Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Luanti's Android app was removed from Google Play due to a baseless DMCA notice filed by Tracer.AI on behalf of Microsoft.
Luanti, a voxel game-creation platform, was removed from the Google Play Store after Tracer.AI filed a DMCA notice on behalf of Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement of Minecraft. Luanti is open-source and does not ship with any games or copyrighted assets; all included textures are shown in the post. This is the second such notice from Tracer.AI; a similar notice in 2023 led to a 46-day removal, and another indie game, Allumeria, was also targeted. Luanti has submitted a counter-notice and calls on Microsoft, Mojang, Tracer.AI, and Google to reform the process. The app remains available on F-Droid and via direct download.
What commenters are saying
Commenters widely criticize the DMCA process as broken and easily abused by large copyright holders. Several point out that Google's terms of service may not protect against such abuse, while others argue Microsoft, not Google, is the responsible party. Some suggest the sequence involves AI scraping and generating similar code, though most believe the notice is simply based on the visual similarity of blocky voxel games. One commenter notes that Luanti's gallery shows mods that look very much like Minecraft, which could be a public-relations issue, but others counter that artistic style is not copyrightable and that blocky graphics predate Minecraft.