Notch: Piracy is not theft
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Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson told a session at GDC's Indie Games Summit this week that the notion of piracy as theft is false, Edge reports.
“Piracy is not theft,” he said. “If you steal a car, the original is lost. If you copy a game, there are simply more of them in the world.”
He added: “There is no such thing as a ‘lost sale’. Is a bad review a lost sale? What about a missed ship date?”
The developers comments are likely to prove contentious among a community that traditionally violently attacks anything to do with game piracy.
Persson scooped the IGF's main award last night, following a year which saw Minecraft be branded a "phenomenon" and acxhieve sales of over 1.3 million.