gc8 977 Posted June 14, 2018 Lot of things has been said in this thread but I'm going to just say one thing. It's not that when I obfuscate the code that I don't release it for free. People can play as much as they want my missions for free. The only thing I'm trying to avoid is that some one takes my mission and change the author name and releases it as his own without even mentioning the original author. This is pretty much the only thing I'm trying to avoid. I don't mind sharing my scripts it's just the stealing of whole mission why I want to secure the code. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NeoArmageddon 958 Posted June 14, 2018 10 minutes ago, gc8 said: Lot of things has been said in this thread but I'm going to just say one thing. It's not that when I obfuscate the code that I don't release it for free. People can play as much as they want my missions for free. The only thing I'm trying to avoid is that some one takes my mission and change the author name and releases it as his own without even mentioning the original author. This is pretty much the only thing I'm trying to avoid. I don't mind sharing my scripts it's just the stealing of whole mission why I want to secure the code. Correct me if I am wrong, but one can still exchange stuff like authors name even if the scripts are obfuscated. Obfuscating is more geared towards making a scripts logic unreadable and making it hard to reuse parts. Obfuscation is not encryption. If you really want to protect your whole mission from being relabeled and reuploaded, your best bet is DCMA claims. Steam workshop makes this quite easy. Report an upload, include the link to your original release and in a few hourd the reupload is gone and the theft may even get banned from SteamWS. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dave_beastttt 135 Posted June 14, 2018 You can obfuscate parts of your code using https://simplicity-gaming.com/sqf/encrypt.html for free Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gc8 977 Posted June 14, 2018 49 minutes ago, NeoArmageddon said: Correct me if I am wrong, but one can still exchange stuff like authors name even if the scripts are obfuscated. Obfuscating is more geared towards making a scripts logic unreadable and making it hard to reuse parts. Obfuscation is not encryption. Yes they can still change the author name. The only thing obfuscating does is that none can make their own version... And I'm trying to figure way to protect the ownership 49 minutes ago, NeoArmageddon said: If you really want to protect your whole mission from being relabeled and reuploaded, your best bet is DCMA claims. Steam workshop makes this quite easy. Report an upload, include the link to your original release and in a few hourd the reupload is gone and the theft may even get banned from SteamWS. thanks for the tip! However I think it's possible for people to upload the mission outside steam because it gets cached when played so they can grab the file from cache folder Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gc8 977 Posted June 14, 2018 36 minutes ago, dave_beastttt said: You can obfuscate parts of your code using https://simplicity-gaming.com/sqf/encrypt.html for free That's cool but is there standalone version, exe, etc? would be lot of work to put all your code through that file by file after every edit Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tankbuster 1746 Posted June 14, 2018 I write naturally obfuscated code. Lol 2 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fn_Quiksilver 1636 Posted June 14, 2018 8 hours ago, Tankbuster said: I write naturally obfuscated code. Lol yes learning to write “spaghetti” sqf is also a good strategy. comes naturally to some of us 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
barbolani 198 Posted June 15, 2018 On 14/06/2018 at 5:57 AM, fn_Quiksilver said: i typed a longer reply but it disappeared :( but yes we stored many script components serverside to prevent re-hosting. we wanted a full 60-player server during development for balancing and tuning gameplay, and allowing re-hosting would probably have bled some of that community away. we ended up having a great community and a great 18 month experience and we were all sad when the time came to shut the server down, though running a community with hundreds of people does take its toll (and also takes away from dev time). modders already get close to nothing for their time (from the users of their mods), and people who have run populated arma servers would understand how scummy the arma community can be with respect to modders time/effort. thankfully there are enough good people in the community to make it usually worthwhile. This. Antistasi has around 110.000 Steam subscribers + 2 years of oficial servers and community. And managing that takes more time tan developing itself. Fortunately there are some community Friends managing some part of the tasks. Few tips: - AFAIK any kind of sqf code is, in legal terms, porperty of BIS. - Obfuscating it to avoid nobody use your misión is not the way, just make what fn_Quiksilver did if you want to focus the community in one server or plain and simple: don't publish it. - But if you only aim is to avoid someone pick parts of good ideas to do stuff (with credit or not) I must say you have done the same: did you born knowing sqf and how Arma AI behaves, and what to do to achieve everything in Arma? All your knowledge comes from just checking the commands list? Cmon. We all are adults here, don't lie, and your ideas, no matter what, are not that great and there are hundereds of ppl here (not me) that can do them even better. Your merit is in the creative side, not code wise. Anyone can unpbo Antistasi (read the disclaimer in init.sqf) and see, modify and even some people tried to just "make their own versión" which BTW lacked of total functionality in the end because I have been just faster developing and bugfixing. It's your hard work what makes you "owner" of the code. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dedmen 2703 Posted June 15, 2018 1 hour ago, barbolani said: - AFAIK any kind of sqf code is, in legal terms, porperty of BIS. No. You cannot protect a language. In the end obfuscation does more bad than good. We right now have a case in Arma discord where someone stole code and obfuscated it to hide it. The Author said some people already stole his code before. But he just DMCA'ed it if they did so and then they were gone. But with the obfuscated code he can't prove it. Only took about a day till it got deobfuscated by the community so that the author could get proof. So he can DMCA them now. But does it really need to be that hard to fight bad guys? This is driving people away from sharing anything, and hurting the entire community. We can be lucky that the great minds of Arma aren't obfuscating yet and are contributing to the community. What are you saying? You are also a great mind and are writing beautiful code that many people can learn from? Show me your code then. Oh? You can't because you obfuscate everything? Arma lives from modding. Anything that hurts the modding community is a bad thing. Stealing hurts us. Giving the thieves means to protect themselves is a dumb idea. Obfuscation would not be that bad if the obfuscation tool makers would take measures to prevent it being used for stealing. Just a little idea. This won't work for free tools. But the biggest problems currently are the full PBO obfuscating tools. Both biggest tools on the "market" are paid for. How about inserting a signature of the obfuscator in the files. And let people report ripped, obfuscated files of thieves. The obfuscation tool maker can then find out who stole it and missused their tool. And ban their license. If the bad guys wanna keep stealing and obfuscating stuff then they are free to buy the tool again, and thus provide more money to the tool makers. Win-Win on both relevant sides. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy Old Man 3545 Posted June 15, 2018 1 hour ago, barbolani said: - AFAIK any kind of sqf code is, in legal terms, porperty of BIS. So if Mozart composed a concerto for solo violin, the violin manufacturer becomes the owner? That's not how it works, heh. Cheers 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
