In a shocking turn of events at a recent California State Senate hearing, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has caused quite a stir by labeling private Minecraft servers as 'illegal' and 'piracy'. The debate centered around the Protect Our Games Act, a proposed bill aimed at ensuring game publishers maintain playability if servers are shut down. Assemblyman Chris Ward, during the hearing, discussed the feasibility of games running on community servers, citing Minecraft and Call of Duty as examples where this already happens. However, ESA's Jennifer Gibbons vehemently objected, asserting that these servers are not officially sanctioned by Microsoft or any other game publishers. In a surprising twist, she even compared them to a 'black market' for video games and stated that the ESA considers these servers as piracy, with pending lawsuits against private servers currently underway. It's important to note that Minecraft encourages players to set up their own servers or browse third-party servers on its official website, which are verified and approved by Minecraft's team. The ESA, however, maintains that these servers infringe upon intellectual property rights and could create an unsafe environment for players due to lack of publisher oversight and trust & safety standards. Despite the Protect Our Games Act not receiving enough votes to move forward, it has been granted a reconsideration, indicating another chance to make its case. A volunteer from the Stop Killing Games campaign took to Reddit to address the situation, expressing concern over lobbyist tactics designed to scare legislators and vowing to return with a stronger presence in the next session. The ESA has since issued an updated statement reiterating their stance on private servers hosting copyrighted game content without authorization.