Provision of encrypted music in the web games

[Rudrabhoj Bhati]

I bought the Humble Game Making Bundle. The licence agreement makes it mandatory to encrypt the audio files:
 

III. About Resources in this Materials Add-on Pack


The resources in TOWN & VILLAGE MUSIC PACK are created for use in game development only. Limited advertising use is also allowed, in the forms of screenshots, videos and other media used to promote the game.


Redistribution of material by itself is not allowed, regardless of whether the material is shared in part only or in its entirety. Personal edits of material are allowed, but they may not be shared with others via e-mail, file-hosting services or physical transfer (ex. By placing the material on a CD) – for free or for a fee.


Resources may be packaged with commercial or non-commercial games and shared as long as they are protected via some means of encryption.


You may not sell or donate the pack to someone else or sell a sub-license for its use.


Please see our FAQ: gamedevfort.com/faq for information on gifting resource packs.

I am using three audio resources from the 'Town & Village Music Pack' and one from the 'JSM Romance & Sci Fi'.


I am developing for HTML5, using phaser. The problem is mandatory encryption. Phaser don't support it. Only way to support fully secured encryption would be streaming, and then there would be endless issues if everything would actually work on all devices. Not to mention added technological hurdle to manage them and the performance penalty at mobile. Bandwidth issues may arise too if game is played long enough.


In the end, even if hypothetically a solution is invented, it would severely effect the player in the context of web games. And this would come at the price of not doing enough too, as somebody interested in stealing the audio by any mean necessary would easily record the audio. At one side solution to the encryption problem on the web would create problem for the legitimate players enjoying the game, and at the otherside wouldn't make the the bad-guys' work any harder.


Can an exception be made on encryption while including the audio resources with an HTML5 game?

 

[bgillisp]

It's interesting that they say that for a music pack, because even RPGMaker VX Ace doesn't encrypt the music files. Wonder how they intended anyone to actually be able to use those files for any RPGMaker game then?

 

[Rudrabhoj Bhati]

It's interesting that they say that for a music pack, because even RPGMaker VX Ace doesn't encrypt the music files. Wonder how they intended anyone to actually be able to use those files for any RPGMaker game then?

For desktop games, it wouldn't be an issue. For web, it would make a very wonderful collection of music unusable. And as I noted in the first post in the thread, even with the best encryption, somebody who really want to steal the music would just record it with audacity.

 

[Shaz]

I've moved this thread to MV Support (since that is the only engine that allows you to even create web games). Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.


The ruling on this currently is that you cannot use those resources in web games, but you can in games deployed to PC, Mac, Android and iOS.


The developers are planning to do something about audio encryption so that, in the future, you'll hopefully be able to use those packs in web games as well.

 

[Rudrabhoj Bhati]

I've moved this thread to MV Support (since that is the only engine that allows you to even create web games). Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.


The ruling on this currently is that you cannot use those resources in web games, but you can in games deployed to PC, Mac, Android and iOS.


The developers are planning to do something about audio encryption so that, in the future, you'll hopefully be able to use those packs in web games as well.

But Nathanial said RPGmaker products who don't even encrypt audio are allowed?
Besides, are you guys really telling me that you believe in 2016, encryption would give even a 0.0000000000000001% protection to the music? No, not even close to that small number. Don't take any action, let the background music play and start recording using audacity. Music is easiest thing to steal!


The question here isn't how to use encryption or if MV will support it (I don't use MV and only plan to use phaser and haxeflixel in foreseeable future). The question is, the clause should be removed and/or exceptions should be made for web games. It is hurting the legitimate users of the resource like myself and wouldn't make work of potential thieves hard even a bit.

 

[Lunarea]

We can't just change a license because it would be more convenient for a developer or a player. We have contractual agreements with our artists that we have to follow, both in their general contract and in their Humble agreement. I realize they weren't written in a way that makes it easy (or possible) to use in web-based games, but that's not something that's going to force writing a license update.


That people can steal the music even when it's encrypted is irrelevant. There's nothing we can say or do to prevent people from stealing resources, but we can ask the developer to make it less easy. This is what our artists agree with and what we want to enforce.


We do occasionally do allow license adjustments and give special outside-the-license uses to our material, but it's based on a case-by-case basis and not guaranteed. There is a contact e-mail in the license that will allow you to request that permission. Otherwise, hopefully there's another project you'll be able to use the products in.