Community concern

[[aps]gnat 28]

I'm continently disappointed over the years in that a few long time community members are so free and easy about letting absolutely anybody know about the various somewhat dangerous rev er se eng inee ring tools that are about.

I'm not being elitist. Its just that we know there are rouges out there who want to rip / sell /modify both Addon Makers and BIS's own stuff.

You see them all the time, they have like 1 or 2 posts to their name and the next question (if not first) is "How do I convert this" or "Why can't I open that. Please help"

Happy to help a community member who obviously understands the the community code of conduct, but thats typically not someone who joined the forums a short time ago and shows limited history or engagement.

Interest in your views.

[wld427 1705]

I definately have to agree with this.

[PuFu 4600]

I'm on the same page with you gnat here.

I had a pretty long talk with Max about this some years ago. I used to provide information about how to unrapify configs in order to read them, how to extract model.cfg that sort of things, but never about odol to mlod conversion, or converting model files form O2 to external files (although not towards the very new ones around bif)

That was back in the day before dev-heaven was up and kju created the modding bible where the entire config for Ofp -> Oa are available, as well as rvmats and a lot more detailed info. I keep myself from sharing such information with anyone since A2 hit shelves, not only with new people.

More so, i always have a high brow when i see conversion in the thread title, or in the body for that matter. I understand that most people want to help, but there are lines to how far you want to put on the table. Surely someone who is motivated one way or the other will most likely find ways on his own, but then again, at least they found that out the hard way.

And if you brought this discussion, in the light of Martin's problems with a certain p2p community, what would be the perfect way to protect content? I am not talking about locking it down here, i am talking about general means to product one's IP, besides some form of EULA? Centralized signature files? Some other form?

[[aps]gnat 28]

Thanks guys.

Protection? Hmmmm .... this has ALWAYS been a tough subject here.

I for one am ok with the "approved" (refer to general requirements first post) people opening all parts of my addons, including p3ds ONLY for educational purposes.

I somewhat expect others in the community to allow the same.

But how to I control it so only approved people can do this? ....... near impossible.

The only hope is that if they have spent at least a few hard-yards reading and learning in the forums and months dabbling only with the basics, the community code has rubbed off on them and when they finally discover or get advised about the "other" tools, the trust won't be broken.

.... somewhat idealistic !

Buts as for real locks to keep people out or regulated ..... I'm afraid this may send the community too far the other way.

A few rouges come to town one day, or a mysterious theft happens, suddenly EVERYONE's afraid and locking all their doors. Trust is broken and the town is never the same from then on.

[sakura_chan 9]

It is kind of a non-issue. Everything released for Arma2 can be extracted and exported to other programs. You don't even need conversion tools, you can take it from the rendered game itself. There isn't really anything secret about it. Configs can't be locked because they can be viewed INGAME with that config viewer script. However, I can't recall anyone successfully releasing such a 'copy pasta' addon for Arma and getting away with it. The moderators do a really good job of calling out people who suddenly release professional quality models/models obviously from other titles. There is some proliferation outward from arma, I know the realism mod for GTA IV uses the choppers from Arma2. But who would lose sleep over ripping models from a FREE game? The only time it gets ugly is when someone extracts a model and uses it in a commercial product.

[PuFu 4600]

Gnat;2255957']Buts as for real locks to keep people out or regulated ..... I'm afraid this may send the community too far the other way.

A few rouges come to town one day' date=' or a mysterious theft happens, suddenly EVERYONE's afraid and locking all their doors. Trust is broken and the town is never the same from then on.[/i']

It is kind of a non-issue. Everything released for Arma2 can be extracted and exported to other programs. You don't even need conversion tools, you can take it from the rendered game itself. There isn't really anything secret about it. Configs can't be locked because they can be viewed INGAME with that config viewer script.

I was talking about otherpossible means of protection, besides beeing able to lock your addons. I do agree with "locking" being a bit useless for the motivated lad.

However, I can't recall anyone successfully releasing such a 'copy pasta' addon for Arma and getting away with it. The moderators do a really good job of calling out people who suddenly release professional quality models/models obviously from other titles. There is some proliferation outward from arma, I know the realism mod for GTA IV uses the choppers from Arma2. But who would lose sleep over ripping models from a FREE game? The only time it gets ugly is when someone extracts a model and uses it in a commercial product.

I do know that the community around here is pretty nifty about picking and then sending further to moderators content used from 3rd party websites or ripped from other games. This is a moot point, since i don't have the slightest worry about it inside the arma community and the websites affiliated.