"Where would some of us be today if id had decided to encrpyt/hide everything from us? "
id also has pretty specific licensing details on their web site as to what & how you are allowed to use/license their technology. They make it very clear what they are giving away and what they aren't giving away.
It is also fairly clear (based on their commercial success) that they have plenty of money & lawyers to prevent anyone from swiping their intellectual property. See their license info (copied below).
In real life, I can't afford a security guard, cameras, dogs, etc. to protect my house. So I do the prudent thing -- I lock my front door when I go out.
Similarly: since I can't really afford to protect my game from poachers by hiring lawyers -- I'd like to at least do the programming equivalent of locking the door. While that may not stop everyone, it does let the honest folks know what their boundaries are.
That's why I think it is important to protect both art and code assets.
I've read posts on other boards from programmers who've submitted their game to unscrupulous publishers who took the game and published it with different art assets. While I don't think the correct attitude is to blame the victim, for myself I'd rather take some simple basic steps to protect myself.
One final thought as an example: One of my current programming tasks is writing promotional screensavers for other products I produce. While I want the artwork to appear on the user's screen, I don't want them to be able to access it directly. I also don't want to be fillng their hard drive with tons of files just for a single screensaver.
Thanks for the molebox suggestion! It looks like it is worth trying -- the author seems to fully understand the nature of the problem. There's a downloadable demo to try for anyone interested.
---
Example license text from id's website. I'm confident that they are well able to enforce it.:
LIMITED USE SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT or What You Can and Cannot Do With the Full Version of Quake III Arena.
CAN DO:
-- Play & enjoy the single player game;
-- Setup a full version based server on a not-for-profit basis;
-- Develop new levels and/or level creation utilities; and
-- Play the game and/or setup a full version based server using
a user-developed level.
CANNOT DO:
-- Commercially exploit the full version of Quake III Arena in any way;
see Commercial Exploitation License info below;
-- Commercially exploit any id copyrighted, trademarked or other property
Example: Game names, logos, game graphics, etc.; or
-- Sell user-developed levels and/or tools.
id also has pretty specific licensing details on their web site as to what & how you are allowed to use/license their technology. They make it very clear what they are giving away and what they aren't giving away.
It is also fairly clear (based on their commercial success) that they have plenty of money & lawyers to prevent anyone from swiping their intellectual property. See their license info (copied below).
In real life, I can't afford a security guard, cameras, dogs, etc. to protect my house. So I do the prudent thing -- I lock my front door when I go out.
Similarly: since I can't really afford to protect my game from poachers by hiring lawyers -- I'd like to at least do the programming equivalent of locking the door. While that may not stop everyone, it does let the honest folks know what their boundaries are.
That's why I think it is important to protect both art and code assets.
I've read posts on other boards from programmers who've submitted their game to unscrupulous publishers who took the game and published it with different art assets. While I don't think the correct attitude is to blame the victim, for myself I'd rather take some simple basic steps to protect myself.
One final thought as an example: One of my current programming tasks is writing promotional screensavers for other products I produce. While I want the artwork to appear on the user's screen, I don't want them to be able to access it directly. I also don't want to be fillng their hard drive with tons of files just for a single screensaver.
Thanks for the molebox suggestion! It looks like it is worth trying -- the author seems to fully understand the nature of the problem. There's a downloadable demo to try for anyone interested.
---
Example license text from id's website. I'm confident that they are well able to enforce it.:
LIMITED USE SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT or What You Can and Cannot Do With the Full Version of Quake III Arena.
CAN DO:
-- Play & enjoy the single player game;
-- Setup a full version based server on a not-for-profit basis;
-- Develop new levels and/or level creation utilities; and
-- Play the game and/or setup a full version based server using
a user-developed level.
CANNOT DO:
-- Commercially exploit the full version of Quake III Arena in any way;
see Commercial Exploitation License info below;
-- Commercially exploit any id copyrighted, trademarked or other property
Example: Game names, logos, game graphics, etc.; or
-- Sell user-developed levels and/or tools.