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.
> 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.
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.
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.
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.
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?