Question About Protecting Your Scripts

[Orgaya]

Say I make a script and then allow it to be used in others' games. But I clarify that it's not meant to be used for commercial use. Even slap the CC label on it. What's stopping anyone from just stripping the script down to its bare bones (like removing comments and such to make it less identifiable) and selling the game anyway? How would I even know that they're doing it?

 

[Llareian]

Short answer:
Nothing but honor stops them doing it, and you can't know unless you see it happening. The same thing is true for art resources that you release for non-commercial use. You just have to decide if you're more concerned with helping honest people or stopping dishonest ones.

Another question is, what recourse would you have even if you see them do it? You'd have to get a lawyer, right? And if they live in a country with more lax copyright laws...it seems like that could get tricky. I would think it wouldn't even be worth pursuing it unless it's a really popular or high-grossing game.

 

[Orgaya]

I guess that makes sense. Now that I think about it, the copyrights might be more for those popular games, so that the scripter doesn't get ripped off.

 

[sciencewarrior]

I am not a lawyer, but if you know someone is violating your intellectual property rights, you can send a DMCA takedown notice to the site/portal that hosts and sells the game. That said, the best deterrent is knowing that the gaming community doesn't tolerate this kind of behavior, and that if they are caught stealing code from another indie developer, their reputation — and sales — will take a huge hit. Some games have received hundreds of negative reviews on Steam for much less.