My LD entry is being stolen!
Posted by Zachary Lewis
August 30th, 2010 9:50 am
I have found a few game sites with my Ludum Dare entry, Money Thief as one of their games. They have published this without my consent, and I’m not sure how to get them to take it down.
A quick Google search for “Money Thief game” shows at least two sites with it featured as one of their games. The only site I’ve actually uploaded it to are Kongregate and my own site.
What do you guys recommend? I’m going to go ahead and site-lock my entry and my version on Kongregate, but how can I get these other guys to take it down?
Well, you can sure try contacting them, but I think the general rule is, if they see it, they take it. Most sites will take it down by request (most of them will ask before putting it up, in fact! Or like one site keeps doing to me, putting it up and THEN asking if that was cool). Sitelocking would stop them for sure, but it’s too late to stop the spread now. The trick is (again, too late) that you want to make the version you have up be one that you WANT spread around. Take advantage of the expected thievery. Full of links to your site, maybe with mochi ads or whatever plugged in so you benefit from it. Their expectation that they can grab it for free is not crazy – most flash games are intended to be spread around and built to benefit from it, so they could rightly think they’re doing you a favor by posting it.
But one time a guy beat me to uploading a game of mine on Kong, that was bad!
Upload a post-compo version that is site-locked and better in every way than the current one. Actually, I think you’re doing that already, so that’s not as helpful as I had hoped.
And it can’t hurt to send a polite letter to the other sites. Sometimes it’s an honest mistake.
What I can think of:
A) Site-locking, as already has been mentioned.
B) Lots of ads/links to your website. Make it clear where it comes from.
C) Possibly put a usage license somewhere in an “about the game” screen, which explicitly states “This game not for redistribution outside of sites Blargh and Foo without direct permission from My Name. If you are interested in hosting this game, please contact me at Contact Methods.”
I’d put in C) just so you had some ammo in case you need to go the legal route.
Just send them an e-mail. The sites are not as evil as you think, and will take it down upon request. A friend of mine had similar problems, and one simple nice e-mail was all it took and the sites all complied.
Thanks for all the advice! I wanted to keep my 48 hour submission pure (only what I’d done in 48 hours), and I didn’t have the time to “web-ready” it.
One of the main reasons I want it taken down is because I want my only version to be on Kongregate. They give my game a better experience (high scores and community things), and I can make 50% from the ads if they’re the only site I upload the game to. I suppose they’re still the only site I’ve uploaded the game to, but it still exists elsewhere, and that irks me. They didn’t even ask!
I would just try not to let it get to you. I had a flash game that was only available on my web site. It ended up getting top ranked for some google searches and I was making $100+.
Then suddenly I looked around the Internet one day and I found my game had spread everywhere. This was like 6 or 7 years ago when flash games had just started to get big. I had no concept that this could just happen like this.
I got into a big fight with out website operator who refused to remove the game. It wasn’t worth it. It’s not worth the heartache.
As others have suggested, try to find ways to benefit by the inevitable spread of the game, even if it is just to build your name alone, that is very valuable as well.
Ironic given the title of the game. Nice game btw, I can see why they’d want to steal it.