Minecraft: The Story of Mojang uploaded to TPB by the producers

[Shawn Knight]

Minecraft: The Story of Mojang premiered this past weekend but if you happened to miss the showing for whatever reason, fear not as the producers have since uploaded the film directly to The Pirate Bay for all to download free of charge.

The movie originally debuted on Xbox Live on Saturday to users in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK and the US. According to 2 Player Productions, they knew the film would eventually end up as a torrent anyway so they wanted to be the first to get it up and open a dialog.

The description on the torrent points out that torrents and piracy are a way of life and it probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. They note that there are many people who wish to punish people for that but they have a more realistic outlook on things.

The producers go on to say that everyone has been there and that everyone has needed to torrent at some point. Perhaps a user doesn’t have the money, or maybe they are the type that like to try before buying. Or in the case of the Minecraft film, maybe some people were pissed off because it premiered on Xbox Live.

Those interested in supporting the filmmakers can buy and download an $8 DRM-free digital copy of the movie or pick up a $20 physical DVD. If you aren’t familiar with the film, feel free to watch the embedded trailer above.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/51168-minecraft-the-story-of-mojang-uploaded-to-tpb-by-the-producers.html

 

[psycros]

Remarkably pragmatic take on illegal downloads from Notch and company. There's not much question that most piracy is a crime of convenience - "oh, look, there's a new movie posted, I must haves". What the entertainment industry forgets is that most pirates would never have paid for that media in the first place. Sure, there's always a minority who will buy <I>some</I> of what they can't steal, but their the exception by far. You need only look at the terrific sales numbers for good films, music and entertainment to understand this. Its a simple matter of economics and peer pressure: a lot people want to be able to say their up on the latest popular culture but can't pay for the privilege. Its as much about staying abreast of the latest entertainment and trends than it is enjoying the product. From what I've seen most pirates delete anything they download within a week or two because they don't have the money for extra storage any more than they do the content they fill it with. Then there's Youtube and sites like it, where you can find darn near any TV show in existence, sometimes in 720p format. For the typical net junkie, what's the difference between streaming and downloading at the end of the day?

 

[p51d007]

Many times I have downloaded a movie, just to see if I like it, and then if I do, I go buy it. If I don't, I delete it. Same with software. Sometimes they cripple "trial" versions of software. I download it, if it does what I like, I buy it.

 

[Qiouu]

Honnestly, this makes me want to buy that movie, even if I don't end up watching it.

 

[seefizzle]

This is an example of people doing it right.

Content creators and the big publishers truly have their heads up their butts and don't understand the technologies and direction entertainment is heading. Too often these fat cats are simply trying to protect their cash cows and business models and rarely do they see the forest from the trees.

I'd like to state that your "art" really aint worth sh*t. Your song is definitely not worth a dollar. Your movie is not worth 19.99. You can shove your bluray where the sun don't shine. I don't want any sort of disc or physical media. The simple fact of the matter is that the content you made, isn't worth as much as you think it is.

It's time for change. Instead of these mega corporations arbitrarily deciding market prices and forcing the hands of politicians to protect their products, lets let the market decide. Is your album really worth ten bucks? No, to me, your album is maybe worth two bucks. Maybe. Chances are it isn't worth anything at all to me. I will probably never listen to half the crap you created. The movie you made, maybe it's worth 2.50 to me, but probably not even that. Maybe I'll watch it once, and after that I'll decide if it's worth any money or not. But it's probably not. You'd be damned lucky if I even watched Big Mama's House 7.

There has been countless examples of "name your own price" media working really well for content creators. Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails gave away albums and you could pay anything or nothing at all and they still made money hand over fist. The Indie Bundle game promotion has made tons of money for small developers. Comedian Louis CK made a mountain of money when he produced his own special and put it up online for a nominal fee of 5 dollars, bypassing the publishers all together. These are just a few examples. All over the place "artists" are finding different means of generating income whilst bypassing the venus fly trap publishing organizations. How many albums has kickstarter produced?

Bottom line, here's what I think... the media that you've created, whether that's a movie, music, book, or whatever... if it's in a digital form, you should absolutely give it away for free and accept "donations". If your art has any sort of merit whatsoever, people will give you money. This is an already proven fact. So just give it away for free. When you give your product away for free, it will more easily spread around, more people will see it and money will come your way. If you're too scared it won't make any money, then there's a good chance that what you've created is simply garbage and thusly it's definitely not worth the money you want to charge for it.

 

[jonjonjon]

From what I've seen most pirates delete anything they download within a week or two because they don't have the money for extra storage any more than they do the content they fill it with.

are you serious? you think people who pirate a movie can't afford a 1TB hdd for $60? I'm pretty sure they delete the files because once you watch a movie why would you keep a 1GB+ file on your hdd? I don't know about you but I only watch a movie once. I don't collect movie files on my computer that I'm never going to watch again. if I download a movie I watch it then delete it. I'm not sure how you even know what other people are doing with files on their computer.

the movie is going to end up on torrents anyway at least this way they might get some people to purchase the movie. plus now they are getting tons of coverage on websites.