Indie developer using my sprite edits in a non-free game

[insightguy]

Should probably implement some kind of system where it counts how many times a user right-click & saved as a forum image.

What would this solve, when a single local copy is all one needs to do anything? It takes seconds to throw something into a dropbox or private imgur album.

(Nevermind that it would almost certainly be called "comic book villain levels of evil" if done by anyone else. )

Yeah that would be like implementing a microtransaction system into the forums.

(You have reached the maximum amount of downloads you can do at the ZDOOM FORUMS, please pay 100 zbucks to continue downloading things from out site)

[Rachael]

Should probably implement some kind of system where it counts how many times a user right-click & saved as a forum image.

In addition to what others have said before me, that is simply impossible if you want the system to actually be effective. Many people have delusions about how HTML really works and that they can really block or even track such things.

The end all and be all of the system is simple: You see it on a web page, it's on your hard drive. Period. End of story. Oh, and every image you see is on some server admin's logs somewhere, with your IP address. Firefox and many other browsers are open-source, meaning you can install just a few developer tools into them and all of a sudden you have the entire page's worth of downloads at your disposal - without tracking.

Not to mention that such a feature would be dependent on JavaScript. I don't actually know because I don't track it, but I would guess at least 35% of users come to the ZDoom site with JavaScript blocked, and at least 50% use NoScript and can easily block ZDoom's scripts anyhow, making any tracking system ineffective.

So basically: It's a bad idea, I won't do such a thing, if you want to mechanically protect your work it's better off not published in the first place. Not to mention this is a slippery slope to the lair of draconian. I am hugely uncomfortable with that.

[Graf Zahl]

@Nash:

If it bothers you this much and can prove to have just cause (i.e. you can prove you released your work on a 'not for profit' license), why don't you try to DMCA the offending game? I know it's a hassle, but companies like Steam normally cannot afford to let these things stand, or they'd be in for a lot of legal trouble. In any case, the chances of this having an effect are a lot better than continuing this discussion.

[Rachael]

You cannot legally DMCA a game unless you actually own the assets to it - in which case Nash would have to buy the game and download it to see if any of his personal assets are actually in there (or in the screenshot).

Chronoteeth, however, can do that, since his work is obviously in the screenshots so he's got a case.

Remember the developer can contest the DMCA claim, in which case it falls to a legal battle, and well - since the guy is from Russia, it's very unlikely he'll ever see a day in court.

[Graf Zahl]

since the guy is from Russia, it's very unlikely he'll ever see a day in court.

That may be, but I wonder which court would be responsible in such a case.
I'd rather count on Steam not tolerating infringing content as per company regulations. Imagine what will happen if it becomes known that they let indie developers get away with publishing stuff they do not own the rights to.

Well, I guess we only can tell if someone actually tries.

[Rachael]

You can sue internationally and it's unlikely the guy will respond, which means you might win the case by default. Provided the guy actually gets a service notice. That, unfortunately, is a requirement.

Enforcing it, however, is a different story...

Come to think of it though, that might be one way to compel Steam not to sell that game - because even if the Russian guy doesn't have to do anything, I think Steam does. So that's something Chronoteeth could actually try. He probably won't be able to actually get any actual damages for it, but at the very least he can probably win a DMCA or two against this guy and Steam might actually ban him.

Unfortunately that's probably going to drop several hundred dollars in the bucket just for something like this, but it would certainly open a dialogue about this stuff which, in my opinion, is needed.

[Apeirogon]

stole my edit

I think that if you send report you stuck in question of what is was you work, like "from what quantities begins a heap?". Three is a heap? Or five? Maybe seventeen is a heap? Or 12! was heap?
Here, author can say "This if my own edit, change (17,28) pixel and (34,68), and...", or steam can say to you "you just noname with incomprehensible claims, we had more important thing to do". Plus in send STEAM report pages are line " I state UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY", and I dnot think this line there just because.

So you better think what you really want from steam and this developer.

[Rachael]

Your work is your work, even under sworn testimony.

The problem comes in when it comes to proving it in court, which often requires that the copyright be registered. But you will not be charged with perjury if no one can prove that the work isn't your's - as long as it is.

[Apeirogon]

Presumption of innocence works in round trip.
As long as you dont proof that you sprite boomstick is yours, this boomstick count as boomstick created by developer, in paint.
chronoteeth can proof that this sprite his own work by publish date, buuuuut...screenshots in court? Seems legit!(no)

[Graf Zahl]

Normally for graphics assets, if you have the raw data (e.g. high resolution Photoshop versions of your graphics) that'd be enough in most case if someone asks "Prove that you make it". And it's very unlikely that the perpetrator can do that so...

No, a verbal claim will not be enough in court - you'd have to back it up with actual physical proof. Just having the final released version of the graphic probably won't do unless you can prove with absolute certainty where it originated from.

[Apeirogon]

Then, like say one oriental sage Czin Shi Cihuan Di "It makes no sense run under rain, if you already wet"

[Reactor]

Presumption of innocence works in round trip.
As long as you dont proof that you sprite boomstick is yours, this boomstick count as boomstick created by developer, in paint.
chronoteeth can proof that this sprite his own work by publish date, buuuuut...screenshots in court? Seems legit!(no)

And what about the stolen Doom 2 assets? Those corpses are very unlikely to be his own work. When I saw it, my first impression was "Stolen Doom 2 resources? BAAAAAAAAAAD."

In Soviet Russia, resources steal you!

[Apeirogon]

And again "from what quantities begins a heap?".
Diabolist, recolored to red archvile with two horns, is original works or stolen sprite sheet with simple edit to hide frank impudence steal?

[Reactor]

Well, in this case, it is pretty clear that the dead Arch-vile is a direct un-edited ripoff, maybe with a very slight palette swap. This particular Arch-vile carcass hasn't the slightest edit on it.
It'd be good if someone could look into the game more in-depth...I remember Urizen's case with Space Trucker. He BARELY started to poke around, and found gigantic amounts of copyrighted ID stuff within. Wouldn't be surprised if this'd be a similar case.

[Graf Zahl]

Diabolist, recolored to red archvile with two horns, is original works or stolen sprite sheet with simple edit to hide frank impudence steal?

It's neither original nor stolen, but in compliance with the original license which allows use of modified assets, provided they are used with the game the assets originated from.