[raker]

I think this was brought about by a recent conflict that occurred (and gained some attention on reddit at least) on twitter. Mojang has been well aware of servers that "sell" in-game items and in-game features (the ability to teleport or fly, for instance) for a fee. This is against Mojang's TOS, and Mojang has taken down several servers in the past for various TOS violations including this pay-to-win stuff. During the recent twitter bout, a Mojang representative stated there was a distinction between a server accepting donation, and a server rewarding donations/selling ingame benefits. A server accepting donations in order to continue running is A-OK, but a server selling benefits violates the TOS.

This recent activity from Mojang to reclarify their TOS and actively tackle violations was likely a result of last week's twitter bout.