Map art DRM

by Syntaxvgm on Nov 21, 2025

By finding a mod that kinda-sorta handled map protection and hitting with a hammer until it worked the way I wanted it to, we now have copy protection for maps!

How to copy protect your maps

All map art now stores the name and UUID of the creator when you right click to create it. After locking a map in the cartography table, you can choose to apply copy protection to it. Original creator attribution exists for unlocked maps, but protection cannot be applied to unlocked maps. Lock data is stored on the item itself, so locking or unlocking a map won't change anything for other copies. You should first lock the map before making copies to be distributed if you wish to protect it. When the map is attempted to be copied in a crafting table or cartography table, it checks if it's protected and if the copier matches the stored UUID. Auto crafters will fail to craft all maps with protection regardless of who added it to the crafter.

Toggle the protection state of a map you are the original creator of, hold it in your hand and run

/map-art change-accessibility

You can add additional author credits to the map, however only the original author can lock or unlock a copy.

/map-art add <name>

This works the same way as locking where the lock data is stored on the item itself. Updating one map with new authors will not update them all, you should add all authors you want credited before duplicating.

Please note that maps made before this mod was added cannot be protected or have authors added to them.