My site and stolen games?

**Marknbowtie** · 02-04-2005, 06:54 AM

Hello everyone, my name is Mark and I run www.fuforums.com

Now I'm here because I followed a link when I was looking for IBProarcade and found out about stolen games. Now I've never intended to be involved in anything like that when I downloaded first the arcade and then the games. If anyone here would like to check out my arcade to see if any games there are in violation of a copyright I'll be happy to remove the game in question.

When checking into the forum at the very top is a linking station. The arcade is the 3rd link down I think. I've setup a username if anyone wants to see.

test/abc123

If any games are in violation then I would like to offer my sincere apology now.

**Madness007** · 02-04-2005, 06:58 AM

hello mark your user name and password dont work can you reset it please

and all look for ya

**Marknbowtie** · 02-04-2005, 07:00 AM

Give me a minute and I'll reset it.

**Madness007** · 02-04-2005, 07:00 AM

ok np

**Marknbowtie** · 02-04-2005, 07:01 AM

test/test

It's set. Sorry

**Marknbowtie** · 02-04-2005, 07:05 AM

This just isn't the kind of thing I expected this morning. I'm having my coffee and then I findout I might have violated someones copyright. Last thing I ever wanted to do was trespass on someones elses property but only give my members another feature.

**Madness007** · 02-04-2005, 07:10 AM

Blazing Squad needs to be removed its blazingsquadibpg.swf Mousebreaker thats all i see Mark if theres anything more am sure the rest will help but this is all i see

**Marknbowtie** · 02-04-2005, 07:13 AM

Thanks Madness and I just removed it. Bummer though as that was a nice game!!

**Madness007** · 02-04-2005, 07:16 AM

remember to becareful for now on what you download @ http://ibproarcade.com there bad news

**Marknbowtie** · 02-04-2005, 07:23 AM

See but there really isn't anyway for a small site owner such as myself to be careful when dealing with something like this. All I, or another site owner can do is trust the website owner to be truthful about the copyright releases. Other than that I would have to trackdown and email every single game owner which is next to impossible.

Thats why when I saw this problem I came right here and made this post Every game owner here is welcome to check in and see if I have anything thats in anyway infringing on a copyright. I'll remove it or workout some type of agreement with said owner to allow me to host the game.

**Squize** · 02-04-2005, 07:38 AM

Good work both you guys.

Nice to see such a great and pro-active attempt to try and cure this problem.

Hopefully this will come full circle soon, and people on here will be able to provide you guys with content directly. A lot of people here would really value both the feedback and exposure from your sites.

We write games to be be played, and where better than to an audience who actually enjoy playing Flash games already.

Squize.

**Marknbowtie** · 02-04-2005, 08:12 AM

I've been reading over a few of the stolen games threads and have a few suggestions.

Now I'm a 45 year old man and a small forum owner. If you check into my site it's been up for a year and in that year I've gained over 100 members and over 33 thousand posts. I've put in alot of spare time building the site and I'm rather proud of it now.

But in reading the posts here I've noticed 2 themes and I'm a part of the small site side. Game owners say that we should check the copyright on every single game but thats impossible for a owner like me. I have a family and a job and running the website is my spare time thing in my basement. People like me have to trust the site we get the games from to be doing it right and not releasing games that are copyright protected.

What you, the game owners are asking of a small site owner such as myself is taking up to a week to add 1 game and a week could pass only to find out the game in question can't be loaded. I have 250 games in my arcade and at this rate it would have taken me 5 years to reach that point in this scenerio.

This makes the arcade sort of pointless and I along with most other small site owners would delete our arcades before we did this. I just don't have the time to do it like this.

But this not only hurts me but hurts you, the game designers as well. Why bother to create games if there aren't arcades for them to be played in? I would think that if you created the game you would want it seen on sites such as mine to gain exposure.

So the real question facing us is where is the middle ground? Take away all the posturing from both sides and how do you the game designer, and me the site owner work this out so that both sides are happy?

Now I know I'm new and please take this in the manner intended as I'm only trying to help as I got caught in the middle of all of this.

Would a section here, on this forum with games that have been released for arcades such as mine make sense? This way you could better control whats being released and owners such as myself would have a trustworthy resource to go too.

You could take that one step further and also have a section for games that need a licence. This way you would be able to get your games out to sites such as mine that does have a userbase and an arcade.

After-all everyone on both sides just wants to be able to enjoy all of this.

Mark

**leason** · 02-04-2005, 10:30 AM

Mark,

I feel your pain man. Lest I come across as making a shameless plug for myself let me say that I realy sympathize with your situation. I work constantly with the game devs here and other places to try and make sure my site only offers legitimate games. I try my very hardest to ensure we have permission from each author of each game we provide at pnFlashGames.com. In the last two years we've had two instances where a game slipped through the cracks and it was promptly removed.

I know that the latest version of IbProArcade supports pnFlashGames. Feel free to upgrade and download as many game from http://pnflashgames.com as you want. You can also buy some games in our store that are released and sold by some of the game developers here.

In the meantime, check out http://mediaprotect.org and drop me a line to let me know how a site like that could help you as a small site webmaster and what services MediaProtect should offer to you. Your feedback will help us refine and build that service.

Thanks Mark for taking the time to do things right, and good luck with your site.

regards,

Lee Eason

**mixedtrigeno** · 02-04-2005, 03:51 PM

Marknbowtie you have my full respect it takes a man to do what you are doing

**Marknbowtie** · 02-04-2005, 04:43 PM

Lee, thanks for taking the time to respond to this. I like you just want to do it right and offer my members a free but legal arcade.

I've been to your site a few times and love the games you have. Tried twice now to upgrade to bring games from your site to mine but haven't been able to get the coding to work. I have 2.0 final and the code is a bit different than what is in the zip.
Haven't given up and do plan on trying for the 3rd, 4th and if needed 5th time to get it right.

I also have no problem at all paying for the rights to use a game. If the games worth it and my members love it then I would be first in line to buy it.

I'll head over to media protect and check that out. Anything to protects me, you and developers is a great thing for all involved. Because without anyone of us the others are pretty much out of business.

**Marknbowtie** · 02-04-2005, 04:51 PM

Tony, if you would like, the games I have of yours if you provide me a list of them I'll give you full credit in the description. I can put something like "Developed by 88888.com" or "Created by Tony. Visit his site at 888.com"
Your the developer who spent the time to make the game and should get the credit you deserve. Sites like mine should work hand in hand with guys like you to bring you the attention you deserve.

Magical Stars has been removed from my arcade for the time being. Since you sent me the info or are sending it I'll contact that owner for permission. But as a good faith gesture I took it down so I'm not knowingly trespassing on a copyright.

**tonypa** · 02-04-2005, 04:58 PM

Originally posted by Marknbowtie
Tony, if you would like, the games I have of yours if you provide me a list of them I'll give you full credit in the description. I can put something like "Developed by 88888.com" or "Created by Tony. Visit his site at 888.com"

You dont have to do that

I have given permission to use those games with arcade mod and my name and site are included in the game. But I thank you for the offer.

Originally posted by Marknbowtie
Magical Stars has been removed from my arcade for the time being. Since you sent me the info or are sending it I'll contact that owner for permission. But as a good faith gesture I took it down so I'm not knowingly trespassing on a copyright.

I did send you personal message. Didnt you get it? Please check your PM box (user cp >> private messages).

**Marknbowtie** · 02-04-2005, 05:08 PM

Just did check Tony and sent him an email and PMed you in return.

Didn't know it was already in the game. I'm always so busy working on the site itself I never actually get to enjoy anything I put on it. Other than giving these games a fast test run to make sure they work when I install them I've never had the time to sitdown and play them. As you saw, the arcade is just one feature out of about 12 different things and everything takes up my time.

But if you ever need an arcade to beta-test a game for you just let me know. As you saw I have a good memberbase to test for you and we would be happy to work out a legal agreement with you or anyother developer to host games.

**Marknbowtie** · 02-04-2005, 05:12 PM

Originally posted by mixedtrigeno
Marknbowtie you have my full respect it takes a man to do what you are doing

I have over 100 music video's and Mp3s and it's all legal. I have film clips and full movies of the 3 stooges and the original Night of the Living Dead and thats all legal. The arcade isn't going to be any different and having games that haven't been released by the author isn't something I want on my site.

I have no problem paying for the rights to a game if my members love the game. If I can't have games that my members like and I can't get them in a legal manner then I'll delete the arcade before I do it the wrong way.

**tonypa** · 02-05-2005, 06:52 PM

Hi again,

Since too many of my games have been stolen and I dont have time or will to deal with this problem, I have decided to remove all my games from the web.

Please do remove all my games from your site as soon as possible.

Thank you,
and I am sorry for the trouble I might cause you,
Tony

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