1. Who we are
Beacon Atlas is operated by ThoughtsOnThings LLC (we, us, our), based in Brooklyn, New York, USA. You means anyone who uses the service — visitor, player, or server operator. By using Beacon Atlas you agree to these Terms and our Privacy Statement. If you use it for an organization, you confirm you can bind that organization.
These Terms cover the hosted Atlas service only. The Beacon software you download and run is separate proprietary software owned by ThoughtsOnThings LLC — free to use, not open source, and governed by the license that ships with it.
2. Free alpha service
Beacon Atlas is free while the project is in alpha. It may change, break, lose data, or stop operating at any time, and comes with no uptime, support, moderation, backup, or data-recovery commitments.
3. Eligibility and children
You must be at least 13 and old enough under your local law to agree to these Terms; if you are under the age of majority where you live, use Beacon Atlas only with a parent or guardian's permission. Beacon Atlas is not directed to children under 13. Do not use it for a server, listing, or sign-in flow directed to children under 13, or submit children's personal information to Atlas, unless you have every consent and legal authority the law requires.
4. Beacon registration
Atlas has no website accounts. A beacon registers once and receives a beacon ID and client secret; that one credential authenticates Minecraft sign-in, the heartbeat publisher, and listing management. Keep the secret safe, rotate it if it is exposed (`beacon auth rotate-secret`), and tell us at admin@beacon-mc.io if you believe it is compromised. We may suspend or revoke a registration, listing, or broker access that violates these Terms or creates legal or security risk.
5. Listings and public data
The directory is public. A listing carries the profile you choose to publish plus heartbeat data such as online status, compatible version, loader, installed mods or plugins, and player counts; Atlas may ping the advertised Minecraft address to corroborate status. The member roster, recent activity, and Vantage world stream publish only if you opt into each. World assets stream directly from your beacon and are not stored or proxied by Atlas.
Public listing data may be viewed, indexed, cached, copied, and shared by others. Publish only what you have the right to make public — including any player information you choose to expose.
You own your listing content and grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, display, reproduce, and distribute it as needed to operate, secure, and promote Atlas. You can pause or delete a listing from your beacon's dashboard. A heartbeat gives Atlas no access to your dashboard, allowlist, invite codes, world files, backups, chat history, audit logs, RCON, or any server control — see Privacy and heartbeats.
6. Minecraft sign-in broker
The broker lets a player sign in to a beacon with their Microsoft and Minecraft account without giving the beacon their credentials. Atlas runs the Microsoft sign-in, confirms the Minecraft username and account ID, and passes the beacon a short-lived signed identity statement. Atlas never receives the player's Microsoft password or email address, never asks for offline access, and never stores or forwards Microsoft, Xbox, or Minecraft tokens. Microsoft and Minecraft account systems remain subject to the Microsoft Services Agreement and the Minecraft EULA.
Use the broker only for genuine Beacon servers and only with redirect destinations you control. What a beacon does with a player's identity after the handoff is its operator's responsibility.
7. Your server is yours
A beacon runs on your own infrastructure. We do not operate listed servers, control who joins them, moderate their communities, or see their private data — and we cannot do any of that for you. You are solely responsible for your server, your players, the data your beacon collects, and your compliance with the laws and third-party terms that apply to you. Listed servers are not endorsed by us; players join them at their own risk.
8. Acceptable use
Do not use Beacon Atlas to:
- break the law, infringe rights, or harass, deceive, threaten, or endanger anyone;
- post false, misleading, impersonating, hateful, sexually exploitative, or malware-linked content;
- claim a server, identity, trademark, or content you do not control;
- capture or misuse Microsoft, Xbox, Minecraft, Atlas, or beacon secrets or tokens, or register redirect destinations you do not control;
- overload, disrupt, scrape, or reverse engineer the service; or
- evade suspensions, rate limits, or security controls.
We may remove content, restrict listings, revoke broker access, or contact law enforcement where appropriate. Report abuse, safety, trademark, or copyright concerns to admin@beacon-mc.io.
9. Third-party services and marks
Atlas relies on third-party services — Microsoft and Mojang systems for Minecraft identity and skins, and the providers listed in our Privacy Statement — each governed by its own terms. The Beacon and Beacon Atlas names, logos, and marks are ours; use them only for accurate references, such as saying a server runs Beacon or is listed on Atlas. Minecraft is a trademark of Mojang Synergies AB and Microsoft. Beacon and Beacon Atlas are not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Mojang or Microsoft.
10. No warranties
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Beacon Atlas is provided as is and as available, without warranties of any kind, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, availability, security, or error-free operation.
11. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost data, lost profits, lost goodwill, business interruption, or server or community disputes arising from Beacon Atlas.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability for all claims relating to Beacon Atlas will not exceed the greater of the amount you paid us for the service in the 12 months before the claim or US$100. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
12. Indemnification
You agree to defend and indemnify us from claims, damages, liabilities, losses, and reasonable expenses, including legal fees, arising from your listing, your beacon, your handling of player data, your breach of these Terms, or your violation of law or third-party rights.
13. Ending use and changes
You may stop using Beacon Atlas at any time, pause or delete listings from your beacon's dashboard, and ask us to remove a registration. We may change, suspend, or discontinue any part of the service, or update these Terms by posting a new version with a new effective date; we will try to give reasonable notice of material changes. Sections that by their nature should survive — intellectual property, disclaimers, liability limits, indemnification, and governing law — survive.
14. Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, USA, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. The exclusive venue for disputes is the state courts located in Kings County, New York, or the United States federal courts in the Eastern District of New York, except where mandatory law requires otherwise.
15. Contact
Questions about these Terms or Beacon Atlas can be sent to admin@beacon-mc.io.