My game was stolen and posted on NG

[TudiRad]

Hi there, I have a small problem. I've recently launched a game on my website, Posh Dressup. The game is called Desert Girl Dressup:

http://www.poshdressup.com/games/dressup -games/desert-girl-dressup-166.html

I've just noticed this same game was cracked and uploaded on newgrounds from the user "enjoydressup" - with MY logo, but their link (as well as a replaced preloader). Here's the link to the hacked game:

Oriental Dress Up, by enjoygames Type: Game Rating: Ages 13+

Now, I normally don't care about these pitiful hackers (unskilled ones even), but it's not very fair to keep the game on newgrounds and send him traffic. How do I report the user and take the game out?

Thanks a lot for the help!

[TudiRad]

I'm sorry, the use is "enjoygames" not enjoydressup.

[Insanimation]

Well, if you have adequate evidence, then PM Wade. However, he may take a while responding, as he's a busy man.

[TudiRad]

Adequate evidence? :D I think if you look at the two games it will be clearer than the soul of 10 mermaid virgins.

Thanks for the suggestion though, I appreciate it. Btw, didn't there use to be a "report game" button on NG before?

[LegolaSS]

At 6/3/09 07:31 AM, Insanimation wrote: Well, if you have adequate evidence, then PM Wade. However, he may take a while responding, as he's a busy man.

This... normaly these sorts of games are picked up as copyies and are whisled in under judgement... unluckly your game did not have that much prior knowledge and was let through...

PM wade as Insanimation said... along with evidences, links, and emails addresses if required... there is not really anything else you can do... sorry to hear about it...

[LegolaSS]

At 6/3/09 07:55 AM, TudiRad wrote: Thanks for the suggestion though, I appreciate it. Btw, didn't there use to be a "report game" button on NG before?

There still is... as i said above... the only time you can flag it is in the first 30 mins / 1 hour of it been put onto the site... while it is (under judgement)... during this time, if it breaks the rules, (aka porn, hurtfull, spawns popups or stolen) people will flag it for admins to check... hope that anwsers that question

[TudiRad]

Thanks a lot for clearing everything up. Unfortunately I had just noticed and the report timer passed.

I guess this problem won't bother me later on, but it's my first game, on its second day :) Kinda fun to see what type of business I plunged into.

[Thracian]

enjoygames has no reviews, BBS posts, news posts or other submissions and didn't even vote on something once.

[TudiRad]

I'm not that active either, but I think a regular NG user can tell a "ghost" account from a real one, even if it has little activity.

Anyway, I managed to contact the guys at enjoygames and asked that they remove the game from newgrounds, let's hope they keep they word on this. Also contacted Wade, but I can understand how he would have difficulty replying fast, what with all the similar cases and other community issues he's probably getting.

[mwmike]

At 6/3/09 11:12 AM, TudiRad wrote: I'm not that active either, but I think a regular NG user can tell a "ghost" account from a real one, even if it has little activity.

It's hard to find conclusive evidence, but a few of the things that you can point out to help you are things like:

-The dimensions matching up - A common feature in many stolen Flashes is that the dimensions of the Flash file, and what's been entered on Newgrounds, since most of the time users who steal Flashes simply save the SWF and post it elsewhere, rather than decompiling it and checking it's specs, which sometimes leaves the Flash scrolled in too much or with white borders around the outside. This isn't at all conclusive, but it often points towards thievery.

-Single users filling the portal with high quality Flashes - This may sound like a dead giveaway, but a crew of Flash thieves, named the BurstFilmsCrew did this a lot before their first deletion. They were submitting two (the maximum amount of Flashes that you can submit in a single day) very good Flashes every day. It takes a long time to produce animations and games, and it was obvious that the things that they were churning out twice-daily each took at least a month or two. Nevertheless, they got off with this for quite a while until a group of people (including myself, actually) finally got through to Wade.

-It existing on another website from a long time ago - Just because a Flash is all across the internet, on many other sites, it doesn't mean that it's stolen, but if a website has it dated back to a long time ago, then it's highly likely that it's stolen. An author isn't going to submit a Flash to Newgrounds two years after he's submitted it to other sites, unless in very rare circumstances.

These aren't the only things to look out for, but to help out Flash authors like you, who are having their content stolen, recognising that Flashes that show these things are likely to be stolen and doing a few checks across the internet in order to look for stronger evidence can make a very big difference.

[TudiRad]

Well they removed the game. (or NG removed it, or it got blammed after I made this thread, I don't know).

Your advice is good Mike, but in my case I don't really need that kind of detailed proof. I had my own way of leaving a fingerprint in the code that they were unable to remove, so I can see every move they make with the game :) This is how I found their NG submission.

Anyway, I managed to talk to the guys that stole my game, they promised me they will remove it and won't steal again. I hope that's true, but that doesn't mean I trust them.