Piracy

[Katahu]

For those of you who are add-on developers, you know how frustrating it is to see someone steal your work.

In your opinions, what is the best way to ensure that your product has the least chance of being pirated? Other than never releasing it.

I have my own idea, but I'll discuss it later. Besides, I wanna hear your opinions first.

[Donnie111]

Im no an addon developer but i think if people steal your work its an ensurement that its good. This doent meen i stand behind people that do that.

donovan

[Hagar]

Although this was a few years ago I have seen CDs on sale in my local software store containing Freeware aircraft downloaded from sites like SimV. They were professionally packaged in such a way that would appear to be an official M$ addon to a casual customer. A friend of mine purchased one example under this misapprehension which is how I found out about it. The aircraft were configured to auto-install but still contained the authors' original documentation. There is no way of preventing this sort of thing.

I helped to get this particular example removed from the shelves in the UK. That doesn't affect other countries or stop the pirates repackaging it & selling it under a different name.

[ozzy72]

A former member of our forums here was doing this on eBay. He is banned (after a lot of criticism, and his name going through the mud in the virtual aviation community). Frankly if you think a couple of bucks is worth loosing many friends, and excellent advice and help, well frankly

[Ivan]

it's sad that FSTipster passed away while his anti-fsplanet movement got some momentum.

[Katahu]

I understand that it is impossible to PREVENT someone from stealing one's work. However, it is possible to make it impossible for the pirates to steal without getting caught first.

Here is how I do it.

Since Gmax [and I use it a lot] has this Text feature, I am able to apply a "message of authenticity" to the visual model in Gmax.

Create Tab > Shapes > Text

Once you select Text, single-click on any part of the viewports and the Text appears. On the Parameters rollout, you can edit the text that you created.

Once done, go to Modify Tab and apply an "Edit Mesh" modifier and you're done.

I am using this for my Porsche. You'll see messages like:

"This was made as a FREEWARE package. If you were charged for this package, notify me at ."

and lots more on various parts of the model. They will also be animated [ex: linked to doors, spoilers, etc.] so that they can be hidden and then revealed.

This should discourage the Pirates because it will reveal TRUE information about the addon.

[Politically Incorrect]

That sounds like a good idea, but if it is that easy for you to put a message on there wouldn't be just as easy for a pirate to remove it?
That is like the "watermark" on most pictures found on the web, all it takes is a little "editing" and it is gone.
I'm no developer but am interested in how it is done and what can be done to protect your work!!

[Hagar]

Fretnstuff has hit the nail right on the head. The pirates are always one short step behind the security measures. Whatever you come up with they will neutralise it, sometimes within a few hours.

Mind you Katahu, I think you have a very good idea. Unfortunately, by posting it here, anyone can read about it.

[BFMF]

If it's in the mdl file, I don't think it's possible to change it

[Hagar]

If it's in the mdl file, I don't think it's possible to change it

If an idiot like me can hex edit the MDL file of an FS2002 aircraft to make it compatible with CFS2 in less than 1 minute I suggest that anything is possible.

[Katahu]

Well Hagar. I don't mind speaking out my little idea.

Besides, what if I have an even better and I'm not telling you about it.

I have a question about the Hex editor.

How can anyone change the physical shape and geometry of any visual model with the editor?

I tried the editor before, but I hated it because it showed nothing but numbers, numbers, and more numbers. And all that was like Greek to me.

I don't believe it's ever possible to change the geometry of the visual models with the hex editor. I still believe that in order to edit the model, you still need the source file and then export it when you're finished.

[Hagar]

OK Katahu. Don't give all your secrets away.

I'm not a programmer & don't understand the MDL files myself. Anyone who does should be able to modify anything they like.

[Stratobat]

You can't really protect your work if it's released as freeware.

Once it's out there... it's out there!

I know some guys put their names in their textures and panels. Some guys write it into the airfiles and panel.cfg files, but all these can be modified, resulting in the copyright been striken from the files.

I've even seen names in MDL files, but this to can also be altered, deleted or even replaced.

How can anyone change the physical shape and geometry of any visual model with the editor?

I'm not sure , but if a person has a sound knowledge of Hex Editing, I'm sure anything is possible.

Regards,
Stratobat

PS: If you've got the source files, it's a different ball game

[Katahu]

So, it seems that no matter how hard we try to protect our products, there will always be thieves.

There has to be at least ONE method that can protect our addons 100%. There has to be. We can't let those pirates take away what we worked so hard for.

Well, at least Microsoft never uses the mesh files [*.msh] as their primary model file for FS. Mesh files can be easily imported back to Gmax using a simple maxscript. I know from experience. The maxscripts can also export the scenes back into a *.msh file.

Orbiter uses the Mesh files. Therefore, there is a good chance that the addons might be pirated. But since Orbiter itself is FREE, there is no point in pirating such addons. I have YET to see ONE payware addon for this space sim.

[Ivan]

When i had FS 5.1 (my first MS flightsim) i changed the black-and-brown colorscheme of the DC-9 addon (the one with the realistic FDE) to the Alitalia (green-red) one that was on the original version (learjet that looked like a DC-9) with a HEX editor. Sounds more difficult than it actually was as the color information was quite visible when switching between both files.