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Tracing pirated assets

Updated on July 1, 2019 in [D] Game Dev. gossip
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2 on July 1, 2019

Hi everyone,

To avoid fights, bans or whatever else in this post, I would like to underline that I am currently developing my game for Steam release using free assets and self-made content.

But, out of curiosity, I would like to know how anyone could trace a pirated asset within a Unity game, after the game was published on a platform like Steam. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Unity assets come in files, not executables, so there is no “cracked” version per se. When you download a Unity asset, you get the asset package and you can simply import it into the game engine, so I would say that it is not possible to trace the source of these files (coming either directly from the Unity store or some guy who re-uploaded the asset illegally).

The same actually goes for artwork, 3D models, scripts and so on. How can one sue some developer without any proof of them not paying for the material? I did some research, but no luck in finding useful threads. Also, I am not talking about AAA material, which is easy to spot, report and have a DCMA over it.

Thank you in advance.

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Mouledoux 0 on July 1, 2019

Typically what people do is hide “easter eggs” in their art or code, so if anyone ever challenges them to prove it’s their’s, you can tell them something about the model only the creator could possibly know.

Code is really hard to copyright, because it’s so arbitrary and generic, but you can hide stuff in it very easily. Things like functions that don’t do anything, or cheat codes that are your name. Other programmers will probably be able to tell if code is your’s or not though because everyone has their own code style.

Art assets are the same way. Write your name in Morse code in a 1px line across the bottom of a texture, add a few extra polys that no one will ever see.

 

There is no built in solution to protecting your original creations. It’s up to you to make your work unique, and it’s up to you to find your work in the wild.

 

Honestly, if someone takes your work and passes it as their own, you’ll probably never know about it. Unless they make it big using your work. In which case, you’ll probably figure it out just running in the same circles at the thief.

And if they don’t make it big using your work, who cares?

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mitoand9 0 on July 1, 2019

I see. I also guess in the case of Unity assets for example, even if you manage to make it big, you could still say you bought it, while perhaps you just torrented it. And there would be no way of proving that you did.

In the case of artwork or code it’s a different story indeed

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