Has someone got your game?
During the past couple of years I have witnessed a disturbing number of Flash game sites pop-up all over the Web that offer just about any game they can get their hands on. Some even go so far as to decompile the Flash game file to insert their own identification and website links to it. Many of these unscrupulous sites appear to be confused about who actually owns the intellectual property rights to the hundreds of Flash games they host; one site owner even told me that he/she considered the games to be in the public domain(!)
The fact of the matter is that hard-working Flash game developers all over the world are being ripped-off by sites eager to cash-in on the efforts of someone else. But there IS something you can do...
If you are someone who enjoys playing these often innovative and unique online Flash games, make sure the site you visit is well-respected among the game developers whose games you are playing. Make sure your visits are not supporting a site that has stolen the game from its creator. It is the least you can do in return for all the time and energy spent to create these compelling experiences for you.
If you are a game developer with a game that appears on a site against your will, first contact the site owner and request that your game be removed. By law they must comply. If not, there is something else you can do.
You, flash game developer, can also make your flash files a bit harder to interpret when decompiled - there are several programs out there such as the still-under-development SWFguard (http://simulat.com/swfguard/) which turn your actionscript code into mostly unreadable gibberish. Combine this with another common trick - make your flash file run only when a certain variable from a server-based file can be read, so that when it's ripped out of its original location, that variable will not be found and your game will not run.
Sadly, even when combined these methods will not stop those who are motivated enough, and, depending on the location of those gamesites, it all comes down to enforcing the copyright law.
I hear ya Jay. My game was ripped off by the kind people at arcadexl.com. They modified my game, removing the credits and using it to work with their high score system. It makes me sick that they could profit off of it.
I think sites do this big sites like Ebau--(won't even promote it) steal content. If the leading sites had any morals and started asking permission first, I believe that other sites would follow suit.
I'm glad you decided to make an entry for this type of behavior.
Is this really different your famous "click" link??
That javascript pop-up lets us play games without any ads, therefore no ad revenue for the game developper. I even noticed sometimes (when the site doesn't allow viewing only .swf flash game file); you resize the pop-up window to let users scroll and view only the game (no ads).
The favorites tool from JIG (wich I appreciate a lot) is an effective to play one's fave games and never go to the game developper's site.
Sure, you don't decompile the game, and always give a link to the game's site. And, JIG is probably a great place for "free advertisement" o
Some of the games you've reviewed have been taken and put onto some sites as well. Such as Gun Run and N.
N isn't even supposed to be free to play on the internet. That's just crazy...
I'm not sure I understand your comment, Oak, but N *is* intended to be free on the web. http://www.harveycartel.org/metanet/n.html is the homepage, and it's available for free download there.
I might have accidentally made a mistake in adding "free" to that statement. I mean to say that you need to download to play it. It's free shareware, yes, but it's not available on the internet itself in a playable, nondownloadable form.
At least, it' supposed to. Ebaumsworld has it in it's game list to play directly from the site.
As far as I know N is free download for personal use only. People who are making a profit off via ad revenue are breaking the license agreement. (But of course, when I checked the site I couldn't find that anywhere >_
Most portals make me angry. Even the ones that pay developers something with an "exclusive sponsorship" agreement have stolen content on their sites. Often times, it has copyrighted material in it (such as Sonic and Mario). It all goes back to the attitude that if you put it on the web, it is or should be free...
I'm also annoyed by the sponsership groups that HOTLINK to games on other people's website. They get the ad revenue, while the artist foots the bill.
太郎, link sites are a lot different than those sites. In all honesty, people STILL get money as long as the page is accessed. Not as much as if the ad is clicked, but how many people really click ad banners nowadays?
In addition, a lot of games on JIG are not designed for profit via ad revenue. A lot of the games on this site, people make games for fun, or to draw attention to their portfolio. There is no ad revenue on those pages.
Compare that to someone who takes the game and makes a profit off it. Go to a typical scum portal site, and count how many links it takes to get to a game. Everytime a page gets accessed with ads, ad revenue is created. I've seen people who create artistic pieces which they did for free and for fun which someone takes and makes a profit on. It would be like someone taking a drawing you made which was hanging up in your home, selling it for a millions of dollars and never telling you or sharing the profit.
Personally, I know of a few game designers who were quite happy their game got on to JIG, because of the increased traffic, or gave them some feedback.
Wow! Thanks for that Jay, I've been wondering what to do about this problem... luckily most of the games on our site aren't flash based.
To comment to Will's post - I think the difference with JIG is the good people here actually have a passion for the games, and the visiblity helps the developer's themselves. Most of the adsites don't even seem to play the games they steal.
Half of the time, these crooks just frame in someone else's site. That way they aren't just stealing the game, but the bandwidth costs, too.
Encrypting your SWF's programming code keeps some of the hackers away, but you also need to ensure that your SWF will only run on your approved list of servers. That will keep most of the lazy folks away who only know how to copy files out of their cache and post them. If you don't detect that it's running on a valid server, bounce them to your homepage, or better yet, bounce them to copyright.gov. :)
ebau*'s world should go down in flames. I think you could convince a sizeable population to get them rocked. Oh, plus the place just sucks bigtime.
Wiil, yay I know.
That was just a little provocation
PS. My name is tarou
Tarou - The topic of this discussion is very different than what we provide with the javascript 'click' link.
When reviewing and linking to a game, we go out of our way to ensure that we present games only from sites authorized by the game author to host the game. Ideally, I look for the game on the authors' own site and pop-up the page the author has prepared for the game. Many times I will contact the author directly to find out where the game actually 'lives'. Recently I have also reached agreements with some to host the games myself, though this is more the exception than the rule.
If all the other sites out there acted as responsibly as we do here at JIG, this would not be an issue.
For the record, I have been contacted by a great number of game developers, some whose game(s) we have reviewed and others who wish us to review their games, offering their appreciation and support for what we do.
An idea for your left bar, Jay:
Casual Blacklist
(Why?)
someevilsite.com
Take action
<div style="background-color: #000000; color: #FFFDDF" >
<center><b>Casual Blacklist</b></center>
<center><font size="-2"><a href="whyblacklist.html">(Why?)</a></font ></center>
<ul><li>someevilsite.com</li></ul>
<center><b><a href="send_an_email_to_evil.php">Take action</a></b></center>
</div>
Visibility is good.
And though it shouldn't need pointing out- the blacklist domain list should NOT contain clickable links.
This is something I've been worried about lately. I run a game review site, but I don't have the time to research the game sites the game appears on. I find the game and talk about it, but I don't know if the game came from that site, or should I say, is the property of the site.
So I might suggest that not only contacting the site the game appears on, but also contacting any sites that the game is reviewed on or linked to, may be a good idea. I know I would change the link to the correct place if someone were to contact me about it.
I think that this word needs to get out. We should make banners and pop-ups of this, not whether should marijuana be legal. We need to tell other web sites to post the same bulletin.
Or maybe im just overreacting because i love flash games...and Jay's site.
Crazed gamer,
Naymlis
N is for personal use (playing)!!! It is made by Metanet Software (http://www.harveycartel.org/metanet/)And its only for download not for online playing.And the Best N is free!!!
Okay, Tarou.
(My Kanji reading is horrible nowadays...)
Jarod - While a blacklist may be a good idea for an organization like the IDSA or the EFF to take on, I'd rather this site stick to what it does best: promote excellence in casual games and gameplay.
It's one thing to empower those who may have been violated with information that could help them. It's quite another to take a stand against anyone or any site in particular. I wish not to make enemies; just friends. =)
Hi Jay, How about simply a single permanent link to this post in your sidebar? That way the information is still easy to find, without cluttering up the sidebar or changing the focus of your site into blacklisting.
That sounds doable, Christine. Cheers for the suggestion! =)
ROCK ON. If there's anything I can't stand it's people who think the internet is just a free-for-all grab fest. I've seen a ridiculous amount of images, games and other media blatantly stolen over the years. Here's another site that may be of help. http://www.ripperhunting.com/
I once found one of my games hosted on another site without my permission. Fortunately they had not changed the name or copyright details. But the game was a little screwed up. Since most of my stuff is dhtml, to steal a game the offender has to download all the images. They missed a couple, so the game had some image place holders flying around the screen. That bugged me because my name was still attached to the game. It made the game look unprofessional.
Jay: I can definitely understand that feeling- it can be a daunting task to start a crusade like that, and can even feel like you're lowering yourself to 'their' level. But it might be worth adding a few of the more reputable orgs applicable to this issue- ebaumsworldsucks.com springs to mind, but that's definitely your judgement call.
A little research reveals, btw, that Ebaum seems to have removed almost everything ebaumsworldsucks.com referred to originally- but it took them something like 7 months to do it, iirc.
Jay, the problem is not so much evil sites but rather their audience. Virtually no one cares for the legal issues surrounding the internet games they play. The solution is to educate gamers rather than to go on a crusade against rogue sites.
You definitely do your share on this subject (you post regularly on this issue, always encourage people to buy full versions when applicable...).
linking to this post could be somewhat reductive. How about putting up a static page where you can explain the situation in detail?
Vozome the problem with your plan is that there are millions of gamers and dozzens of sites. The sites are easier by far to tackle.
i've never used it, but mochibot is supposed to help you track where your flash content is being used, which may be helpful in locating sites pirating your content. http://www.mochibot.com/
I totally agree with wozone. Jay, the best way to encourage the official website, is to link to them as you always do.
We must not forget that some game developers authorize their game to be hosted by any website (without decompiling it of course) as their goal is to be played as much as possible. But most of the flash pirate don't ask for authorization. I must say that ebaoumsworld is always replying to contacts and delete the page if there is a problem.
Other websites like i-am-bored and minijuegos don't reply, and make incredible audiences (and money of course) with our games without being anoyed by anybody.
I confirm that mochibot is an excellent tool but it wont prevent any flash pirate to decompile your swf and cut the mochibot code. Mochibot can track the different hosts but can't prevent them to host your games.
Mochibot is indeed a useful tool to track Flash games, and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jameson of Mochimedia during GDC to hear about their efforts in this area to help Flash game developers.
They are a couple of weeks away from releasing a new in-game rating and commenting feature, which I will announce in an upcoming article about Mochimedia's products. So check back in a couple of weeks.
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