€20'000 for a poem sounds like a pretty reasonable deal. Not sure why this guy thinks he deserves more. It’s not like it made a massive difference to the experience of playing Minecraft. I’ve finished the game several times, and I don’t remember a single word of the poem, just vaguely that there was a wistful poem there.
As for the legal fantasies, the email discussion about using the poem in the game and him accepting the €20k payment would constitute an agreement in most jurisdictions. But without a proper contract, the terms of said agreements are poorly defined, and since it was made between a Swedish company and someone apparently residing outside Sweden, which jurisdiction applies is even in question.
So his theory about the poem still belonging to him and Microsoft owing him millions of dollars are exceedingly speculative and would likely take years of wrangling to sort out. So yeah, renouncing your claims is probably the best option here.
A good lesson to all freelancers: Make sure you get a proper contract before you deliver the goods.
Never knew there was an end poem. I just build on servers with my kids. Played for about 13 years now. Author is delusional about his value vs minecraft’s value. It probably didn’t need the end and definitely didn’t need the end poem.
As for the legal fantasies, the email discussion about using the poem in the game and him accepting the €20k payment would constitute an agreement in most jurisdictions. But without a proper contract, the terms of said agreements are poorly defined, and since it was made between a Swedish company and someone apparently residing outside Sweden, which jurisdiction applies is even in question.
So his theory about the poem still belonging to him and Microsoft owing him millions of dollars are exceedingly speculative and would likely take years of wrangling to sort out. So yeah, renouncing your claims is probably the best option here.
A good lesson to all freelancers: Make sure you get a proper contract before you deliver the goods.