He's stupid. Just like his opposition, he subtly twists his case to make his point.
The copying != piracy argument really only works in a limited manner.
What 'Notch' seems to overlook is that music, stand-alone games, (modded Xbox and PS3, hacked PSP's etc.) and digital 'stuff' that isn't growing, is a final product.
Say I saw a friend playing Morrowind. I really like it and want to give it a spin. I don't want to pay for it, so I torrent it from the net.
Notch says I just 'made more' of what already existed, so it isn't theft.
I say I now own every line of coding that would be on the install disc in the box at Game Stop. I, however, got it and never paid for it. Getting a full operation of a product, without Bethesda getting money for it is theft.
I want some more Metallica on my iPod, so I just torrent it and poof. Enter Sandman all day. Aside from the agreement (or not) that Metallica has enough money and they can shove it. I now can rock out and I never paid them for the product they produce. That's theft.
It doesn't matter that no one lost property in the act, it matters that I now possess something that is sold in stores, but I didn't pay for.
If Notch is happy that 30% of the people who have registered to play have actually downloaded the game from him, then good for him.
I will admit, that I DL'd minecraft during the famous 'free-play week' a few months back where his registration server crashed (or something) but I never really did much with it. I've played it maybe 6 hours total.
From the quick research I did, there doesn't seem to be any way to log onto a public server without the stamp of approval from Notch, which you have to pay for. So all this talk about how he's OK with people pirating his game is fine because those that do and then don't pay him to play online are like me, literally alone in an empty, under-developed world. essentially what he's doing is allowing the pirated stuff to be his demo, and then counting on the appeal to draw in sales.
It's not much different than the F2P games, DL for free, play all you want, but you can't have a horse, a house, or get into that ultra-cool endgame dragon raid unless you pony up some cash.
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