Im no an addon developer but i think if people steal your work its an ensurement that its good. This doent meen i stand behind people that do that.

donovan

A former member of our forums here was doing this on eBay. He is banned (after a lot of criticism, and his name going through the mud in the virtual aviation community). Frankly if you think a couple of bucks is worth loosing many friends, and excellent advice and help, well frankly

I understand that it is impossible to PREVENT someone from stealing one's work. However, it is possible to make it impossible for the pirates to steal without getting caught first.

Here is how I do it.

Since Gmax [and I use it a lot] has this Text feature, I am able to apply a "message of authenticity" to the visual model in Gmax.

Create Tab > Shapes > Text

Once you select Text, single-click on any part of the viewports and the Text appears. On the Parameters rollout, you can edit the text that you created.

Once done, go to Modify Tab and apply an "Edit Mesh" modifier and you're done.

I am using this for my Porsche. You'll see messages like:

"This <your project> was made as a FREEWARE package. If you were charged for this package, notify me at <your e-mail address>."

and lots more on various parts of the model. They will also be animated [ex: linked to doors, spoilers, etc.] so that they can be hidden and then revealed.

This should discourage the Pirates because it will reveal TRUE information about the addon.

Fretnstuff has hit the nail right on the head. The pirates are always one short step behind the security measures. Whatever you come up with they will neutralise it, sometimes within a few hours.

Mind you Katahu, I think you have a very good idea. Unfortunately, by posting it here, anyone can read about it.

Quote:

If an idiot like me can hex edit the MDL file of an FS2002 aircraft to make it compatible with CFS2 in less than 1 minute I suggest that anything is possible.

OK Katahu. Don't give all your secrets away.

I'm not a programmer & don't understand the MDL files myself. Anyone who does should be able to modify anything they like.

So, it seems that no matter how hard we try to protect our products, there will always be thieves.

There has to be at least ONE method that can protect our addons 100%. There has to be. We can't let those pirates take away what we worked so hard for.

Well, at least Microsoft never uses the mesh files [*.msh] as their primary model file for FS. Mesh files can be easily imported back to Gmax using a simple maxscript. I know from experience. The maxscripts can also export the scenes back into a *.msh file.

Orbiter uses the Mesh files. Therefore, there is a good chance that the addons might be pirated. But since Orbiter itself is FREE, there is no point in pirating such addons. I have YET to see ONE payware addon for this space sim.