Minecraft game creator says file sharing & piracy is not theft

A well-worn counter to the claim 'piracy is theft' is that it's just sharing, or borrowing, or accepting a gift: 'I'm not stealing this video game; a friend gave me a copy. Those GBs of music on my hard drive? Think of them as a mix tape. You wouldn't sue someone for that, would you?'

Thanks to Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson, pirates now have several new counter-arguments against those who view them as petty thieves, though maybe not all of them should be employed.

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Speaking to an attentive collective gathered at the Game Developer Conference's Indie Games Summit, the successful designer declared "Piracy is not theft." Depending on your own personal stance, this quote - from someone who not only consumes content, but produces it - either elicited a hearty 'right on!' or a quizzical 'are you serious?'

Persson's reasoning was simple, if not completely logical: "If you steal a car, the original is lost. If you copy a game, there are simply more of them in the world." Perhaps pirate sympathizers should come up with better analogies. Is there an "Analogies for Dummies" book they could download?

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Elaborating on his outlook, Persson said, "There is no such thing as a 'lost sale.' Is a bad review a lost sale? What about a missed ship date?"

To be sure, Persson speaks from a unique position.

He's a game designer whose PC hit "Minecraft" enjoys success despite offering both free and paid versions. Over 1 million players bought the game, which is currently in Beta. In total, nearly 5 million people downloaded the odd build-your-own-world sandbox survival title. Offering a form of "Minecraft" for nothing with an option to buy a more complete version, Persson sidesteps some piracy fears: you can't 'steal' what's free.

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But will other game developers follow suit?

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