A Kickstarter campaign recently went up for a fan made movie based in the world of Minecraft, titled “Birth of a Man: A Minecraft Film.” This film had a funding goal of $600,000 dollars, and it seems like they jumped the gun as far as both Notch and Mojang are concerned.

The team behind the proposed movie was made up of talented Youtubers, namely Brandon Laatsch, a graphics artist whose effects have appeared in the videos on the various popular Youtube channels. Laatsch touted the movie’s style as “physically constructed Minecraft-style blocks and premier visual effects to tell a story of adventure, revenge, and creation – the likes of which has never been seen before.”

After the campaign earned roughly $63,000 in pledges, it was quietly cancelled by Kickstarter at the behest of both Mojang and Markus ‘Notch’ Persson. Notch took to twitter to elaborate on why they blocked the kickstarter:

“We don’t allow half a million kickstarters based on our ip without any deals in place. :/”

In the “Why Kickstarter?” section of the Birth of a Man’s Kickstarter page, Laatsch confirms that Mojang owns the Minecraft intellectual property, and yet he said he believed that he would be able to “take certain creative license” with the property as many have done before across various medium.

Clearly, Notch and his team are not in agreeance with him, as they shot down his kickstarter. Do you think they were justified in shooting down his project? Should Laatsch have proposed a deal with Mojang before launching his half a million dollar campaign?