Notch clarifies Minecraft piracy comment

In a time when many PC game developers are fighting internet piracy, Markus "Notch" Persson shocked the industry when he told a fan who couldn't afford Minecraft to pirate the game.  In the same tweet, he did encourage the fan to buy it in the future when he could afford it.  Still, the damage was done. 

In a PR nightmare, sites took hold of the comment and immediately spread news that Notch said it was alright to illegally download Minecraft.  Obviously, with a game as successful and popular as Minecraft, Notch doesn't have to worry about a few bad apples downloading his game.  But for the smaller indie developers, they need all the support they can get.  Notch is one of the most influential men in the gaming industry and has an extremely large following.  If they now feel that it's ok to download games because Notch said it was then it could crush the industry.

Or maybe not.  Many of Notch's followers have told him that they did pirate the game but immediately purchased it after trying it out.  This adds further fuel to the argument that many people only pirate the game to demo it – and later make the purchase if they like it.  Regardless of your thoughts on piracy or your reasoning if you do it, it's still technically considered illegal.

Even Notch admitted it, as he further clarified his original statement.  Notch admitted it was illegal, but should not be as serious as developers and publishers make it out to be. 

"It's a minor offense in the scale of things," Notch explained.  Furthermore, when asked if he cared about Mojang potentially going out of business due to piracy, Notch responded: "We seem to be doing ok."

While Notch and Mojang are doing ok, there are many others that probably aren't.  Maybe Notch should think of them.