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I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

theeggandtherock.substack.com

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Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#461

Post by mherdeg »

rosywoozlechan wrote: post #41

That's a lot of anger, negativity and bitterness, and entitlement (one of the game's creators for writing the ending text?). Reminds me of the kid on the cover of the Nevermind album and other people that are kinda tangentially connected to something massively successful, but not connected enough to benefit materially, and they let that define who they are and ruin their lives. Could have been a neat personal story,…

Honestly I think the author has the right intuition - it's a sad story with no clear-cut lessons.

He didn't file a wacky lawsuit like Wyn Cooper's friend from "I Wanna Be Yours", instead he's reflected on a brush with greatness, and he's still doing art. Seems ok.

Perhaps he is better off not having Notch's riches considering that the guy went full QAnon?

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#462

Post by microsoftdoes »

zimpenfish wrote: post #245
xnorswap wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, the odd twist in this story was that he was paid for his work. I was expecting a story about how he was still chasing his money to this day. I'm fairly sure that no credible lawyer would give him the time of the day if he did try to get more now. He did work, he accepted money for that work and only later he thinks he's entitled to more and wants to re-negotiate. I don't know about his jurisdiction, but here…

> a contract could be implied by conduct of the parties There are other cases, though, where the courts have declined to imply transfer of copyright or license - even with a written contract - when it hasn't been explicitly specified. cf https://www.albright-ip.co.uk/2013/04/implied-assignments/ for one example > The idea that just because there isn't a written contract that he magically retains the rights is magical…

>IANAL

I can tell. None of what you wrote, which is mostly wrong, matters. Microsoft bought Mojang not specific property of Mojang.

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#463

Post by kilbuz »

shmageggy wrote: post #441
robertlagrant wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. The game would've made $0 less had the ending just said "The End".

You really think that a poem that people have tattooed on themselves, put onto tee shirts and mugs, inspired emotional emails to the author, and so on has inspired exactly zero excess recommendations to friends, zero dinnertime discussions or social media posts that have led to purchases?

Possibly less than 0.

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#466

Post by warinukraine »

ballenf wrote: post #451
superultra wrote: post #447

I work in intellectual property, though I am not a lawyer. If this person were my client I’d diplomatically tell them that they’re clean out of luck on this one. All the documents that come as a shock to the author are boiler plate NDA and work for hire arrangements, and outside of being a famous author who’s “brand” would bring something of marketing value to the table, at no point really would anyone be able to neg…

I'm going to charitably guess you didn't read most of the post. He did move on. He is at peace, finally. He's the opposite of a diva and has humbly accepted that his reward for his work doesn't take monetary form.

I don't know much about this person, other than that he did NOT move on.

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#467

Post by mikl »

€20'000 for a poem sounds like a pretty reasonable deal. Not sure why this guy thinks he deserves more. It’s not like it made a massive difference to the experience of playing Minecraft. I’ve finished the game several times, and I don’t remember a single word of the poem, just vaguely that there was a wistful poem there.

As for the legal fantasies, the email discussion about using the poem in the game and him accepting the €20k payment would constitute an agreement in most jurisdictions. But without a proper contract, the terms of said agreements are poorly defined, and since it was made between a Swedish company and someone apparently residing outside Sweden, which jurisdiction applies is even in question.

So his theory about the poem still belonging to him and Microsoft owing him millions of dollars are exceedingly speculative and would likely take years of wrangling to sort out. So yeah, renouncing your claims is probably the best option here.

A good lesson to all freelancers: Make sure you get a proper contract before you deliver the goods.

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#468

Post by drunkpotato »

cmeacham98 wrote: post #249
mcv wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One side sees it as the start of a friendship, the other as a work contract. It certainly feels a bit like he was feeling lonely and needed to see this as a friendship. I'm sure there was a deep artistic connection, but that's not quite the same thing as a friendship. It's awkward and frustrating when only one side sees a relationship as a friendship.

It's possible this is true, but then the author needs to stop acting like they are totally blameless and everything is just where the universe took him. All of the author's problems here are self-inflicted.

I found the writer’s story engaging, moving, and with a satisfying conclusion. I appreciated his articulation of his struggles with how he feels about art and money. I definitely did not take away the same feelings from it that you apparently did.

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#469

Post by zimpenfish »

microsoftdoes wrote: post #459
zimpenfish wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I don't think it's clear whether he has the rights to the work or not. He owns the copyright, hasn't transferred the copyright, he clearly owns the rights in the work. > I don't think there's any doubt that Mojang / Microsoft are entitled to use his work. I think you're right that there's an implied license for them to use it but the scope of that license was never specified and I'd guess a clever lawyer could…

Nope this guy agreed to it in email. It’s over. License didn’t need to transfer since Microsoft bought Mojang, not just specific property of Mojang.

> Nope this guy agreed to it in email.

Can you quote the bit of the article which says that? All I can see is that he said "ok, what's your offer?", Carl returned with "€20k", and "in all the confusion someone sent me the money, even though we still didn’t have a contract worked out" - no contract, no license.

Re: I liberate the ending to Minecraft from Microsoft and give it to you

#470

Post by LightHugger »

mort96 wrote: post #342
LightHugger wrote: post #326

It is hilarious that he criticizes notch for being weird on twitter right before going on a bizzare telling of his mushroom fueled hallucinations. Like, let people be weird, if you're going to be so weird yourself.

Telling a story about your bizarre mushroom fuelled hallucinations is a cute kind of weird, tweeting in support of QAnon shit and other alt-right stuff is a not-cute kind of weird.

In both cases some empathy for the person involved is probably warranted, qanon stuff is mental illness and accusing people of "alt right" is reductio ad hitlerum with extra steps. Compare to being a bit of a druggie. It strikes me as "give me empathy for my unique oddity even though i won't give it to others".
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