Minecraft Creator: Piracy Is Not Theft!

Neil79

Neil79

Neil79

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Speaking during the closing session yesterday at the Independent Games Summit, Notch dismissed the notion that piracy is the same as stealing, or ‘looting’ as incoming MPAA chief Chris Dodd framed it this week.

“Piracy is not theft,” he said to those gathered in San Francisco. “If you steal a car, the original is lost. If you copy a game, there are simply more of them in the world.”

With this kind of reasoning one could be forgiven for thinking that Notch has pirate sympathies but since he’s a self-confessed member of the Pirate Party, that stance comes as no surprise.

“There is no such thing as a ‘lost sale’,” he added with a philosophy so Pirate-aligned it could be happily transcribed directly into any of their press releases. “Is a bad review a lost sale? What about a missed ship date?”

Notch was expected to talk about piracy for 5 minutes at GDC but in the event only managed about 3 minutes, describing the experience as “the scariest thing in a long time.” But while he may have only utilized 60% of his available time, he appears to have packed in value and left people wanting more, which coincidentally is his game developers philosophy too.

“If you just make your game and keep adding to it, the people who copyright infringed would buy it the next week,” he told those in attendance.

While anti-piracy zealots would insist that Minecraft has a 70% piracy or “lost sale” rate, Notch steadfastly sees his cup as rather more full than the raw percentages of his sales data may suggest, particularly by those viewing them from the perspective of an outdated business model. Indeed, despite this ‘pro-piracy’ stance, Minecraft’s position continues to improve.
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http://torrentfreak.com/piracy-is-t...hey-dont-exist-says-minecraft-creator-110303/

:eek:
 
Surely if you pirate Minecraft you lose the ability to play online, which is the most fun part?

So I guess its working out well for him, with people pirating it, loving the single player and wanting to play online, so they wind up buying it.
 
As another developer said - can't remember who - you have to look at those pirated copies as a failure to reach that audience and work with that to use that "lost" sale as a window to bring in further customers either by finding ways to reach out to that audience or to use that audience as a platform to reach other potential customers.

As an example - I can't count the number of times I've heard (unlicensed) music used in youtube clips etc. and gone on to buy that tune (or find it on spotify) without that unlicensed useage I'd have never heard that music in the first place and never spent money on it myself.
 
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Le_Petit_Lapin said:
Surely if you pirate Minecraft you lose the ability to play online, which is the most fun part?

So I guess its working out well for him, with people pirating it, loving the single player and wanting to play online, so they wind up buying it.
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You can play online I think.
 
Minecraft is free isnt it? Used to be.

Piracy well they arnt losing money they just arnt making sales is the key really.

I still reckon piracy is due to price.

Take a 25 quid game, knock that down to a fiver and everyone will buy it if its good and no piracy or barely any due to the fact in the mind of the user its just a fiver its not much money so will be more inclined to buy it than 25 quid which the pirate would think hmm ill download this as i aint paying 25 quid for this. Im sure they would make their money back in no time if they used this method.

Also i reckon piracy is up because of game protection like securom and activation etc. It makes legit users go out and look for bypasses so most think im guessing here is that so so game is good but its got x protection or somit so i aint gona support em cos of it so ill download the game. Thats what i reckon they think. As most know the games that sell the best are ones with no protection.
 
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dante6491 said:
I think what he is getting at is, those who pirate games are not going to be the ones willing to buy them in the first place.
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No, he also said this:
“If you just make your game and keep adding to it, the people who copyright infringed would buy it the next week,” he told those in attendance.

He recognises that some people will pirate a game to check it out and then get bored and move on. Some pirate just because it is easy.
But if the devs actually support their games, continuing to add new content, it becomes more convenient to simply buy the game and get the patches, rather than having to chase down each new pirate release.
 
MeMeMeMe said:
No, he also said this:
“If you just make your game and keep adding to it, the people who copyright infringed would buy it the next week,” he told those in attendance.
.
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Like The Witcher?, they even did an enhanced edition and special collectors editions. :D
 
Le_Petit_Lapin said:
Surely if you pirate Minecraft you lose the ability to play online, which is the most fun part?

So I guess its working out well for him, with people pirating it, loving the single player and wanting to play online, so they wind up buying it.
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not really you just have to change two "true" entries to false" in the server config files.
 
wondered how long this thread would take to appear.
Piracy is bad, people pirate 59p games because its easy, its nothing to do with quality, price or lack of a demo....there just cheap asses with a stupidly low moral compass.
 
iamtheoneneo said:
wondered how long this thread would take to appear.
Piracy is bad, people pirate 59p games because its easy, its nothing to do with quality, price or lack of a demo....there just cheap asses with a stupidly low moral compass.
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how dare you say pirates have a low moral compass i will murder you for that!!!
 
SkeeterUK said:
Minecraft is free isnt it? Used to be.

Piracy well they arnt losing money they just arnt making sales is the key really.

I still reckon piracy is due to price.

Take a 25 quid game, knock that down to a fiver and everyone will buy it if its good and no piracy or barely any due to the fact in the mind of the user its just a fiver its not much money so will be more inclined to buy it than 25 quid which the pirate would think hmm ill download this as i aint paying 25 quid for this. Im sure they would make their money back in no time if they used this method.
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Is that why millions of people pirated the Humble Indie bundle that they could have had for a penny?

iamtheoneneo said:
wondered how long this thread would take to appear.
Piracy is bad, people pirate 59p games because its easy, its nothing to do with quality, price or lack of a demo....there just cheap asses with a stupidly low moral compass.
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Bang on. Regardless of the excuses it always boils down to greed.
 
This is why steam was invented, it gives you the 'easy' option for cheap games (and expensive i guess) i think this has helped to drive down piracy a lot!
 
iamtheoneneo said:
wondered how long this thread would take to appear.
Piracy is bad, people pirate 59p games because its easy, its nothing to do with quality, price or lack of a demo....there just cheap asses with a stupidly low moral compass.
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No they really don't. You can speak for yourself on that one. If I feel a game is worth buying, I'll buy it. Minecraft, Dragon age, CoD4 etc, etc etc.
 
I'd say theres some truth to that... probably 60% of people who do pirate do fall squarely into that cheap ass/low moral compass catagory, but its not true of every one.
 
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