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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

#521

Post by Cthulhu_ »

spuz wrote: post #186
Benjamin_Dobell wrote: post #40

I feel for the guy, making a living off of art is difficult. However, with an extensive email chain explaining the story was written as the ending of Minecraft, even going into detail about how it was to be displayed in game, an agreed upon offer (if a bit vague), and then an exchange of funds - with no immediate attempt to return said funds. I'm no lawyer, but that sounds a lot like a legally binding agreement. > So…

My interpretation of the legal status is that the author is entitled to accept the €20k as payment for his time but that amount doesn't constitute payment for the copyright of the work. Mojang subsequently wanted to purchase that copyright and hence why they sent the contract for £1 to be signed. Julian believed the copyright was worth more and so rejected the offer. All that is to say that if my interpretation is co…

> Julian believed the copyright was worth more and so rejected the offer.

Julian didn't read the contract when he first got it, because he apparently didn't care.

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

#522

Post by lelanthran »

dewhelmed wrote: post #243
lelanthran wrote: post #163

Quoted post unavailable.

Wow, what an unpleasant hate-filled response to a single paragraph taken out of context from the entire post. The fact that his work is still referenced, is still part of the game, and wanted by people on t-shirts/mugs/etc is significantly more contribution than the moronic made-up "0.000000000001%" number you claim. He is a flawed person and he admits it several times in his post. But he also uses his story to highl…

> Wow, what an unpleasant hate-filled response to a single paragraph taken out of context from the entire post.

Oh please, enough hyperbole, we got already that in his post.

I read his entire post before I posted my reply, and his entire post is whining about how much the employees who ultimately contributed to building, selling, marketing, administration and supporting the game got paid compared to his contribution which, in all honesty, added virtually nothing to the game.

> The fact that his work is still referenced, is still part of the game, and wanted by people on t-shirts/mugs/etc is significantly more contribution than the moronic made-up "0.000000000001%" number you claim.

His contribution being referenced has nothing to do with the quality of the contribution. IOW, people are referencing the content because it's part of the game; had his contribution been swapped out with any other content, they'd still be referencing it.

As far as you calling me a moron goes, objectively, his contribution to the success of the game, measured by almost any metric you'd care to use, is statistical noise. If it were not there no one would care. If it were removed no one would care.

> So please have a little empathy, it is not easy to know if you are being treated fairly in this complicated world today.

I have empathy for those who area treated unfairly. This poster was overpaid for what he produced. There's a line of people who would have done a better job for half the money while still making a decent living.

He hit a jackpot, and is too self-involved to realise this, even now. His lack of self-awareness is so high that, while reading his whine, I half thought it was satire or parody of some sort.

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

#523

Post by mgrthrow »

LudwigNagasena wrote: post #215
mgrthrow wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of times I've been told I don't believe my beliefs because they don't make rational economic sense is innumerable. I'm happy when my tax rate goes up. This apparently really bothers people. (Me being happy about it.)

I don’t think it’s weird that people don’t behave “rationally” in the crude sense of that word[1]. But it seems really weird to be happy about your tax rate going up. Consider the alternative: for example, you could give the money to charity that works in developing countries. So there seems to be two explanations: (1) Either you consider yourself prodigal and want an authority to take care of your spending for you.…

The third option is that it genuinely makes me happy, because it implies we're taking care of everyone more. My money going to charity is fine. My money going to taxes implies other wealthy people like me are also chipping in for schools, healthcare, etc.

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

#524

Post by darkarmani »

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…

> The fact that he admits that he sat on this for eight years (regardless of reason) means he was not actively defending his intellectual property.

I'm not sure what this means. Copyright doesn't need to be defended. In any case copyright is a big mess without a signed contract. This just muddles the waters even more.

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

#526

Post by axus »

Benjamin_Dobell wrote: post #40

I feel for the guy, making a living off of art is difficult. However, with an extensive email chain explaining the story was written as the ending of Minecraft, even going into detail about how it was to be displayed in game, an agreed upon offer (if a bit vague), and then an exchange of funds - with no immediate attempt to return said funds. I'm no lawyer, but that sounds a lot like a legally binding agreement. > So…

I'd agree that something was purchased for $20000, but what? My assumption is a license to redistribute the poem as part of the game. This guy is probably correct that he did not agree to an NDA, or transferal of exclusive rights.

That's why I think MS did not need to pay him off; they thought they had a license, even if they didn't own the IP. And that's also why it's totally legit for him to republish his own work under a free license.

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

#527

Post by Levitz »

bambax wrote: post #315
Benjamin_Dobell wrote: post #40

I feel for the guy, making a living off of art is difficult. However, with an extensive email chain explaining the story was written as the ending of Minecraft, even going into detail about how it was to be displayed in game, an agreed upon offer (if a bit vague), and then an exchange of funds - with no immediate attempt to return said funds. I'm no lawyer, but that sounds a lot like a legally binding agreement. > So…

That last quote is damning. The game works well without an ending poem -- or an ending, for that matter. I don't play Minecraft but my kids do, and I don't think they know Minecraft has an ending? I certainly didn't. I always thought Minecraft was this unlimited platform where you build things with no specific purpose, for the pleasure of building, like an infinite Lego set. That said, the rant, while much too long i…

The "ending" of minecraft is just the point at which you have access to the entire game.

You probably know what The Nether is, that hellish looking place you access by making a portal. Reaching The Nether is progress, by getting there you get access to stuff you didn't have before, sure you can do whatever you feel like in Minecraft, but by getting there you can do more stuff than before because you have access to more stuff.

By defeating the Ender Dragon you are free to roam The End (which is the name of the whole place) and thus you finally gain access to everything the game has to offer.

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

#528

Post by tkahnoski »

TomBombadildoze wrote: post #494
warinukraine wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

"Moving on" and recounting a story can be, and often are, entirely different things.

Or precisely the exact same thing. I take this as their final act to bring closure.

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

#529

Post by mgrthrow »

rippercushions wrote: post #72
mgrthrow wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of times I've been told I don't believe my beliefs because they don't make rational economic sense is innumerable. I'm happy when my tax rate goes up. This apparently really bothers people. (Me being happy about it.)

Would you be happy if only your tax rate went up, or is that tied to other people in your tax bracket also paying out more and thus, presumably, benefiting society more than they would by hoarding/wasting the money?

The latter. I make something like 750k a year, people in my income range can afford more and still live very comfortably.

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

#530

Post by thrwy_918 »

Benjamin_Dobell wrote: post #40

I feel for the guy, making a living off of art is difficult. However, with an extensive email chain explaining the story was written as the ending of Minecraft, even going into detail about how it was to be displayed in game, an agreed upon offer (if a bit vague), and then an exchange of funds - with no immediate attempt to return said funds. I'm no lawyer, but that sounds a lot like a legally binding agreement. > So…

> However, with an extensive email chain explaining the story was written as the ending of Minecraft, even going into detail about how it was to be displayed in game, an agreed upon offer (if a bit vague), and then an exchange of funds - with no immediate attempt to return said funds. I'm no lawyer, but that sounds a lot like a legally binding agreement.

It sounds like an awful, muddy mess that would take a great deal of time and money to litigate if the author decided to take that path. Without an explicit contract, even determining which court (and which nation) has jurisdiction for this kind of international transaction sounds like a nightmare.

I agree that in most jurisdictions I have any familiarity with, some kind of contract likely exists for usage of the text, but that is a fundamentally different question from ownership of the text. And I imagine that the text has subsequently been used by Mojang and Microsoft for other purposes, which may or may not be found to be covered by the original agreement.

In short, it's exactly the kind of ambiguity that big corporations hate when it comes to intellectual property.

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