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Stealing Levels

PostPosted: April 14th, 2011, 5:28 pm
by JStunn
When you post levels online, why can others see the code? They can copy-and-paste the code to steal the levels and claim it as their own!

Re: Stealing Levels

PostPosted: April 15th, 2011, 5:35 pm
by TheExcavator
Yeah, I saw how you have had a couple of good works taken from you. If it happens again just post here, and the level mods should take care of it: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6039

(Shouldn't this be in the level designer forum, and not the general forum.)

Re: Stealing Levels

PostPosted: April 16th, 2011, 12:01 pm
by Master1.0
Trust me kid. TONS of other people on this site have levels stolen from them.

Re: Stealing Levels

PostPosted: April 16th, 2011, 3:34 pm
by AwesomeJRFD
Master1.0 wrote:Trust me kid. TONS of other people on this site have levels stolen from them.


For example: Me, Runouw, Star King, Mr_SaxMan, Master1.0, Worst Master, Koopa Parayoshi, etc.

Re: Stealing Levels

PostPosted: April 17th, 2011, 4:17 pm
by sirknightingfail
Who stole your levels?
Way to prevent level-stealing: make it so that the person cannot use the code, or put an undefined tile that glitches after the code is used once.

Re: Stealing Levels

PostPosted: April 17th, 2011, 4:23 pm
by AwesomeJRFD
How about levels can't be posted that have a similar code to another users level unless there s a special feature that automatically puts "Credit for original level goes to: [uesrnameoforiginallevelmakerhere]" in the description of the level.

Re: Stealing Levels

PostPosted: April 17th, 2011, 5:01 pm
by Runouw
I think the best way for me to fix this would be to remove the copy-paste ability from playing levels. However, this method of playing levels seems to be preferred over most others.

I think in the future, I will make a very tricky encryption algorithm that obfuscates the code so that only the game can read it. You won't be able to steal levels because the game will know you are loading an encrypted level and won't let you save changes to it. Also, the level portal won't accept the encrypted version. You will only be able to post a level if you have the original copy of the code.
Now the fun part will be figuring out how to make one that no one else can figure out how to decode....

Re: Stealing Levels

PostPosted: April 17th, 2011, 6:02 pm
by sirknightingfail
change it to the encrypt option or put it in notepad 1990 or something like that. otherwise, just make it be saved as a file that can only be opened by SM63

Re: Stealing Levels

PostPosted: April 17th, 2011, 8:38 pm
by AwesomeJRFD
Runouw wrote:I think the best way for me to fix this would be to remove the copy-paste ability from playing levels. However, this method of playing levels seems to be preferred over most others.

I think in the future, I will make a very tricky encryption algorithm that obfuscates the code so that only the game can read it. You won't be able to steal levels because the game will know you are loading an encrypted level and won't let you save changes to it. Also, the level portal won't accept the encrypted version. You will only be able to post a level if you have the original copy of the code.
Now the fun part will be figuring out how to make one that no one else can figure out how to decode....


You don't have to make it that hard, because people who steal levels don't have the patience to create their own level. Therefore, they won't even have the patience to figure out the code as it is now. So you don't have to make the code so hard, that it's more work for you, causing huge delays. And what if someone wants to use someone else's level as a template and they have permission? how about an option that lets submitters decide whether people could use their code or not. JRFD-EDIT: Maybe they could just PM them the level.

Also, are you using this encryption technique in the Last Legacy level portal?

And shouldn't this topic be in the Level Designer Forum?

Re: Stealing Levels

PostPosted: April 17th, 2011, 8:44 pm
by sirknightingfail
new reccomendation for encryption: pure binary! 101010001010111010101011101100010101010111101010001010111011001101011101010010101

I have no idea what that is