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[Hound]

To armok: so the idea of spending literally 100s of hours on something, just to have someone else pick it up, use it and claim it as their own has absolutely no effect on you?  I mean, if that's the case, feel free to draw me some sprites.

To other guys:  Okay so like what kind of format do you mean?  I'm using SDL, so would I be able to find an image extension library thing for that kind of weird image type?  Cause I dunno if I have the skills to create my own image extension dealie.

[Armok]

If I were going to draw sprites ANYWAY, yes, then I'd let you use them, and in fact be happy the stuff I spent time on got to more good use! I don't do any sprites however, but the kinds of art I DO make, I am glad to share if someone need it!
The only reason I can think of for doing otherwise is spite. Spite is a Bad Thing.

[nbonaparte]

your encryption won't work. Screenshots.

[Shades]

But I was thinking about it, and I really have no way to protect them, do you guys think I'm worrying about nothing, or are people gonna jack my hard work and claim it as their own as soon as I finish this game?  I mean I'm not an amazing artist, but animations still take a lot of work, so I could see it being worth it to lazy people

Anything you put up will be copyright to you so legally your covered. Others have mentioned you can use a creative commons licenses as well which also works. If someone copies your stuff then they are breaking the law. (copyright infringement)

I was thinking I might try to come up with a simple encryption algorithm for my images, though that might make loading times a bit longer.

You can't actually protect assets of any kind unless you have complete control of the hardware they are output on. (And even then someone smarter will break it eventually, hdmi/blueray for example). I would say don't bother, it's premature to worry about it now anyway and you'll spend more time trying to stop it than it takes to do. If someone wants to copy your stuff they will be able to.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Unless I was actually making money off of an art piece or idea, I would let any other person use it for whatever as long as I am at least mentioned as the author. There's no reason to act so defensive about works that don't cost you much and don't disappear if replicated. And to your rebuttal, Hound, yes, I'll happily make you some free sprites if I have the time.

[GTM]

The greatest defense is excellence.

If your game is unique and awesome, people will associate the graphics with it and it only, and they'll mock/flame/boycott anybody who tries to rip you off.

That said, protecting your work won't hurt, and the research and implementation of encryption methods could be a fun learning experience.

[Shades]

That said, protecting your work won't hurt, and the research and implementation of encryption methods could be a fun learning experience.

Depends the lengths you go to. Take the current film and music industries, the illegal versions of the same content are far more friendly to end users.

A simple encryption layer wouldn't hurt much, although be utterly pointless, but more complex ones will slow loading significantly.

[Virex]

Unless I was actually making money off of an art piece or idea, I would let any other person use it for whatever as long as I am at least mentioned as the author. There's no reason to act so defensive about works that don't cost you much and don't disappear if replicated. And to your rebuttal, Hound, yes, I'll happily make you some free sprites if I have the time.

Point is that nearly everyone uses others sprites without asking any permission. It's not that you're losing money, you're losing control of your assets and with that, control of part of your game. It's not spiteful to expect people to at least ask before using something you made...

[Shades]

Point is that nearly everyone uses others sprites without asking any permission. It's not that you're losing money, you're losing control of your assets and with that, control of part of your game. It's not spiteful to expect people to at least ask before using something you made...

Which is why you state that they are covered by your copyright then it's a legal issue. Not that you would enforce it but a threat is normally enough to stop people abuse it overly. Besides this doesn't actually happen that often (compared with the amount of good artwork that could be infringed¹)

¹Is that a word? what is the correct term for this, I know it's not stolen despite what the MPAA would like you to think, illegally copied I guess.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Infringed means violated, IIRC.

Wiktionary confirms:
   1. (transitive) Break or violate a treaty, a law, a right etc.
   2. (intransitive) Break in or encroach on something.

[Virex]

To infringe is the right verb when it comes to intellectual property (it's not theft as you pointed out. Stealing art would mean stealing the physical copy and stealing a license would mean nicking all legal papers related to it so you're the de facto owner of the license. Copying does neither)


And while a disclaimer may dissuade those looking up your artwork on your site, it doesn't really stop people from copying it directly fro your game's folder, which is why many use a simple encryption. Breaking it is peanuts of course, as many a modder can tell you, but it does dissuade most of those who're looking for a quick sprite for their crappy flash game.

[Normandy]

Here's a simple 3-step encryption plan that will work for the rest of your life:

1) Download zlib: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zlib or bzip2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bzip2
2) Compress all your files into a gzip (*.tar.gz) or a bzip2 (*.tar.bz2)
3) Rename the extension and don't tell anyone

There you go. You've prevented the vast majority of people from opening your files.

Frankly, if you really feel that your art assets are that important or valuable (protip: they're not), then follow the advice of other people in this thread and license your artwork. If you're willing to put the time into making artwork, you should be willing to put the time into legally protecting your artwork. It'll always ensure that your name is tied to your work.

[qwertyuiopas]

If the image format starts with a few letters identifying the format, try exchanging them for a different format. It could be easily defeated with a hex editor, but will deter the most easily defeated potential thieves.

[Dasleah]

If I were going to draw sprites ANYWAY, yes, then I'd let you use them, and in fact be happy the stuff I spent time on got to more good use! I don't do any sprites however, but the kinds of art I DO make, I am glad to share if someone need it!
The only reason I can think of for doing otherwise is spite. Spite is a Bad Thing.

Not wanting someone else to capitalise and leech off your hard work without accreditation, recognition, or legal recompense if they were to make a profit off it is spite? Armok you are honestly getting worse at this whole 'being a reasonable human being' thing.

This is not about what you'd do in this situation. This guy wants to protect his artwork, for entirely valid reasons, and here you are being all "Well for superior sharing caring human beings SUCH AS MYSELF these petty concerns are trivial :smug: "

But being on-topic, yeah, obscurity as security is a policy that's always going to eventually fail, especially since no matter what you do, any screen-capturing software can easily circumvent it. Just license your work, make sure people can tie the original source back to you some way, and that's pretty much all you can do without going to some insane and pointless lengths.

[Sensei]

For animated sprites, a lot of people probably aren't going to screencap them and then re-animate them; if they're that lazy that they can't draw their own it's a bit of work. So saving them as funny filetypes should have you set.