Luanti pulled from Google Play over a baseless AI-generated copyright notice

A notice that names no assets

Luanti's Android app is currently unavailable on Google Play. The reason is a DMCA notice filed on behalf of Microsoft by the company Tracer.AI, which alleges that Luanti infringes Minecraft's copyright. The project team says the app contains no proprietary code or assets, from Minecraft or otherwise.

The notice, which reached the project through Google, claims that the products use copyrighted assets taken directly from Minecraft without authorization, and cites registration US Reg. #TX 8-192-097. That registration covers Minecraft Java Edition 1.9 at the US Copyright Office and offers nothing further: the notice does not identify which assets are allegedly infringing.

What the app actually contains

Luanti describes itself as a voxel game-creation platform that ships with no games and no game assets by default — players download them from the ContentDB catalog. Minetest Game has not been bundled with the client since December 2023, and its assets are original and properly licensed. Packages uploaded to ContentDB are reviewed by volunteers before approval; the team says it has also been working on automated asset flagging using perceptual hashing, while insisting that a final human decision will always be required.

The post argues that the concept of cubes or voxels is not something anyone can own: Minecraft itself was inspired by the 2009 game Infiniminer, and block games make up an entire genre. Mojang and Microsoft have every right to enforce copyright over their own textures, the team writes, but the DMCA should not be used to intimidate and monopolise a genre.

A repeat of 2023, and two demands

This is not the first time: the same company sent a similar notice in March 2023. The project filed a counter-notice on 25 March 2023 and the app was reinstated on 10 May 2023, 46 days later. Section 512(g)(2)(c) of the DMCA requires providers to restore removed material no fewer than 10 and no more than 14 business days after receiving a counter-notice — a deadline the team says Google failed to meet.

In February this year Tracer.AI sent a similar notice on Microsoft's behalf against an indie voxel game called Allumeria, which was temporarily removed from Steam before Microsoft dropped the notice after public attention. Tracer.AI presents itself as an AI brand-protection platform and in a 2024 blog post advertised "85% faster takedowns" and "44% more takedowns month-over-month".

Luanti's team has already filed a counter-notice and expects reinstatement sooner than the previous 46 days. It calls on Microsoft, Mojang and Tracer.AI to stop relying on AI tools to send inaccurate, vague notices and to have every detection verified and substantiated by a human, and on Google to improve notice verification, let developers respond without lengthy removals and comply with copyright law. The app remains available on F-Droid and as an APK download from the project's website.