Torchlight art assets stolen, used in iOS game Armed Heroes

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/torchlight-art-assets-stolen-used-in-ios-game-armed-heroes-20120717/

by ukdm • 14 years ago

120 74 14 years ago

geek.com

bradleyland• 14 years ago

> "Unfortunately, there is little else that anyone except Apple can do."

Game art falls under copyright, doesn't it? Couldn't the author go after them for infringement?

miahi2• 14 years ago

It's probably not easy/cheap to win an infringement case in China.

EvilTerran• 14 years ago

It's an iOS game -- doesn't that mean it's distributed through Apple, so they'd be able to pull it in response to a notice of copyright infringement?

mattmanser• 14 years ago

Wouldn't the jurisdiction be Canada? As that's where they're selling it.

mille562• 14 years ago

It seems like a DMCA takedown notice would work in this situation. Anyone have a reason why that would not be a valid method?

Zimahl5• 14 years ago

It should definitely be valid. Apple should pull down the app until EGLS can disprove infringement, and if Apple doesn't they are just as liable.

knowtheory3• 14 years ago

That's not how the DCMA works however. The purpose of the DCMA is accountability not enforcement (when it comes to the Safe Harbor provision).

Runic can, through the DCMA ensure that the content is either taken down, or they are put in touch with the party they assert are infringing. From there on out, it is the responsibility of the two parties to work out, as far as the DCMA is concerned.

That said, Apple can do whatever they like with their platform, and show little compunction about doing so.

I'm reminded of all of the cyberpunk Gibsonian/Stephensonian worlds where governments have given way to governance by and for corporations. Welcome to the future.

biot2• 14 years ago

Let's say you wrote a game. Someone could copy the assets, release their own game and claim infringement against you. You're saying Apple should pull your game until you can disprove infringement? That doesn't sound reasonable.

drewcrawford• 14 years ago

Speaking from direct personal experience with DMCA takedowns in the app store specifically, Apple threatens the developer with removal of the app from the store but does not actually do it for at least the first 30 days of the complaint.

In order to qualify for safe harbor protections, Apple must take down content "expeditiously." So I'm under the impression that they actually waive the DMCA harbor entirely, and decline to process requests. IANAL, and Apple has much better lawyers than I do, so it's possible that "expeditiously" means something other than what I think it means.

nates• 14 years ago

i dont see it up anymore...

kqr2• 14 years ago

Link to game still works for me:

http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/armed-heroes-online-3d-mmorpg...

aquanext• 14 years ago

This is hilarious: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=144793

glass-3• 14 years ago

They're trying to justify their wholesale reuse of audio-visual assets by pointing out that a game created by Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer and Travis Baldree uses ideas from previous games they created. That has to be a joke.

pwny• 14 years ago

Not defending the guy because they obviously stole the assets (the file names are the final nail in the coffin) but that's not his argument.

He's claiming that they didn't copy the assets but inspired themselves from them. He's claiming that they (just like everyone else) are building upon the shoulders of giants.

That argument is perfectly valid, until the accusing party pulls your files named after their own bosses (carrying the typos along too). At that point, you've pretty much been proven wrong.

talmand2• 14 years ago

The really funny part is where they accuse Runic Games of "borrowing" ideas from Wild Tangent's Fate, which is similar to Torchlight. They even say they could conclude that Torchlight blatantly ripped off Fate. For those that don't know, the reason it's funny is because Travis Baldree, one of the founders of Runic Games, is also the creator of Fate.

0x0• 14 years ago

I don't know, I think the part where they are caught with a bunch of identical .wav files - even including identically misspelt file names - is pretty good too :)

tptacek• 14 years ago

"Stolen"? What do you mean, "stolen"? Torchlight still has its assets, right? That's not "stolen"!

okamiueru• 14 years ago

Don't be pedantic.

pygy_• 14 years ago

I think Thomas is being sarcastic.

potatolicious• 14 years ago

I think his comment is tongue-in-cheek - noting that when it comes to piracy we like to get pedantic about the difference between infringement and theft, but when we're holding the short end of the stick we'll gladly assign whatever label we please.

MichaelGG• 14 years ago

While I feel you might be mocking the folks that use this when calling pirating a movie "stealing", your point is still valid. Saying "stolen" serves only to sensationalize what happened. Saying "rips off" or "copies" would be more accurate.

As to why some people apparently feel more comfortable saying "stolen" in this case versus people sharing MP3s: There's an obvious qualitative difference between people sharing files, and someone passing work off as their own, especially when profiting from it. From what I can tell, it's the whole plagiarism part that really pisses people off.

eridius2• 14 years ago

I think it's twofold. You've got it right that the plagiarism is probably the biggest reason, but the other reason is that they're using this "stolen" material for their own personal gain. If I download some MP3s and listen to them myself, there's no personal gain (besides the literal gain of having the MP3, of course). If I download some MP3s and put them in my product, now I'm illegally benefitting from someone else's work. I would be willing to call that stealing the MP3s even if I'm not trying to pass the MP3s off as my own creation.

Dylan16807• 14 years ago

Yep. I'm upset with this but I hadn't even considered the reproduction aspect. It's the fact that they're using the models in their own thing.

If they were just sending out verbatim copies of torchlight without profit then it would be a different issue.

tikhonj3• 14 years ago

Based on your comment history you're probably just being sarcastic.

That said, I agree with your point even if you probably don't: using the wrong word in the wrong place is not a good thing. Conflating copyright infringement with theft is bad even if you empathize with the person whose copyright was infringed.

gosu• 14 years ago

You could presumably define "theft" as owning something without paying the price that has been set for it (in this case, infinity). The bottom line is that you're using this word to talk about a type of ownership which you've judged to be a social ill. Despite what RMS may say, it seems reasonable to associate this with the historical judgments about ownership that are tied up with the word "theft".

Also, we need to expand the meaning of words by analogy, otherwise we're left with calling things Thing A and Thing B.

vibrunazo• 14 years ago

I'm a game developer. I dream about the day the gaming industry could move forward these silly slap-fights and actually work together on reusable assets for everyone, free of IP. (in fact, that's one of the motivations behind my startup)

While I don't like that Armed Heroes used other's copyrighted work without permission. It's sad that these assets were not released under Creative Commons in the first place. Armed Heroes should've taken the "high road" and released their own assets under CC instead of using other's. IMHO, those who are hypocrite on this subject are simply missing the bigger picture.

jacalata• 14 years ago

Unless Torchlight is revealed to have somehow copied the assets from somewhere else, I don't see who is being a hypocrite here.

unconed3• 14 years ago

If everyone used the same assets, games would all have the same blandness. No thank you.

2muchcoffeeman• 14 years ago

What's the bigger picture?

tomflack• 14 years ago

I cannot think of a single good thing that would happen to gaming if every single game had creative commons assets from day one. You'd end up with endless identical looking games.

Now, releasing the assets under CC after 5 years or so I could get behind. Let the culture remix your work after it has had a chance to stand and be judged, appreciated on its own.

blackhole• 14 years ago

Re-usable assets are not the answer. Procedural generation of assets using re-usable blueprints under creative commons to enable rapid generation of unique variants of an existing object are the answer. Combine this with more powerful editing tools with the ability to mold blueprints together, and the uniqueness, creativity and soul of an artistic vision can be preserved while drastically decreasing development time.

simonh• 14 years ago

For those commenting against IP rights and saying this isn't such a big deal, suppose thousands of people buy this rip-off game. Later the original creators release an iOS version.

What are the chances of someone who bought the rip-off then buying the original creator's game? If anything they're likely to view the legitimate game as the rip-off because it was released later, and say so in App Store reviews.

Novelty has a pretty high value in itself, and that value is being stolen.

Torchlight art assets stolen, used in iOS game Armed Heroes

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