Risk of Plagiarism

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Simulacron

L-3: Simulated Member
aa
Feb 17, 2016
313
326
How the title says, I just want to know how big the problem of plagiarism for tf2 maps is. Must I create some sort of protection or backup for my map to proof it's mine or how is this working? (This sounds maybe a bit silly, but I want to make sure, I make everything right when I create a thread for my maps and submit them to the gameday)
 

killohurtz

Distinction in Applied Carving
aa
Feb 22, 2014
1,016
1,277
At least within this community, plagiarism will never be an issue for you. We take plagiarism very seriously here and will punish people appropriately for doing it. As long as you create a thread for your map and make use of the update feature, all versions of your map will be stored in case proof is ever needed - but like LeSwordfish said, you really don't need to worry about it.
 

Fruity Snacks

Creator of blackholes & memes. Destroyer of forums
aa
Sep 5, 2010
6,394
5,571
At least within this community, plagiarism will never be an issue for you. We take plagiarism very seriously here and will punish people appropriately for doing it. As long as you create a thread for your map and make use of the update feature, all versions of your map will be stored in case proof is ever needed - but like LeSwordfish said, you really don't need to worry about it.

Thirded on the reassurance. At least, myself, I'll personally look at the maps ingame thoroughly to check for potential plagiarism. Like Killo said, we have no tolerance for it and we take it very seriously.
 
T

The Asylum

There's no 100% foolproof way to stop maps from being decompiled. At least not from being 100% decompiled anyway. Maps get decompiled and edited and rereleased every day, and anyone determined enough will find a way to do it.

My suggestion is to just not worry about it. The sun shines, grass grows, maps get decompiled, the world turns.
 

Crowbar

Spiritual preprocessor
aa
Dec 19, 2015
1,455
1,297
There's no 100% foolproof way to stop maps from being decompiled.
Just like there's no way to perfectly decompile a map.

Well, if you've done some, amazing layout in a map, the layout is clearly seen without decompiling, and someone can easily take it.
Decompile protection will not protect your map from plagiarism - community will.
 

Moonrat

nothing left
aa
Jul 30, 2014
932
585
I've only ever seen one case of plagiarism, and that guy's "map" didn't last long before he got caught.
 

Requiesta

L1: Registered
Feb 23, 2016
26
12
As someone who decompiled maps to learn the various intricacies of some more complex creations I can say this, map decompilers are fairly imprecise. They're great for learning what inputs and outputs someone used to get a desired effect, but to actually make a decompiled map re-releasable would require almost twice the time it required to make the map from scratch!

Don't worry too much about this kind of stuff. Anyone who tries it will always deliver an inferior product to yours. And players who played your map will probably notify you.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
At least within this community, plagiarism will never be an issue for you.
And outside of this community, nobody ever creates maps that get any attention anyway. :p
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
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You know what, that's not true. The Workshop exists now, and I'm sure it gets a lot more attention than GameBanana ever did.
 

MrHatlf

engineer main, majoring in exploiting
Feb 6, 2013
79
40
I suppose this thread is relevant to the following question.

What if you make an edit to a map, that is not yours, and reupload it? Is it then considered your map, or is it still the original uploader's map?
 

sooshey

:3c
aa
Jan 7, 2015
514
410
I suppose this thread is relevant to the following question.

What if you make an edit to a map, that is not yours, and reupload it? Is it then considered your map, or is it still the original uploader's map?

If you're talking about something like a reskin or gamemode change, it would become your edit, but you should always credit the original creator. It would be wise to get the creator's permission to upload an edit, though.
 

Vel0city

func_fish
aa
Dec 6, 2014
1,947
1,589
Thirded on the reassurance. At least, myself, I'll personally look at the maps ingame thoroughly to check for potential plagiarism. Like Killo said, we have no tolerance for it and we take it very seriously.

I won't get into any specifics here, but I've seen at least 2 maps taking a 1:1 copy of the Badwater 3D skybox for use in their own map. Since the creators of those maps probably didn't ask Valve for permission to use that, is it still considered plagiarism?
 

LeSwordfish

semi-trained quasi-professional
aa
Aug 8, 2010
4,102
6,597
Yes that's plagiarism - as is any use of a valve texture, prop, or effect, without written permission in triplicate. Valve are suing the creator of badwater_rainy as we speak.

This is of course sarcasm. I would say the use of valve assets is plenty allowed - it's a bit douchey to take stuff from another map without credit like that but valve have released decompiled maps and game assets for this exact purpose.
 

ics

http://ics-base.net
aa
Jun 17, 2010
841
540
While plagiarism isn't really common and even more uncommon here, someone can take stuff from here and post elsewhere, like steam workshop. Though there is an option to do dmca takedown on stolen work on workshop but still you can never be too carefull. I've seen stuff posted on sites like gamebanana which aren't made by the author or even posted with authors permission.
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
2,579
I really hate that they make you file a DMCA, though. That sort of crap ought to be used as a last resort, but we've turned it into standard procedure because of websites whose owners are too lazy to respond to anything short of an actual literal threat to sue them.
 

MoonFox

L10: Glamorous Member
Mar 17, 2015
739
74
Apart from sometimes miss naming a map with another well known ones, can happen from time to time, but if you spend as much time mapping as you do playing (I do a lot more mapping than I do playing these days) you get around and learn map names, if you are still unsure, do a browse of the map submissions and see what's there. I want to finish, some names are taken, however later dropped as better maps succeed them or the creator doesn't enforce it. Don't worry, but always be vigilant through submissions to see if a name is taken.