I’ve just watched the video. I find it pretty outrageous. The word about it should spread.

135 points

if buying isn’t owning then piracy isn’t stealing

there, upvotes to the left pls

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-29 points
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Piracy is piracy.

But the only one that owns Minecraft is Microsoft, since they bought it for over 2 billion dollars. Everyone else just bought a license to use it. Just like in all the other cases of buying music, video, or software. Unless lots of lawyers were involved, you only bought permission to use it, in a certain way at that. Pretending otherwise or not knowing in the first place has never been a legal excuse.

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23 points

You’re getting downvoted, but you’re right. And that is the reason that using proprietary software and SaaS is a problem. If I’m only buying the right to use a copy of something as a company sees fit, then I’m not really buying anything. I’m essentially paying a company a tribute to use their software in their way.

Decades ago, it was the same way, but it felt different. We got physical media, and we could do what we wished with the files: modify them, delete them, etc. Hell, the EULAs for some '90s and early '00s software even said you could use the software in perpetuity, and we could use software in anyway we saw fit. The biggest constraint was on selling copies. Back then, and even now, that seems pretty reasonable. (Though, as an aside, it would have been better to also get access to the source code, but I digress.)

Now, we have to use company’s software exactly how they want us to use it. Personally, I refuse to go along with this (as much as I can), so I have migrated most of my digital life to FLOSS.

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-4 points

Joke’s on them, my instance doesn’t allow downvotes, so my comment is happily at +9 from where I’m standing ;)

Ain’t got no time to worry about popular opinions.

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12 points

Then the button shouldn’t say “buy now” but “license now”

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12 points

Yes, BUT…

There is buying a licence to use.
And there is buying a copy you can use.

This is very much different. Maybe buying a copy of music with a tag attached saying you cannot distribute it further is ok, but saying they can take this copy you bought at any time and make terms how you can use it is another level.

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7 points

Some video games are open source; you can modify and redistribute it or even sell it. We need more of those and less fat cats playing a trading card game of copyrights while they erode ownership rights.

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-2 points

I’m sure there are exceptions if you’ll look hard enough. However, even in the case of most open source software, you’ll never become the owner of the intellectual property, you’re just free to use, modify and share it.

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-6 points

Meanwhile everyone screaming AI is stealing from them.

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38 points
*

in this case, microsoft just decided that they didn’t have to bother supporting legacy accounts because they didn’t feel like it, so they pulled them without consent or compensation

in the case of ai generated media, companies just decided that they just had the rights to use existing published media, so they harvested it without consent or compensation

both complaints are the same complaint: that businesses are just deciding on contracts unilaterally and then imposing them on people without the need for consent

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-9 points

in the case of ai generated media, companies just decided that they just had the rights to use existing published media, so they harvested it without consent or compensation

Have you read the ToS of your favourite social media site lately?

In any event, it might well be that companies (and you yourself) have the rights to use existing published media to train AIs. Copyright doesn’t cover the analysis of public data. I suspect that people wouldn’t like it if copyright got extended to let IP owners prohibit you from learning from their stuff.

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2 points

Microsoft has a history of doing so, both with Minecraft customers and others. They just don’t care.

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-4 points

I’ve paid my upvote tax

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1 point

The only times I’d excuse piracy are if the original product is outright unavailable in your region, or if digital rights management leads to a vastly inferior or unusable product for paying users (i.e. strict installation limits, always-online DRM in a single player game.)

I don’t condone pirating Minecraft, regardless of Microsoft’s anti-consumer bullshit.

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28 points
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As a fun aside, unauthorized sharing is the only reason I tried and bought the game back in early beta days before there was a demo (friend A owned, friend B didn’t, I tried it from friend B’s unauthorized copy of friend A’s game and got the copy too, later gave friend A $20 and info to activate my account because I didn’t have internet at home).

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4 points

Pirated Minecraft was a staple of my childhood. Basically everyone I know had it pirated too. I thought that, when I am an adult with my own money and my own debit card, I would buy the game since I liked it so much. Well, I guess that isn’t happening.

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7 points

Same. I played MC in early Alpha when you could play free in a web browser. And then I used a cracked game for another year or so. Once I had adult money I bought it. I’ve since bought it probably 6+ times over between Java, Bedrock, consoles, mobile and accounts for my kids.

I probably would never have bought it otherwise, or at least not for a long time.

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78 points

Yeah, this is corporate bullshit. However…

Minecraft is a rare bird that lets you download every single public release (that was archived) all the way back to the original test builds. I recently re-downloaded 1.14 to play a unique seed that only loads all the features correctly on that version.

And when you play Minecraft, you download the entire game as a .jar file to your computer and it stays there, even if you upgrade to a later version. There are third-party launchers that let you load those .jars and play without logging into anything.

So, it’s up to you whether or not you tow the company line and use a Microsoft account and the official launcher or just download some fan-made software and run the old versions forever.

I recommend anyone who lost their Mojang account to just dig out the latest version downloaded to their computer and run it through a custom launcher, or look up instructions on running the game without a launcher.

(This only applies to the Java version of the game, but that’s the best version anyway because of features and custom mods. Playing roms of the console/mobile games requires modding the appropriate system and that’s a lot more involved.)

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25 points
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I backed up all of my own files except the jars apparently (because when you download every one they added up, and I didn’t do that when the servers were at stake). I even had a launcher still logged in but none of the files will download now. Prism is lame (but understandable, I guess) in that it just says “contact microsoft support if you didn’t migrate” or something like that, but you can just copy over accounts.json from polymc to use an offline acct. Though a few mods I’ve tried don’t work (and I feel like mod discoverability might not be the best?).

Also a small bit not directly in reply to you: I’m pretty sure this is actually the second migration too, at least for accounts that were started on the minecraft website (username–>email login+mojang acct). But of course searches only give info on this one.

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13 points

Also a small bit not directly in reply to you: I’m pretty sure this is actually the second migration too

Yup. First there were Minecraft logins, then Mojang accounts, now Microsoft accounts.

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3 points

What is the seed?

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6 points

btw, the game doesn’t actually require auth in order to download jar files and launch the game (server’s come with online checks enabled by default tho, so you’ll only be able to play single player)

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1 point

Except for the iOS iPad version…

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0 points

Hasn’t for a long time for most junk

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1 point

That’s why we should fiercely fight against it :)

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16 points

I still haven’t migrated my Minecraft account. I don’t have a Microsoft account and I don’t want one. I’d prefer to lose the game.

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1 point

Nevertheless, the most important bit here is that, you shouldn’t have to loose the game and it’s a very scammy move from Microsoft.

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25 points

I do not have any of GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft) accounts and this is nice “achievement” to have in life for me.
Maybe if I would need them for something important like becoming a video creator, having to publish an Android app for a company or promote my buissness on social media I would create one. But for just one game it’s a pass for me. The most important game in my life, but I have grown up and do not play it anymore.

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1 point

Wow… 🫡

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1 point

That is an impressive achievement. Out of curiosity, do you have a smartphone? And if so, which operating system do you use?

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6 points

With most of my things I use being standardized or common formats, I find deGoogled Android builds to more than enough.
Currently LineageOS on my OnePlus. I have a phone with Linux mobile for testing, it’s close but missing things like camera is too much.

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1 point

I’m on the journey to get there too… :') I hope I succeed.

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