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Comment by dcow | Hacker News Reader

Yeah I feel a twist in my gut for this guy. He is so frustrated it's incredible. He wrote 90% more than he needed to on this topic. The essay is long and rambling and I've missed any point he's trying to make... much like the words of his "End Poem". They are senseless and, ultimately, meaningless. They are not deep. They are incoherent. No wonder he's stuck in a narrative of his own creation. That's his life. If his emails with Carl were anything like his writing in this essay, then any reasonable person would have been at wits end trying to negotiate with this guy. He is right about one thing, though: the universe owes him nothing.

All of his problems could have been solved if he just did the sensible normal thing any person would do and have a lawyer help him figure it out.

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I found it the opposite. I felt touched, it was very human and raw and real.

It's not an essay about a problem, it's an essay about experiencing a problem. The former can be solved with a lawyer, the latter with... Well nothing really. It's an experience.

For what it’s worth I found this to be a very worthwhile read. And not too hard to follow.

He’s very open about his responsibility for the miscommunication. And says he does not blame Carl (except for apparently hiding the Microsoft buyout from him).

As for the end poem, I’ve never played Minecraft but I found it to be beautiful and touching writing.

The end poem is fine. It doesn’t have particularly interesting rhythm, sound or structure in a ‘poetic’ way until the last bit. It has some weird stops, starts and repetition, but it’s coherent overall and has a functional enough core metaphor. Plus, the payoff is being told you matter, that you’re not alone. You know, the ‘we are all made of stars’ bit. It can be a powerful thought if you let it.

I realize I'm being critical. For me any message contained therein would have landed much more powerfully if it was communicated more gracefully. I, personally, believe that such stylized writing serves more to cover up shortcomings in an author's ability to communicate than it does any service to the reader. But that's my opinion. Maybe don't write the poem on drugs... idk.

> Maybe don't write the poem on drugs...

Curious where you got that impression? I can't see anything in the bit where he's writing the poem that he mentions anything even vaguely pertaining to drugs.

> All of his problems could have been solved if he just did the sensible normal thing any person would do and have a lawyer help him figure it out.

Whilst this may have reached a better legal and financial conclusion, I don't think it would have helped the author that much. It's obvious that he cares of the art, and for his perceived friendship.

> All of his problems could have been solved if he just did the sensible normal thing any person would do and have a lawyer help him figure it out.

Did you mean:

All of his problems could have been solved if he just did the sensible normal thing any person would do and flat out assume all the other humans on the planet are complete assholes.

He made it pretty clear that he didn't have any money (and thus no legal access).

If you have a case, especially one presumably of this profile, then many firms would take it for no up front cost with an expectation of some cut of the damages.

But he doesn't have a case, does he? He wrote the piece _for_ Minecraft and accepted the payment as such.

Then he would have been told as much by any lawyer he approached. Point was that not having money wouldn't be a nonstarter.

And of course, even though he said he didn't approach anybody, the speculative part of my brain actually thinks he informally may have done so and received such advice (that he didn't have a case) and conveniently omitted as much from the narrative.

I doubt any lawyer would bring a suit against one of the biggest corporations on the planet on contingency. Its going to be a hell of a lot of work to win even a clear-cut case against an opponent with this much resources. See also: the cave-diver that sued Elon Musk for defamation. Or Miller UK vs Caterpillar Inc (they won, but it took 5 years)

But then Mojang sent the money without a contract. The writer thought he was working under some conditions, the company thought he was doing it under other conditions and they never actually agreed to anything. Sending the money without a contract is just as sloppy as sending the work and I really don’t see how the author would be responsible here.

Not having a contract does not mean that Mojang’s terms are in force.

It depends on those initial emails and what was agreed upon. Assuming no information was left out and he truly said "The contract was for a comprehensive buyout, signing away all my rights forever, which was exactly the thing I’d told Carl that I never did with my work", it could be presumed that what he was paid for was essentially just a license to use his work for the Java game.

He also made it clear that he had an agent. And he had worked with large corporations in the past given his background so I'm surprised he tripped up here. It's not like this was some first time author learning about how cruel the real world can be.

That's all pretty tangential to the claim that he should "just" get a lawyer. He even describes how his life was kind of falling apart and his first marriage ended partially due to stress and partially due to his financial situation. It's wonderful to say you can "just" do this and "just" do that but it seems like things weren't "just" that simple for this person.

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