you adventure out a bit further,   you’ll observe even more similarities. This  sheep variant with gold horns jumps super high,   wiggles its legs while falling down, and  in both cases, is called the Sheepuff.  

There’s a flying whale marked with runic-like  patterns named the Aerwhale. This bull-like mob   with armor plates on its body will attack you with  knockback if you hurt it. And to top it all off,   there are no fewer than 5 biomes with exactly  the same name. I hope you see the problem here.

This isn’t just an instance where one project  has a few similarities to another. This is a   disgustingly obvious ripoff. It’s so disgusting in  fact that Dimension even went as far as to rip off   a second, very well known Java Edition mod,  created by another Mojang employee, called  

The Twilight Forest Mod. On top of that,  Dimension isn’t even a port of the Aether.   It’s a pre-fabricated map, like you  would see on any mini-game server. Once   you explore everything, you’re done. In both the Aether and the Aether 2 Java  

Edition mod, you can venture out forever and ever,  just like in normal Minecraft, but in Diemension,   you can not. I’m not calling that a problem on  it’s own or anything, but if the implication here  

Is that Dimension is supposed to be a clone, or  an upgrade of the Aether mod, it doesn’t even do   a very good job at that. Alright, let’s really hit  the final nail in the coffin here, and compare the  

Textures between these projects. Well… uhh… do  I really need to explain it? Do I need to explain   it for all of this rip-offs matching blocks, mobs,  and features that line up with the Aether mods?   No, I don’t. I’ve had enough. So then, that  begs two final questions. Why did Mojang allow  

For this rip-off to go up for sale for $10 on  the Minecraft Marketplace, and what kind of   scrutiny do I feel Mojang deserves for this. Well,  they definitely deserve some, and I promise you   I will get into that. If you feel I deserve it,  you should definitely hit that subscribe button.

So, the first of those two. Why did Mojang allow  for this? My best guess for why Mojang allowed   Dimension to go up onto the Minecraft Marketplace  is that they do not take sides when it comes   to who owns what when it comes to marketplace  uploads. Imagine this scenario playing out as  

If you had uploaded a piece of copyrighted content  to your YouTube channel. I’m not encouraging you   to do so, but, you could. On YouTube, fair use  could apply for a variety of different reasons,   but for this thought experiment, it does not. If  the copyright owner finds out about your video,  

They can file a takedown with YouTube to have  them remove your video, which you may know as a   DMCA takedown notice. From there, your channel  would get a copyright strike. Three of those,   and for the most part anyways, you’re gone. If I  had to guess, I would say that this process, also  

Loosely applies to the Minecraft Marketplace. Am  I starting to paint a clear picture here? Gilded   Games owns the copyright for the Aether mod, so  they are the only ones that can file a takedown   against Dimension. And that, is exactly what they  did. Dimension was published to the Minecraft  

Marketplace on January 4th, and the DMCA claim  against it was filed on January 15th. The map   was taken down from Marketplace within two weeks,  and it hasn’t returned since. I can say with all   honesty that from a legal standpoint, I can see  why Mojang acted the way that they did. However,  

This issue, for me, is really just the straw  that’s finally broken this YouTuber camels back. Minecraft is far and away the best selling video  game of all time. Mojang’s parent company is a   multi-trillion dollar corporation, and yet,  I can open up the dominant version of the  

Best selling video game of all time, use one  command, and observe mountain biomes eating   themselves because world generation fails this  far out? Did you know Mojang labeled this bug as   “Won’t Fix”? Yeah, seriously. These  issues do not exist in Java Edition.  

Why? Go ask any advanced redstone engineer  why they can’t create the same creations in   Bedrock Edition that they’re able to in  Java Edition. It’s really very stupid,   and absolutely fixable. I get that Mojang needs  to make choices that involve them turning the  

Best profit possible, but letting your most  prestegious game rot to pieces is simply   unacceptable. With Minecraft 1.19 coming right  around the corner, I want to do whatever I can do   to ensure that Minecraft turns into the best game  that it can possibly be. Mojang, if there were  

A universe where the community consensus about  Bedrock’s stability were unequivocally positive,   you would turn a greater profit in the long  run. At some point during the first week of may,   I’ll be aiming to give this game a brutally  honest breakdown. Subscribe to the channel if  

You’re interested. That about does it for me for  now. My name is AntVenom, and thanks for watching.