Luanti, an open-source voxel game engine, was removed from Google Play after Tracer.AI filed a DMCA notice on Microsoft's behalf alleging Minecraft copyright infringement, according to the Luanti blog.
The notice cited only a copyright registration number for Minecraft Java Edition and did not identify any specific code or asset Luanti allegedly copied, Luanti said. Its developers said the engine contains no proprietary Minecraft code or assets and called the notice baseless.
Tracer.AI describes itself as a brand protection platform that uses AI agents to find and remove infringing content across the web. Luanti said this is the second takedown notice the company has filed against the project, after one in 2023 that took 46 days to resolve, well past the 10 to 14 business day window the DMCA process is supposed to take.
Luanti said it filed a counter-notice and called on Microsoft, its subsidiary Mojang, and Tracer.AI to "stop relying on AI tools to send inaccurate and vague DMCA notices." The removal drew more than 150 points on Hacker News, where developers traded similar accounts of automated takedowns hitting their own apps.
Automated copyright enforcement tools are built to find matches, not to verify them, and a wrong notice can take a legitimate app off a store for weeks while an appeal works through the process. Any developer distributing through Google Play or an app store is exposed to the same automated takedown risk Luanti just went through, with little recourse beyond the platform's own appeals queue.