Producers of Minecraft Documentary upload their new movie to The Pirate Bay | Hacker News Reader

Producers of Minecraft Documentary upload their new movie to The Pirate Bay

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179 pointsmilesf71 comments

My son (age 11) wants to be a game programmer because of his love for Minecraft. He talks about Notch as his hero.

I've setup a Minecraft server running on a headless box in my house. The server has a whitelist of about 20 names with my children's friends from school so they can play. It's running Craftbukkit/Spigot (http://www.spigotmc.org/) and Purugin (https://github.com/enebo/Purugin) which allows me to help them write Minecraft plugins in Ruby. Minecraft has spread like wildfire at their little school in the country, and being able to have their very own server that they are able to program and invite their friends to play on has made them micro celebrities at their school.

As a parent Minecraft is a way for me to engage with my kids on something we are all interested in. I am also teaching them programming on something they really care about. It's exciting to watch and be a part of, and this documentary will only fuel that growing passion to learn how to write code.

That is just wonderful :)

Hope you don't mind the plug, but I've been working on a Minecraft-inspired real-time cooperative game-making platform geared towards gamers (both young and older) and I think you might find it to be a great place to have fun with your kid, learning programming (Lua) and making actual games together, if you want to take it further. It's called CraftStudio and you can get it at: http://craftstud.io/

It's still in alpha (I've been releasing updates every few weeks for a bit over a year) but it's already capable of some very cool things. Videos of some games & creations made with it: http://www.youtube.com/user/craftstudiodev/videos?flow=grid&...

Alternatively I know there are some great Minecraft mods like ComputerCraft (also Lua-based) which allow doing programmy stuff directly within Minecraft if you're so inclined.

Thanks! I am always looking for ways to ween my kids off of consuming activities (eg. TV, most video games) and onto creating activities (playing Minecraft, programming, etc). I'll definitely take a look.

Would a Linux version be possible? I can't afford Mac systems for my kids, but they will both be getting Ubuntu laptops under the tree this year. I want them to wrestle with Linux because using the OS naturally leads you to learn about Unix.

Yup, the Linux port is in the works and I hope to have it available early next year.

CraftStudio is built in C# with XNA. I've been using MonoGame (https://github.com/mono/monogame - open source, multiplatform reimplementation of XNA) for the Mac build for a few months and already got most of it running on Linux, I just need to find the time to get it into a releasable state.

The Turtles (inspired by the Logo[0] language I assume) in Computercraft[1] are really a lot of fun. Small 1x1x1 robots that fly around, dig, craft, place torches and all that fun stuff. Its using Lua as a scripting language with a very simple API[2]. I think its a great way to getting started with programming, you really have that immediate gratification when you see the turtle flying around and digging stuff up.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_programming_language [1] http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/892282-145-computercraft... [2] http://computercraft.info/wiki/index.php?title=Turtle_%28API...

As a soon-to-be-father myself... this is the kind of parent I want to be! Kudos!

Any chance you could do a full writeup of your setup? Good job!

Absolutely. I'm going to start blogging about all this stuff in the new year. The site will be at http://milesforrest.com. I think the RSS link should be working.

Description for those who can't access the URL:

    Greetings Pirate Bay!

    This is 2 Player Productions here, and we hoped we could be the first to
    upload our new movie "Minecraft: The Story of Mojang".  We've never uploaded
    a torrent before so hopefully this isn't all screwed up.

    We wanted to come here first because we knew the movie would end up here
    eventually, and the best thing to do seemed to be opening a dialogue.
    Torrents and piracy are a way of life and it probably won't be going
    anywhere anytime soon.  There are many people that want to punish you for
    that, but we have a more realistic outlook on things.

    We've been there.  We've all needed to do it at some point.  Maybe you don't
    have the money.  Maybe you want to try before you buy.  Maybe you're pissed
    at us for premiering the movie on Xbox Live.  These are all fine reasons.
    But if you feel that piracy is, in Gabe Newell's words, "a service problem,"
    please consider that we are selling DRM free digital downloads that you can
    watch in whatever manner you please.

    We're just three guys trying to make a living doing what we love.  We love
    the world of video games, and we love making it real.  If you buy the movie,
    you support those efforts.  The reason we Kickstarted this movie in the
    first place was that we didn't have enough money to make it ourselves, and
    even then, we still put A LOT of our own money into it.  Not to mention
    nearly two years of work.

    Watch the movie.  Hopefully you'll like it, and understand what we're trying
    to do.  Please consider supporting us by buying the $8 DRM-free digital
    download of the movie at www.theminecraftmovie.com, or the $20 DVD from
    www.fangamer.net.

    We've worked with a lot of amazing people in the games industry and had the
    incredible fortune to make some great films the way we wanted to make them.
    Please consider helping us continue on this path.  The best has yet to come.

    -2pp

Really great stuff! Appreciate what 2pp is doing...

They also do an excellent job at filming the progress of the DFA (Double Fine Adventure)

If you are a backer of DFA, you can watch the Mojang movie on their private backers forum, it is being streamed, today (Dec 23) only.

The movie has an unobtrusive crawl around the 23 minute mark:

"Decided to pirate our movie, eh? Now you'll have to deal with these scroll-y bits. If you like what you see, buy the drm-free version at www.storyofmojang.com so that we can afford to keep making movies. Thanks!"

Very clever.

if the producers decided to upload this on a torrent, then they should not call me a pirate because I download it.

It's a pre-emptive leak. They know that people are going to pirate it, so they release a version with quick and easy links to pay.

I agree they shouldn't call you a pirate if they've invited you to download their torrent. But some people will be downloading without knowing they're allowed to, so the text is only for those people.

Why not? The producers shared that stuff on TPB because it'd end up there eventually, and because they understand that there are reasons for kind-of-sort-of-ethically-fine 'pirating'.

You grabbed the movie. You didn't got the payed version (otherwise you wouldn't complain) and got a reference to pirating. Because .. you pirated the movie.

They uploaded it to be in control on TPB. They explicitly ask for you to go ahead, check it and please support them by buying the movie. If you don't do that, you're pirating the movie with the help of the producers. At least in my world.

(Downloading it right now, net's slow. Will watch it with my wife and invest the USD 8 if it has a couple decent / funny / interesting scenes)

This is the first torrent I downloaded in probably 5 years, and I did so because the movie isn't released yet. I agree with the parent.

"Piracy" refers not to free downloads, but to copyright infringement. Do I "pirate" a Wikipedia article every time I visit the site? Do I "pirate" Ubuntu when I download an ISO?

You could not be less correct when you claim that downloading this torrent from the content creators is an act of piracy. This demonstrates a fundamentally perverse view of both the laws and ethics of intellectual property on the part of you and these content creators.

The moment the producer places the movie on pirate bay themselves and encourages you to download it, then it is no longer piracy, it is using torrents as a legitimate, distributed downloading service, like it was made to be.

If anything, they uploaded a shareware version of the movie to the pirate bay. Them saying you're pirating it is inaccurate. Instead it should be something like "Hey! I see you torrented our movie! Thanks for watching it; and if you feel like, please download the pay-for version of this movie to support us! (We'll even remove this ask for money from the official!)"

Piracy is, in the lazy short verison, acquiring without permission. Torrenting != Piracy when you have permission. e.g. every World of Warcraft update.

you assumed that putting their torrent on TPB is the same as giving you permission to download without paying.

How isn't it?

What is a valid situation where putting your video onto a website and then talking directly to the people you're marketing to in your video not giving them permission?

Is that what helps you sleep at night? Then go right and tell that to yourself. Do whatever it is you need to do to rationalize your behavior.

If you feel uncomfortable with the word, see it as they called the film the "pirated version", with fake legs, parrots, and a eye-patch.

Its just a word meaning "80-90% of the population that know how the internet works". Any connotation to ships has been lost to the ages.

If only they'd just put a wavy black bar with the text "aaargh, the pirate version be better anyway." Maybe a Mutiny! button that takes you to their site.

I watched this earlier (backed on Kickstarter) and it's fun to watch. There's no great insight into Minecraft and you won't come away from it knowing more about Minecraft or Mojang or why Minecraft is so successful, but you will see the personalities of some of those involved and things about the community and the things people have done. If you're a fan of Minecraft it's definitely worth watching (but it isn't a Minecraft equivalent of "Indie Game: The Movie")

I think 2PProduction's documentary of the development of the Double Fine Adventure provides more insight into game development. (You can still back them and get access to the episodes.) A lot of the very interesting things had already happened when they started filming the Minecraft documentary so it cannot provide the same deep look.

The Double Fine documentary is excellent. At this point I really care not one bit about how the actual game turns out, the documentary has been extremely rewarding. They really seem to show it all, warts and everything.

I'm confused. I can't hit the link because I'm in the UK.

They may have uploaded it to piratebay (would have happened anyway), but are they giving carte blance to download it however you like?

For example, since pirate bay is blocked here is it legal for me to search other torrent sites and download it from there?

    Greetings Pirate Bay!

    This is 2 Player Productions here, and we hoped we could be the first 
    to upload our new movie "Minecraft: The Story of Mojang". We've 
    never uploaded a torrent before so hopefully this isn't all screwed 
    up.

    We wanted to come here first because we knew the movie would end up 
    here eventually, and the best thing to do seemed to be opening a 
    dialogue. Torrents and piracy are a way of life and it probably won't
    be going anywhere anytime soon. There are many people that want to 
    punish you for that, but we have a more realistic outlook on things.

    We've been there. We've all needed to do it at some point. Maybe you
    don't have the money. Maybe you want to try before you buy. Maybe 
    you're pissed at us for premiering the movie on Xbox Live. These are 
    all fine reasons. But if you feel that piracy is, in Gabe Newell's 
    words, "a service problem," please consider that we are selling DRM 
    free digital downloads that you can watch in whatever manner you 
    please.

    We're just three guys trying to make a living doing what we love. We
    love the world of video games, and we love making it real. If you 
    buy the movie, you support those efforts. The reason we Kickstarted 
    this movie in the first place was that we didn't have enough money to
    make it ourselves, and even then, we still put A LOT of our own money 
    into it. Not to mention nearly two years of work.

    Watch the movie. Hopefully you'll like it, and understand what we're
    trying to do. Please consider supporting us by buying the $8 DRM-free
    digital download of the movie at www.theminecraftmovie.com, or the 
    $20 DVD from fangamer.net.

    We've worked with a lot of amazing people in the games industry and 
    had the incredible fortune to make some great films the way we wanted 
    to make them. Please consider helping us continue on this path. The 
    best has yet to come.

    -2pp

The Piratebay is just a directory of magnet links, they only shared the magnet link on the Piratebay.

Doesn't really clarify the legal situation. If they are offering the product for free then it isn't "piracy" to download it.

If on the other hand they are sharing the file (seeding it themselves?) and then intend on persuing people who download it then that is a pretty shitty trick.

what an awesomely terrible idea

> consider that we are selling DRM free digital downloads that you can watch in whatever manner you please.

I doubt that's their intention, at least from the start. By including that clause in the description, they're making it very hard for themselves to construct a case that they aren't authorizing these downloads (even if they could argue that uploading the magnet link themselves doesn't already fulfill this).

The impression I get is that they, like most people who are users of the pirate bay or other torrent sites, don't really care about the legal situation. I think their note is pretty clear. They would prefer people to pay for the download, but know that a lot of people won't anyway. By uploading the torrent they at least have an opportunity to engage with the torrent community. For me the takeaway is that they are setting legal issues aside and appealing for people who like their work to support it financially on moral grounds.

Since the creators uploaded it to a torrent site themselves, and the text sort of implies that they expect people to watch it without paying, I'd say that it would be very hard for them to successfully argue that you didn't have their permission to download it for free. And proving you didn't have the copyright holder's permission is a necessary part of any copyright claim.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. What I do know about the law is mostly US-centric.

I'm in the UK, saw the URL and I'm seeding the movie.

You need to change your ISP to one of the smaller ones, which will not just mean that your connection is unfiltered but also mean you're using (and supporting) diversity and increased competition.

Or just tunnel/run a proxy (preferably outside of the UK).

OffTopic: Any recommendations for a small, good UK based ISP?

Andrews & Arnold is one of the best and most nerd friendly ISPs in the UK: http://aaisp.net.uk/

You can get a good idea of the company's general philosophy from their owner's blog: http://revk.www.me.uk/

Unfortunately they are quite expensive compared to the bigger ISPs but in their case you really do get what you pay for.

A&A are fantastic, yes they are a bit more expensive but they really do outshine every ISP in the UK with their no-bullshit attitude, and I love the way they take BT to task when things aren't 100% working properly.

I used A&A before I moved to Ireland and really miss them. I'm stuck with Eircom (there is virtually no land-based provider choice in Ireland if you live outside of Dublin) who are a financial basket case and suffering from virtually no infrastructure investment outside of Dublin.

Internet access in Ireland is like the UK was back in 2002/3 and the Irish government wastes millions of euros on half baked 3G/Wireless schemes that don't work instead of fixing the terrestrial system properly.

http://pirateproxy.net/torrent/7946763/Minecraft__The_Story_...

Really impressed that the producers will have a family-friendly audio track with the official, non-pirated version. My kids (ages 8 and 11) love Minecraft, and it will probably be the highlight for them this Christmas to watch the documentary as a family. I'll likely buy both the download version and the DVD when it's released on Sunday just to be extra supportive of their efforts.

Me too - I have had to explain a few off-color words from their viewing of fan videos on youtube.

"Dad is 'fucking retarded' a bad thing to say...?"

Imagine my parents back in 1989 when I asked them "What does 'cXXt' mean?" (I'd found it having opened up a text adventure I was stuck on in a hex editor, they had some naughty commands in there..!)

I've just downloaded it and the version on there at the moment isn't family friendly (my kids are 5 and 7) and both love Minecraft. I was just clicking through and heard "It's f*cking enormous".

Ignore my above comment. I was being a bit stupid :) Its a different audio track for the family friendly

Rather annoying that you can't yet buy the $8 version on their site. It's out tomorrow.

Agreed. I always like to support this business/distribution model (music/movie/comedy) when I can. I'll have to set a reminder to go back and pay.

I am currently downloading it, and I will buy 8$ download version just to support the guys, because they have guts to do something like this.

I am going to pay the $8 as well. I just wish I could give them my money now while downloading it via the torrent, but it is not available for purchase until December 23rd (tomorrow) on their site.

They should of put the torrent up on the same day it was available for purchase.

The film is already available to download to backers, I assume they're pre-empting the inevitable leak from a backer.

I'm downloading now. If they had a bitcoin address, they'd get a coin from me, right now.

The title is technically inaccurate; they've only uploaded the magnet hash to The Pirate Bay. Interestingly, they also haven't provided a license so I'm curious if anyone knows what the legal status of downloading this would be given that you'll be getting parts from people not licensed to distribute it.

I think it's clear that the producers consent to P2P distribution, given they knowingly made it available.

I don't plan on watching it — so I won't pay for it — but I will seed it because I'd like to encourage others to see it and pay for it. I think that's what the producers want.

It's interesting how this compares to projects posted without an explicit license where many will refuse to consider using the project until a license is specified:

http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=%22no+licen...

http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=%22what+is+...

The pedantry is strong with this one.

It will be interesting to see if 2 Player Productions attempt to dialogue with those who would normally steal their work will succeed in actually converting many into customers.

I'm downloading and will buy it if it is good enough (does not need to be great, just showing that the guys producing it does a good job). I really hope it is good enough :-)

By and sky users can't access TPB, any chance of a magnet link?

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:41b2fd2403eba5a1dc23743fb08a15f968acc1b5&dn=Minecraft%3A+The+Story+of+Mojang&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.istole.it%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ccc.de%3A80

Interesting; this post has exposed a problem in the styling of HN, forcing horizontal scrolling.

no horizontal scrolling for me (Firefox 17.0.1)

Me neither, chrome 18 android

This is an old, well-known issue. It just rarely occurs.

Actually it occurs every time somebody writes something long like this: xt=urn:btih:41b2fd2403eba5a1dc23743fb08a15f968acc1b5&dn=Minecraft%3A+The+Story+of+Mojang&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.publicbt.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.istole.it%3A6969&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.ccc.de%3A80

It's unlikely it will be fixed though.

I mean "rarely occurs" in the sense that folks rarely post things with really long lines. Most of us have better sense than that.

Styling? Look at the source, HN is full of

<center><table><tr><td><u><font color=#000000>outdated HTML</td></tr></table></center>

Where can I buy it without the Pirate Bay Link?

www.theminecraftmovie.com

Except, bizarrely, not till tomorrow, especially given they say:

But if you feel that piracy is, in Gabe Newell's words, "a service problem," please consider that we are selling DRM free digital downloads that you can watch in whatever manner you please.

Ironically, this situation is a perfect example of a service problem, since I wanted to pay for and watch the film but have instead been presented with The Pirate Bay as an immediate solution. Oops.

Exact same thing happened to me. I wanted to pay for it, couldn't... So the only solution available to me is to download it from tpb.

Silly.

I'll pay for it tomorrow, but I wanted to pay for it now. This strategy doesn't make sense.

Oh c'mon, you do have a solution, exercise a bit of patience for 24 hours (if that). I bet most people complaining about this only found out about the film in the past few hours.

It's hardly the same as waiting for months before Dexter turns up in a format you want to pay for in your region.

Perhaps there is no strategy here, perhaps they just wanted a bit of extra time to make sure that their download and payment services were up to scratch so that there isn't a repeat of the JetBrains 75% off calamity.

True. I downloaded it yesterday and bought it today, but the point is -- the first time someone hears about something, it is in the best interest of the creator to make sure that person can pay the creator legally, otherwise that customer may simply not remember and never buy it when it is available.

I wish they had a bitcoin address!

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