and a lot of people have been asking
this week about the end poem news which
dropped if you don't know the creator of
the iconic and poem did something really
clever which means you and I now
officially own that iconic part of
Minecraft but do we actually is the more
interesting question with a more
interesting answer because there are
some weird discrepancies in the contract
which has been made public but more
interestingly how is it that someone who
made something so huge is unable to pay
their rent as they claim themselves this
is something I wanted to actually dive
into an answer today and so let's do
precisely that so Julian GAO is
supposedly the person who wrote the
Minecraft end poem how do we know that
well he puts it in his Twitter bio and
he claims that 11 and a bit years ago he
wrote the only bit of written narrative
in Minecraft the story that appears
after you kill the Ender Dragon a
narrative which players often call the
end poem today I officially liberated
that ending what does that mean and this
is an interesting thread which picked up
a lot of momentum as you can see over 65
000 likes it's also been picked up by
all sorts of gaming journalism sites
without too much of a source about
what's going on there but we'll come
back to it later because he says well
that's a long story I've written a 10
000 word post explaining everything the
internet groans a terrible groan and he
summarizes the entire thing by saying
much of it comes down to the fact that
for various reasons I never signed a
contract giving away any rights to my
story they are retained by me then he
shares this contract with the
interesting from Julian GAO to Mojang
the Julian gal at the top of that
contract is in Germany and the Mojang AB
is in Sweden interestingly Germany uses
the Euro and Sweden uses the Swedish
Crown so it's really weird that the
payment for this was going to be one
pound which is just a nominal fee it's
so a contract can be performed it's
basically him giving away his work for
free is what this contract would have
done except he never signed it he said
he quietly refused to sign in 2011. the
year I wrote the ending and the game was
officially released and I refused to
sign it again with a bit more shouting
and general who are in 2014 when Marcus
person sold Minecraft to Mike Microsoft
for 2.5 billion dollars I was put under
a lot of pressure to sign it but I never
signed it so Microsoft have never owned
the ending to Minecraft I own it and
from today on I'm letting anybody play
with it and so he very maturely says he
doesn't blame anyone and he's just an
artist playing the artist game while
they're just a giant Corporation playing
the capitalism game he in fact does say
that he's going to piss off some giant
corporations and it's kind of a funny
thing because the end result is he's
giving away the story to everyone
however the more in-depth story is very
very fascinating first of all why is it
that he is receiving pounds when he is a
German resident receiving money from a
Swedish person also why did he write
this to begin with how did you ever get
into the place where you are writing a
story for free and then managed to get
it put in the game despite not signing a
contract and more importantly what does
it mean now that the end poem is
officially in the public domain anyone
can use it none of the rights are
attained by him let's answer all of
those questions of this slightly longer
version of the story because it all
started with this tweet from Notch which
by the way this and a boing boing
article from 2012 are the only direct
proof that Julian wrote the thing but it
was enough to go with at least for now
because Notch tweeted saying are you a
talented writer famous as a plus who
wants to write a silly over-the-top out
of nowhere text for when you win
Minecraft and uh he actually got
recommended to uh you know not quite a
few times and then that night Notch
emailed him and says would he write the
ending for Minecraft and he said yes but
he was given an open brief he could
write anything he wanted and here's the
crazy bit he didn't actually know
Minecraft at all at the time so he asked
a couple of questions like could he code
it so the story addressed the player by
name could he make some of the words
look encrypted or obscured in some way
he said yes and yes no problem and so he
played the game day after day often
alongside his daughter trying to
understand it trying to understand
Marcus's philosophy through it and
trying to understand the essence of
Minecraft and when I felt I knew the
things I wrote the ending that's right
the creator of the end poem had not
played Minecraft before he got the
permission to write the ending and so he
panicked played it in a week and then
from that understanding he got the end
and then even crazier is the fact that
he wrote nine minutes which uh you know
Notch said was very long for something
that was spent supposed to scroll up the
screen at the end of the game but he
didn't want to change a word and that
was wonderful one of the most satisfying
artistic experiences of my writing life
and so that is just fascinating by
itself right that he had no idea about
Minecraft but yet he wrote nine minutes
of poem for the end and actually it's so
good that it's one of the best and most
iconic bits of Minecraft today it is one
of the real deep parts of the game is
when you beat the sandbox and when this
whole thing appears and it seems like it
was even written by notch himself but it
was actually made by an outside writer
who had no idea about Minecraft when
they started it which just you know
that's that's interesting so the
explanation here is that Carl who was
CEO of Mojang before the Microsoft
acquisition by the way one of the Lesser
known Mojang stuff but he had an MBA and
so he uh negotiated a deal with uh
Julian and Julian uh says he had no idea
that he was even talking business he had
no idea what the game should be you know
what his end poem should be off because
there was a game with no ending that
needed it desperately so it could
release and it was happening real soon
he knew it had sold hundreds of millions
of uh you know like a dollar's worth of
sales and so he was questioning what it
should be worth peanuts and a pizza a
million dollars a thousand dollar
success bonus for every million new
sales and the short version of the story
makes it sound like he got nothing in
the end he was only ever gonna get that
one pound but the long story is that he
actually got 20 000 Euros so perhaps a
slightly more logical payment I mean it
sounds great right like a nine minute
piece of work uh that takes like a week
to make on and you get 20 000 Euros and
in exchange you lose the rights to it
that is how they agreed on things
however he said that he was uh Beyond
broke at the time he desperately needed
the money and it just kind of showed up
before the contract hadn't worked it had
what been worked out so he got his 20
000 Euros he said seven thousand Euros
paid off his maxed out credit cards a
couple thousand more went on to other
outstanding bills and he ended up with
10 000 Euros which was enough to keep
him and his family alive for six months
in Berlin while he continued to write
his weird novel about computer games and
teenagers and the universe and love
basically he was making other writing
work and the long story short is he
finally got the contract in December and
he was so mad that his work had been
used without the contract that he just
decided not to sign it without even
reading it and then even oh no so much I
just spilled my giant two liter bottle
of water which is how it must feel if
you sell your work for 20 000 Euros and
then uh you know Minecraft became such a
success and it became publicly known uh
that it was going to be sold uh to
Microsoft for 2.5 billion dollars and uh
you know this money obviously going to
the Mojang shareholders being just free
people and so at the time this is
happening uh he gets a message from Carl
saying hey by the way you never signed
this contract that's only for a pound
but can you just like give us the rights
real quick uh you forgot to do that
oopsie oopsie and so he felt very
betrayed because it was being hidden
from him that this 2.5 billion dollar
deal was the reason why and they weren't
giving him more money for his iconic uh
part of the game he he felt like he was
one of the five people that created the
game you know Notch and Jeb making the
code he says then there's C418 in the
music there's the guy who made the
paintings and then there's him he feels
like he's one of the top five guys and
yet unlike all of those other people
with the 120 000 bonuses on top of their
salaries on top of their you know Mojang
shares that are now going to be selling
for ludicrous amounts uh that he was
being offered nothing so he just refused
to sign the contract he actually said he
didn't even read the contract because he
was so mad and uh so yeah then he says
this led to his friendship with Marcus
going downhill and then eventually uh
even his wife leaving him for partially
financial reasons again he was very
artist driven and not very money driven
and uh then uh he felt like it got even
worse because after the Microsoft
acquisition which went through without
the contract being signed uh what
eventually happened is uh Notch became
very very wealthy 1.8 billion dollars
roughly and he bought a very nice
mansion and he'd spend a couple hundred
grand on a night out flying to Vegas for
a private party or whatever and he felt
like whoa not just being spending all
this money from this big thing that he
made that at least is partially the
career creation of this guy who is
having severe money issues can't afford
to buy his kids shoes and hopefully you
can see the disconnect there and why
he'd be bitter about it even if it was
you know maybe him not signing a
contract he feels like wow I made this
big mistake and in case you're wondering
if he's a super young guy that got
exploited it turns out he was born in
1966 funnily enough near Heathrow
Airport in London so I guess that
explains the British connection although
when he was seven he moved to Ireland
and he's famous for being in a Galway
based band uh where he has quite a few
famous songs but those were from the
1980s so he's age 55 he's uh you know
he's at age 56 even you can assume uh he
is a you know he's been in this game for
a while he's just so art driven and he's
never focused on the money which can
lead to some issues like what you're
explaining right here so he actually
said he was very bitter for a very long
time about the entire thing the only
reason he's so calm as he explains it
all and says like oh wow yeah Notch has
this mansion and spends 200 Grand a
night and I can't even keep a marriage
down the reason that he's got this like
a calmness about it is he says that he
went to this building in the Netherlands
the nature Temple where he did a heroic
dose of mushrooms and then the mushrooms
made him realize that he needed to go
look at his own poem again and the poem
says the universe loves you because you
are love so stop hiding from Love and
his conclusion is he should Liberate the
poem and make it public domain he does
own the rights he never officially gave
them up and so he's putting them out
there into the public for everyone to
use which means any one of us can Now
remix this outside of Minecraft and we
can use it and Microsoft cannot sue us
and honestly I think that's the happy
part of the story I think there's a real
truth to the fact that because the
person who made the story says it is
public domain I guess it sort of is
however there is a really interesting
asterisk in there which is when he was
asked to sign the contract in 2014 it
was a very big deal too Carl the CEO of
Mojang that he signed this contract
because when Microsoft was asking about
buying uh Mojang they wanted to make
sure they owned everything and so they
made it a very big deal that he signed
this contract so that it could be
covered but then after he didn't they
just said oh yeah it turns out we think
we have the rights anyway and so does
Microsoft and so that's the interesting
thing right Microsoft themselves seemed
to believe that they own the rights
because they felt like the email
correspondence between Carl and the
writer Julian was totally enough and so
is that the more important factor I mean
it's this interesting thing about like
you can say you're not breaking the law
or you like but if the police arrest you
you're gonna run in some problems and uh
in in another world I have used uh the
Minecraft trademark in an unfair way I
wrote a really bad book a long time ago
it had Minecraft in the title and as
soon as Microsoft acquired Mojang uh
they struck the book and it didn't go
there wasn't a legal Court battle we had
to fight they just have the power on
these platforms to remove things that
are against their will and so ultimately
even if we can say we all own the rights
is it actually true and this is the bit
where I don't like to say yeah all of
these new sites are talking about how we
own the end poem even the title of this
video is much more compelling to say we
all own a bit of Minecraft now because
we all do however do we actually here's
the here's the real information if you
try to remove Julian as the subject from
it Minecraft asked if anyone would write
a poem for them to put in the game
Julian said that he would he went
through a lot of technical processes but
they they did the thing together they
wrote the poem they both agreed it would
go in the game and how it would do so
and then later uh Minecraft paid Julian
20 000 Euros 20 000 Euros he didn't send
back because he said oh we haven't
agreed on this yet he took the payment
the consideration and he didn't ever
contest he didn't ever challenge he
didn't ever say he was harmed by its
inclusion in the game and so it would be
a real hard thing for him to argue that
Mojang didn't own the rights and it
couldn't legally go in Minecraft but
even so obviously it can't be he can't
sue them for damages that's why he's
never even considered doing so even if
he was that way inclined um so the more
interesting question is can he then take
the rights for this work and say they're
everyone's forever now can he abscend
his own rights to something so big
because make no mistake this is the
biggest thing he's done on his Wikipedia
page uh when it comes to like things
he's known for the the big thing that
comes up is creating the end Palm in
Minecraft this is what Wikipedia seems
to think is his biggest contribution and
that might sound harsh but if you check
his own Twitter it's also the biggest
thing he thinks that he has done and so
the interesting question as to whether
he can put those rights public is I
don't know let's find out what happens
however when it comes to copyright you
might think oh if I if I leave if I just
put in there I own a copyright I guess I
do however when Microsoft bought Mojang
just for a story to remind you that law
is not exactly how things are enforced
um I I had a terrible book I'm not that
proud of it but I wrote a book that had
Minecraft somewhere in the title and uh
Microsoft when they bought Mojang they
just removed the book from All Sorts
they they had that ability there was no
legal process involved they just could
strike it away because Microsoft has a
good relationship with all these
companies and so it was gone they I
didn't have to defend myself in a court
of law I didn't get to defend myself to
court floor they just decided you can't
do that and it's gone if you try to use
the end poem yourself or to ultra in
some way and Microsoft decides they
don't like it does it really matter
about the legal case of who really owns
it I think ultimately it would be proven
that yeah this is popularized through
Minecraft you know it from Minecraft and
so isn't it at least partially Minecraft
that you're referencing and you're maybe
damaging by stealing their poem I don't
know for sure how it would go in your
court in your part of the world I just
know that even though it sounds real
good it's also kind of not also this
this story gets kind of sad if you go
into any deeper because he put out a
donation page after the virality so that
people could give him money if they
liked the end poem and a lot of people
did and then that uh it turns out that
too many people donated so we got his
Paypal shutdown and even more
interesting is that he clarifies that
the money is like desperately needed
that he's been struggling with rent
otherwise and this is it's just the most
fascinating tale of like yeah this is a
story of art versus business there is
the interesting thing about how we own
Minecraft in there but if you look at
the entire thing it is the world of art
going up against the world of business
and it's a reminder that you should have
someone represent you if you make art
and don't care about business because
although you cannot care about business
all you like you do have to pay for rent
or your children's shoes or you know
keeping your family happy at some point
that is hopefully a lesson from this too
but it's also an important reminder to
stand up for yourself if you're an
artist and you're producing something
and you feel like it's worth millions
and you're getting 20 000 and you know
like you're you you feel like it you
would definitely be worth millions if
you just said it maybe you should just
say I think there's a really important
lesson in there um it's I'm not trying
to criticize the guy he had a great time
he went on his wonderful uh mushroom
trip and it sounds like he's all worked
out and happy internally however the
value in things like this is in learning
from past mistakes speaking of past
mistakes by the way I just to make sure
it's technically q a s day day one of
asking toy cat for seed Sunday to come
back seed Sunday is coming back tomorrow
I haven't been able to do it for a while
because honestly I found a seed that I
think just peaked seed sundae but I
finally found a few that blew my mind
even more this is the next level of seed
Sunday and it's coming tomorrow and then
the next one here is are you going to do
another 100 day stream to see if you can
get to 100 days this is my official
announcement that on December the 23rd I
will be streaming 100 days in Minecraft
but all 100 days a 17 hour stream on
December the 23rd it's going to be crazy
I look forward to seeing you over there
when that happens and so yeah this uh
whole story is an important one that
hopefully taught you something about the
battle between art and business and the
important way it is to be represented by
someone with your interests at heart and
also it taught you that you can
subscribe to this channel if you want to
see more weird Minecraft deep Dives this
has been a fun time and I hope you
enjoyed it because I'll see you in the
next one goodbye
foreign
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