I’ve noticed a lot of people plagiarize and use image assets from other people in their own games – there was just another thread today about Plague Wars stealing loleris’s UI. Example:
EDIT: A much better/easier suggestion would be to give creators the ability to upload assets as unlisted so they can’t be found via the creator searchbar in the catalog
[strike]I suggest that any non-public images/audio, if attempted to be loaded in a game not owned by the asset creator, error (like the animation error “Content not trusted for this place”), and so people can’t steal images on the site, replace the preview with “Sorry – this image is not public.”. I don’t want to have to go on an alt to upload decals (even if I delete it, people can find it on the catalog with the search by creator feature), and I can’t even upload audio on alternate accounts because it costs Robux.
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This user is on the RbxDev forums, and seems to have made some pretty neat concepts (his horror game), so I think he was just trying to figure out how I created that, and inserted it into his place to test it (he wasn’t successful though :P) He also added me on Skype, so I’m not sure if he wanted to ask me how I did it, etc. I’m going to have a chat with him whenever he gets on.
This just creates extra work for nothing, because those other users can always re-upload the images as their own to get around the lock. All you’ve done is put up a taller wall, when it’s pretty easy for people to get a taller ladder. Keep in mind that it’s those local user’s machine that are requesting those image assets, not the game server, so there is no easy way to require an “authentication” of some sort on them.
Plus, no matter what we do it will always be possible to steal image assets: If nothing else by scraping them out of video memory, which is actually easier than you would expect. You just have to accept that a dedicated enough user will always be able to copy your client UI.
[quote] This just creates extra work for nothing, because those other users can always re-upload the images as their own to get around the lock. All you’ve done is put up a taller wall, when it’s pretty easy for people to get a taller ladder. Keep in mind that it’s those local user’s machine that are requesting those image assets, not the game server, so there is no easy way to require an “authentication” of some sort on them.
Plus, no matter what we do it will always be possible to steal image assets: If nothing else by scraping them out of video memory, which is actually easier than you would expect. You just have to accept that a dedicated enough user will always be able to copy your client UI. [/quote]
Stravant, you tl;dr’d again – as did you Ripull. Notice the portion in there where I stated that images on the site would be replaced with “Sorry, this item is not public” if it wasn’t public. The only other way someone could get the asset was if they ripped it from the game with CE like they do local scripts. How many people do you see running around with ripped local scripts again? That’s right – hardly any. Only intelligent people know/will rip scripts, and if someone is ripping an image/audio, they’re probably capable of making their own image/audio and won’t rip it in the first place.
I’d imagine keeping your front page free of stolen content to attract new developers is important. Priorities please.
“Only intelligent people know/will rip scripts, and if someone is ripping an image/audio, they’re probably capable of making their own image/audio and won’t rip it in the first place.”
How much Greek do you think “Video Memory” is to the people who steal assets?
“Notice the portion in there where I stated that images on the site would be replaced with “Sorry, this item is not public” if it wasn’t public.”
During the normal operation of your playing a game, your client will request the Image assets that are used by local objects in the game that require them. There’s pretty much no way to distinguish between what is a legitimate request from a client playing a game, and what is a user requesting an asset from outside of the client. And that’s even ignoring the fact that image assets are cached by the client for faster startup, if you know where the cache is you can just extract the image assets that you want from there.
[quote] This just creates extra work for nothing, because those other users can always re-upload the images as their own to get around the lock. All you’ve done is put up a taller wall, when it’s pretty easy for people to get a taller ladder. Keep in mind that it’s those local user’s machine that are requesting those image assets, not the game server, so there is no easy way to require an “authentication” of some sort on them.
Plus, no matter what we do it will always be possible to steal image assets: If nothing else by scraping them out of video memory, which is actually easier than you would expect. You just have to accept that a dedicated enough user will always be able to copy your client UI. [/quote]
You are 100% right on that. But we should make it harder to steal assets like that. Let them atleast make a effort to steal those assets. It is material that we created and I think that should be protected, just like our Places.
I don’t want someone to steal any images from ROBLOX.com that I said is not for ‘Free’, it if for ‘Free’, sure. But otherwise it is my asset that I created and I don’t wish to see on any other game the next day.
Could you please also see the ‘pros’ for once, intead of only the ‘cons’…
[quote] “Notice the portion in there where I stated that images on the site would be replaced with “Sorry, this item is not public” if it wasn’t public.”
During the normal operation of your playing a game, your client will request the Image assets that are used by local objects in the game that require them. There’s pretty much no way to distinguish between what is a legitimate request from a client playing a game, and what is a user requesting an asset from outside of the client. And that’s even ignoring the fact that image assets are cached by the client for faster startup, if you know where the cache is you can just extract the image assets that you want from there. [/quote]
Here’s something that may be easier to implement. Can we just have an option to make assets unlisted and not show up in the search bar, because that effectively accomplishes what was accomplished in the OP.
I don’t support this. Chances are, you downloaded your audio off the internet and I’d be glad if someone found a use for any of my images. Besides, If the everyone who steals images and sounds are not intelligent then they wouldn’t have a game to use it in.
You can make your images public if you want people to be able to use them.
I don’t want people using UI that I spent hours designing from scratch, nor do I want them copying and pasting audio which I / me / myself got permission to use from the composer – if they want to use it, they’ll have to contact him/her.
I’ve had this happen to my decals too… While I don’t believe they’re going to be anymore successful than myself with them, It does bother me a little bit. Simply not displaying non-public decals would make me happy, it’s entirely too easy to take them as it is.
[quote] This just creates extra work for nothing, because those other users can always re-upload the images as their own to get around the lock. All you’ve done is put up a taller wall, when it’s pretty easy for people to get a taller ladder. Keep in mind that it’s those local user’s machine that are requesting those image assets, not the game server, so there is no easy way to require an “authentication” of some sort on them.
Plus, no matter what we do it will always be possible to steal image assets: If nothing else by scraping them out of video memory, which is actually easier than you would expect. You just have to accept that a dedicated enough user will always be able to copy your client UI. [/quote]
This is true, but it would take more than just some skid to steal these assets. It certainly does help.
Stealing textures from GPU video memory is actually pretty easy with some helpful software. I used to rip a lot of textures from playstation 2 games with an emulator on my pc
Again, think of why people rip assets. If they’re too lazy to make their own content, I doubt they’ll put in the effort to research how to steal them, much less even know that a way to steal them exists. Most people don’t even know that -1 from the ID allows you to “steal” assets – imagine if you bump that to requiring extra programs and whatnot.
