Notch: DRM is used by evil companies

Notch: DRM is used by evil companies
Neon Kelly Updated on by

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Marcus “Notch” Persson has spoken out against the use of DRM, branding such systems as “futile” and “intrusive”.

“There are so many evil companies that want to control the flow of information because they managed to do so for 20 years, and they want to do it forever,” said the Minecraft creator in an interview for GameInformer.

“That’s not really how information behaves. Copying something on the internet is a free process, and it’s easy to do. You literally cannot install a game without copying. Everything is copying, all the time. Trying to control that is counterproductive.”

Notch believes that the relative ease and prevalence of copying is the very reason why current DRM systems tend to be so invasive.

“If you really want to control it, you have to have hardcore, technical solutions to it. So, you have futile attempts like DRM. It gets more and more intrusive… I think [the internet is] fine as it is; I’m making lots of money off it. Piracy isn’t stopping us.

“Sure, we’d prefer if people bought the game, but there are enough honest people out there. so, just focus on the honest people.”

Notch has aired his views on piracy many times before. Earlier this year a gamer from Panama asked him for a free Minecraft code on Twitter, explaining that they lacked the funds to buy a legitimate copy.

Persson told the user to pirate the game now, and to buy a copy when they had the money.