gistfile1.py

import socket
import struct

def get_info(host, port):
	s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
	s.connect((host, port))
	s.send('\xfe')
	assert s.recv(1) == '\xff'
	l = struct.unpack('!h', s.recv(2))[0]
	d = s.recv(l*2).decode('utf-16be').split(u'\xa7')
	s.close()
	return {'motd':            d[0],
	        'players':     int(d[1]),
	        'max_players': int(d[2])}

print get_info('x.nerd.nu', 25565)