Suggestion: Watermarking

[hexorcist]

With Skyrim out over a month now it's apparent that there are quite a few sites that are going to take mods directly from The Nexus, without permission. Most of these sites are taking the images directly from our mod pages on The Nexus sites - the largest of the group (File Planet / IGN) certainly is. I'm certain the admin are keeping up with the discussions in various places. In one of those discussions a recent post mentioned how an image sharing site watermarks images by their users. I think this would be an excellent feature for the mod screen shots and images uploaded by authors and users.

 

I'm not suggesting that they ALL get a Nexus watermark, but an author does set the permissions for uploading images and in those permissions there could be an option to watermark. I know myself that I'd rather not have to find an app (for windows), or take an extra 5 steps (put my linux hard drive in my laptop, transfer image over, hit it with imagemagick - after re-learning how to use it, transfer back) or learn how to use (and purchase) the big name graphics suits - not all of us are keen on graphics. This can easily be done automatically via imagemagick (or various other tools) after the image file is uploaded.

 

I think this would be an excellent idea because if the other sites continue as they are then the user will see that the files are coming from here, for those that choose to use it. It may cause the other sites to re-think their strategy and get their own screen shots, which I think some sites might find to be too costly (man hours, etc).

 

Thank you

[Dark0ne]

Yup, definitely something to look at. The other thing mod authors can do is place text in the readme akin to "This mod can only be downloaded from this sites: ... If you downloaded this mod from anywhere else then they stole this content". I know I look very badly on any sites when I download a file and find they're not on the approved list.

[Garagorn888]

I agree with this.

I remember an old site I used to go on I saw a very good artist, and her art was stolen by someone on youtube, but it took about a week for youtube to sort it out because there were no watermarks.

Luckily, a lot of people knew who the real original artist was.

[Natterforme]

I agree with this.

I remember an old site I used to go on I saw a very good artist, and her art was stolen by someone on youtube, but it took about a week for youtube to sort it out because there were no watermarks.

Luckily, a lot of people knew who the real original artist was.

 

I would be up for a Nexus watermark if such an idea could be made feasible to implement and maintain. I dont know how the file would be tagged to prevent or discourage mod theft, but it would defiantly be a start if they could be placed unobtrusively on screenshots for starters, if indeed these black listed sites have been taking the screenshots as well as the actual mod content. Something like a Nexus Stamp in the middle or the corner of the SS. If implemented, I would suggest the middle(like what deviantart does) because images can be cropped but watermarks in the middle cant be. Possibly, the file name could be ended off in a particular, trademark way(i.e. File Name: NameYourModHere V1.0 Manuel Install---Brought to you by The (i.e. Skyrim) Nexus---). Sure this could make the file name longer than desired, but at the very least it would force would be theft site to individually rename every mod file. I don't know if there is a script or application that could work around this idea but it is just a brainstorm after all. :teehee:

 

Unrelated :

 

I remember one time I was entering a contest in Deviantart and I was looking over some of the other entries. This one girl submited this gorgeous piece that was richly detailed and depicted a starry night scene. She was getting lots of positive comments but refusing to go into detail about the materials used or what the medium was. Compared to the other entries I thought it looked too good for the submission( it was a low level contest if I remember correctly). I checked her other gallery pieces and and they looked nothing like this new piece (in terms of artistic development). I looked more closely at the piece and saw that it was signed. A little research showed that the piece was made by a famous (but the name escape me) older woman living in Scotland if I recall. Turns out this chick forgot to crop the image she stole. I reported it to the judges and discovered later that the account had been banned. I like to remember that incident because it reminds me that its all about the small victories :thumbsup: .

[hexorcist]

Possibly, the file name could be ended off in a particular, trademark way(i.e. File Name: NameYourModHere V1.0 Manuel Install---Brought to you by The (i.e. Skyrim) Nexus---). Sure this could make the file name longer than desired, but at the very least it would force would be theft site to individually rename every mod file. I don't know if there is a script or application that could work around this idea but it is just a brainstorm after all. :teehee:

 

Many of us have already started doing this with descriptions/read me files. Most scripting and programming languages can easily work around this using regex. For example (if I were a scum bag) I would simply toss in a regex that does: Replace(filename,"---Brought\w+$","") to remove it, or if I wanted to be a big PITA I could Replace("The Skyrim Nexus","My Lousy Website"). Neither of these were taken from a specific scripting style, though they are pretty close for VB/C# or Lua (using lrexlib) and quite a few others. The sites that aren't using "bots" would manually remove the text when they manually add it to their sites. I think it's a good idea, just not sure on the whole 'put it in the filename' part. Imagining a world where everything has "Brought to you by Skyrim Nexus" in the name sounds a bit silly to me - no offense.

Edited December 18, 2011 by hexorcist

[Natterforme]

Possibly, the file name could be ended off in a particular, trademark way(i.e. File Name: NameYourModHere V1.0 Manuel Install---Brought to you by The (i.e. Skyrim) Nexus---). Sure this could make the file name longer than desired, but at the very least it would force would be theft site to individually rename every mod file. I don't know if there is a script or application that could work around this idea but it is just a brainstorm after all. :teehee:

 

Many of us have already started doing this with descriptions/read me files. Most scripting and programming languages can easily work around this using regex. For example (if I were a scum bag) I would simply toss in a regex that does: Replace(filename,"---Brought\w+$","") to remove it, or if I wanted to be a big PITA I could Replace("The Skyrim Nexus","My Lousy Website"). Neither of these were taken from a specific scripting style, though they are pretty close for VB/C# or Lua (using lrexlib) and quite a few others. The sites that aren't using "bots" would manually remove the text when they manually add it to their sites. I think it's a good idea, just not sure on the whole 'put it in the filename' part. Imagining a world where everything has "Brought to you by Skyrim Nexus" in the name sounds a bit silly to me - no offense.

 

None taken^^. I figured that there was some way to get around that idea. The purpose, after all, is simply to 'mark' the file or readme in a permenant way if the mod author wants single site distribution. the way companies go about this is to create brand loyalty through advertisement and quality content. I think its fair to say that the Nexus has a large devoted following of users and with the current website redesign it is getting closer to 'branding' itself. Oh thats a scary thought o_O .

 

Its sort of like the problem faced by Apple and the Ipod. It has a fair amount of competition and there will always be people who choose another product. But the average person will want the Ipod because it A). has the features and design that they are looking for and B). the efforts involved in branding the product make it the Coca-Cola of MP3 players. Of course, the dangers with this is that you get marked for only focusing on the brand that you are selling and not the quality of the product you are putting on the market. This is faced by any large brand, most notably by fast food companies who have, over the years, lowered the quality of the food to produce a profit. :hurr: :hurr: :hurr:

 

Sorry The Dark0ne if you dont like Apple, Ipods, Coke, or fast food :woot: .