Treat Software License Breaches Like Scams

[Wvisoecj]

License breaches are becoming an exceedingly large problem in the developer and graphics portion of the community. I believe consumers should be held liable for upholding the terms of the license provided by the producer.

License breaching should be a bannable offense, as long as the consumer understands the full length of the license agreement.

If I were to release a free resource and it is being resold, I'm effectively being scammed out of the money since I provided a resource without receiving money for it.

License breaches are a huge turn-off for creators since there is no guarantee their content is protected. I for one have pretty much stopped offering my services except to mature consumers.

I think this issue needs to be address by the MCM staff since the Designers and Developers have both on separate occasions released PSA's about theft of their content.

 

[lAkjtzAZ0]

100% Agree. I've seen your resources resold as well as one of my sites stolen, not to mention the many times people have copied 1amDev and many other's sites. Really pathetic that nothing is ever done about it.

 

[VCRPlayer]

I completely agree. I totally have had all of my work stolen by lAkjtzAZ0

 

[lAkjtzAZ0]

I completely agree. I totally have had all of my work stolen by lAkjtzAZ0

yeah, I stole all your SQF scripts, forgive me

 

[CallumJP]

Although I'm no expert, I assume this has something to do with jacking the code behind whatever development you provide, whether it be a website, plugin, or anything along those lines. I was under the assumption you could report someone else's work by comparing the code to see if it's copied or not, but I could be wrong. Either way, this is definitely an issue in the graphics and even the building market. As long as safe ways are made to verify an actual licence breach, I see no downside to making this a punishable offense on MCM.

Podcrash Media hopes MCM staff put this into effect soon!

 

[Wvisoecj]

Although I'm no expert, I assume this has something to do with jacking the code behind whatever development you provide, whether it be a website, plugin, or anything along those lines. I was under the assumption you could report someone else's work by comparing the code to see if it's copied or not, but I could be wrong. Either way, this is definitely an issue in the graphics and even the building market. As long as safe ways are made to verify an actual licence breach, I see no downside to making this a punishable offense on MCM.

Podcrash Media hopes MCM staff put this into effect soon!

I wish to extend this to not just development, but designers, graphics, builders, anyone that creates unique content. Currently, the most you can do is post a thread about it and hope people see it. It's sad to see that by not having this rule MCM has cultured a community that doesn't care nor respects creators works. It's time MCM enforce this rule and remove the stigma that stealing is OK.

 

[lAkjtzAZ0]

License breaching is a bannable offense. We issue severe warnings that will without a doubt temporarily suspend or even permanently if they keep doing it, when a person submits a resource/service without the rights to. We usually verify those ourselves (at least on the resource part) to make sure that proof of ownership is provided and that the service/resource they provide follows the creator's licensing and/or permission is given.

He's not talking about people submitting resources to mcm, he means in general people on mcm stealing code and graphics and offering services with it.

 

[Wvisoecj]

The rule stands for any kind of service/resource, and it extends to code/graphics/builds,etc. It doesn't matter what you're attempting to sell, as long as you don't have the right to, you will not sell it here. Period. If you see any service/resource that breaks the rules, please report it and a moderator will take care of it accordingly.

EDIT: I seem to have misunderstood the point of the OP. It is impossible for us to verify and hold liable people that rip resources off. It is your responsability to protect your content, and we will make sure that none of your content is hosted on our site without your permission. Anything that happens off-site regarding that is out of our reach, with no means to verify nor hold people liable for it.

If I were to report a user for selling content their not allowed do, would I expect them to be banned or warned?

 

[axynos]

I personally can't represent more than the graphics community, which is why my post here will focus on that.

Not having much stricter rules about theft of content is insane. Although I am a new member of the community I have witnessed members, both new and old straight up steal content. I understand that it is practically not viable for MCM to check everything that is posted, but much stricter rules must be put in place for when such an act as stealing content is discovered.

-axynos

 

[Trending Gamer]

I got to agree with this suggestion although my work has not 'yet' been stolen I have bought work from 1amDev and it's been stolen by users on this forum.

 

[Jad]

we do moderate all the content that is posted. If you ever see any content that breaks any rules, please report it and a moderator will take care of it. We have strict rules against theft of content and we take care of it all the time. Most of you guys do not see that, as most of the content that represents copyright infringement is taken care of behind the scenes before it reaches public eyes. I guarantee you that we take care of it, and we do not treat it lightly.

I believe a rule similar to that one should be implemented:

5.5 Do not represent yourself using content that you do not have permission to use.

This would help prohibit the unfair use of code/graphics/builds etc. and hold the people using stolen or reproduced content accountable.

 

[Ivain]

I believe a rule similar to that one should be implemented:

This would help prohibit the unfair use of code/graphics/builds etc. and hold the people using stolen or reproduced content accountable.

That's already forbidden, I'm sure.

 

[Jad]

That's already forbidden, I'm sure.

Could you be kind enough to quote the rule that forbids this?

 

[MTG]

If I were to report a user for selling content their not allowed do, would I expect them to be banned or warned?

Nope, reported a user for copying a design of mine, nothing happened..

 

[Ivain]

Nope, reported a user for copying a design of mine, nothing happened..

Then maybe it was decided that it wasn't a proper copy, or at least wasn't theft.
If you report someone for selling something that is stolen, it SHOULD result in a 20 point warning.

 

[Mick]

I'll move this to pending, thanks for the suggestion.