Scared someone will steal my music when I release a free demo

[Tsukihime]

There's another issue, and it's not whether you have a good chance of winning or not. As shown above, there are plenty of ways for the composer to prove its their own work. It's the fact that you have to deal with a lawsuit in the first place. It's time and money that you have to take out of your own personal schedule (which may even cut into things like school or work)


Along with the added stress of having to deal with all of this. The publicity that you'll get, the trolls and internet vigilantes that you'll have to deal with. Just because you can make a case, doesn't mean hundreds of anons aren't going to call you out for stealing someone's work and trying to pass it off as your own.


It's an easy way for someone to destroy their own reputation if they decide to engage in theft and then try to sue, but there are probably people that do that for a living.

 

[Gui]

Well, if things go to court, and if you win the case, then the judgement is supposed to include a compensation for your time and your energy. Of course, with "justice" being what it is, this may not be the perfect compensation but it still is better than nothing...

For the other cases, trolls and internet vigilantes, I can't say anything but hope that justice will learn to deal with such things ASAP.

Otherwise, and to approve what some of you said about not worrying too much on this to begin with, I think it is better to ignore these thefts: odds are very high that the thief will not do more money with your work than yourself, and as long as the theft doesn't prevent you to sell your work, there isn't a concrete prejudice to begin with, so why bother? One should keep in mind that copyright laws were made when electronic didn't exist and each piece was unique: if one stole it, the author was screwed, but now it is an entirely different story – of course, it is still irritating to see someone using your work without your permission but you have to ponder the pros and cons before starting a case: is it really worth it?

All the more as, if you notice that one of your works has been stolen, most of the time threatening the theft of a trial is more than enough to make him stop exploiting your work; if you need to insist, a cease and desist letter from a lawyer is cheaper than one may think and can do wonders. There are still the hopeless thieves of course, but usually even a lost case will not make them change their ways, so...

 

[Matchitza]

Yep, I'm kinda confused about that.. I kinda suggest you should just show us a video, we can see how is your game is from just videos. Most stealers are stupid trolls (who deserve to go to jail), and sometimes are in-game rippers who think they're smart by just knowing how to rip of someone's game content.. They're actually just STUPID! I mean come on? Stealing someone's game music, I hate people who just wants a demo and then stealing and claiming it as their own, I just hate people like that. Ok?

 

[GrandmaDeb]

The only encryption I know of is hiding the files using the hidden files function.  There's one other very unreliable method too but it doesn't seem to be worth the fuss.  It's unfortunately what we're going to have to deal with until someone figures out a way to encrypt music properly.

I wonder if it is an obligation to the people who sell music, though, to at least attempt encryption. Even though it is frightfully easy to rip music, istm that commercial music should at least have the appearance of the same protections that tiles and other art gets. [=

In this case, the one who claims to be the rightful owner has to give proof of his claim, not the other way around: you don't have to prove you're innocent, your accusator has to prove you're guilty. And like stated before the legitimate owner usually possesses the source files from which the piece is made.


...


Otherwise, I do know that french law accepts the time date of files burned onto CDs and DVDs as proofs because it cannot be altered afterwards; it probably works the same in most countries.

Metadata can be altered. A burned CD seems like a better alternative, but the metadata would still be suspect. In the US, a postmark used to be considered a legal mark, so the advise was to mail yourself a copy of whatever you composed and never open the envelope.

FYI, just as a note...Windows offers a "take ownership" option for files created and stored on your machine. I do this all of the time with any work that I output from my HDD.

This is very helpful information - thanks!


******************


It used to cost 10 bucks to apply for copyright of a musical piece.


But once an as yet non-copyrighted piece is performed, many rights are weakened. At least that was the way it was when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was younger. These days you can recover your rights to the Happy Birthday song...

 

[nio kasgami]

Estriole made a Audio Encryption system who transform your audio into data files 

so the people can't touch your song unless is uncompile  your game 

 

[Clord]

Cease or desist is double edged sword.


It's likely that if other guy desist, you are expected to proceed to court.


I'm not sure if you are legally expected to, but that is how it is supposed to work I assume.

 

[SongQueenSaeryen]

I am female. My avatar is Zuko because he's one of my favorite characters, that's it.

 

[Clord]

I am female. My avatar is Zuko because he's one of my favorite characters, that's it.

That's kind of random reply. I didn't read the entire thread but I don't think anyone called you a man.

 

[SongQueenSaeryen]

That's kind of random reply. I didn't read the entire thread but I don't think anyone called you a man.

Someone referred to me as "he".

 

[Matchitza]

lol

 

[GrandmaDeb]

Estriole made a Audio Encryption system who transform your audio into data files 


so the people can't touch your song unless is uncompile  your game

...or play the game and record the sound. Not right, but easy, like any rip. But at least you should show effort to protect your work, istm.


@songqueen - good luck with keeping that straightened out, but maybe it was a typo, lol.

 

[Matchitza]

Yeah, even though you can encrypt game data. Stupid rippers still have a resolution for their self. Record the audio throughout a recording program.. I'm also worried for my own project but, I made a warning in my logo screen saying "If you rip of in-game content, you will be considered stealing Enterbrain's data." Well, just to scare their selfs of