MultiplayerPiano.net
MultiplayerPiano.net (also MPP.net, originally known as MPPClone) is a clone website created by Lapis. This site's goal is to implement newer security measures and quality of life changes to Multiplayer Piano. It has its own administration and moderation teams and is used by hundreds of people daily.
Differences from Multiplayer Piano
MultiplayerPiano.net features a lot of changes from the original site.
Tokens & Discord Login
As a security measure, a login token system was implemented to prevent spam and user ID spoofing. This system allows users to open the site on one network, and the server will provide them with a token, allowing them to use the same token to login to the same user on another network. As a side effect, this has helped with traveling, as people will no longer be forced to use a new user ID. As of January 2024, there is no GUI for logging in with a token.
Discord login has also been implemented with a GUI, allowing an easier method of login. This method will allow the user to login with Discord and receive a new user ID permanently tied to their Discord account.
"Client Settings" Button
MPP.net features a "Client Settings" menu that is designed to offer settings for features of the site that were previously inaccessible or new features that provide a toggle. Various options include the ability to show information about users in chat, MIDI settings for controlling drum tracks, note labels for the piano, and an option to make other players' cursor movement smoother.
New Stylesheet
MPP.net features a darker stylesheet as opposed to Multiplayer Piano's light-colored theming. Many people have criticized Multiplayer Piano's original style, claiming that it appears desaturated and somewhat ugly and outdated.
2021 Site Mirror
After Multiplayer Piano was sold on 24 October 2020, the new owner of the site's lack of technical skill caused a lot of community disrupt and confusion. In early 2021, the server mysteriously went offline for a few weeks until it was revealed the new owner had not paid the Linode bill. After this, the site was setup to mirror "multiplayerpiano.net", owned by Foonix and hosted by Hri7566 at the time. After various issues with Foonix's server backend caused the site to be non-functional, the site was then set to mirror the recently created "mppclone.com". The original server was brought back on various occasions, only to be shut down again and reverted to mirroring until late 2023, when the original server was brought back again, and it remains online as of January 2024.
Legal Issues & Rebranding
In 2023, MultiplayerPiano.net (then MPPClone) was subject to a possible copyright infringement lawsuit involving the owners of both sites. Supposedly, the new team behind Multiplayer Piano hired Noah Richardson from a place known as "Sullivan & Cromwell LLP" posing as an attorney. Richardson sent a Cease & Desist letter in Multiplayer Piano's general chat on Discord outlining that the owners of the clone website "Cease and desist all operations and access to the clone website", claiming that it is an "act of copyright infringement" and that they will "pursue legal action" to protect their intellectual property, and that the owners of the clone site "delete all cloned content, files, and data associated" with the site.
This legality issue caused Lapis to stop hosting the site files as Multiplayer Piano believed the site's content wasn't his to host, yet the server was kept online for anyone who had a copy of the site files. The rest of the moderation team behind MPPClone rebranded the entire site and Discord server MultiplayerPiano.net to match the mirror domain they had control over, leaving the "mppclone.com" domain to be empty, eventually being updated to redirect users to the new domain.
Criticism & Community Feedback
Noah Richardson's message gained direct feedback itself through Discord reactions, where users who were able to see the message responded with the clown emoji and roll of paper emoji.
Although Richardson's Discord account is officially affiliated with Multiplayer Piano, there is no way to prove they are a real attorney, causing many to believe the Cease & Desist letter was generated by an A.I. or written by jacored themselves. Richardson's message also contains a handful of grammatical errors.
Some members of the community pointed out that Multiplayer Piano's frontend site files were uploaded to GitHub and put under the GPLv3 license prior to jacored's modification of the site. Having been the exact files MPPClone's frontend is based upon, this would mean that Multiplayer Piano's argument that creating a clone site is copyright infringement is false.
Richardson has yet to respond to the situation as of 12 January 2024 and it is unlikely that he will respond in the future, given the offline nature of the new team behind Multiplayer Piano.
