Protecting purchased and created add-ons

[sloejack]

Being relatively new to the software I may not have found this but if the feature isn't there, consider this a feature request for version 2.0.

Is there a way to protect the contents of your rulesets, modules, tokens, and other add-ons? The question stems from two lines of thinking. The first is preserving game integrity, and the second is purely commerical and rights focused.

Preserving Game Integrity with maps. The scenerio is that you create a nice elaborate map that you want to share with your players as they explore your dungeon and campaign. The issue is that the players get a copy of your map image and can see more than you allow them spoiling parts of the adventure for themselves and for everyone. I think I've figured out that some tokens can be kept back on only revealed when used but not stored on the players systems, can the same thing be done with maps?

Preserving IP rights with addons. Many folks work hard to develop content for FG. Some for free and some for a fee. Is there any mechanisim to protect the fee based content so that it doesn't wind up being distributed for free just because someone connects to your game? This particular issue is focused on things like token sets, character sheets, and rulesets. Modules and Campaigns as far as I can tell are primarily server side only except for maps and other images.

[richvalle]

Howdy,

Maps: This issue has been raised before. In a 'cost per benifit' view I'm not sure its a way to go (in my opinion only!). The players would have to deliberatly go and look at the maps. If they are going to cheat I wouldn't want to play with them anyway. Heck, I'm running the Worlds Largest Dungeon and all the maps and much of the content is available on-line.

Though maybe scrambling the map is something that is easy to do. Then again... how hard would it be to get something to unscramble said map? I mean, if they are going to cheat they are going to cheat.

IP rights. This issue came up about 5 min after the first comercial product was released. :) I'm pretty sure Smiteworks is working on something for this.

rv

[Cantstanzya]

Here (https://forums.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3107) is a post from May 2005 with a recommended solution to the "map peeking" problem. It is a very simple fix that will keep honest people honest. Sure someone could probably hack it but it would be better than no encription at all. I am hoping it is something that it implemented in 2.0.

[Thore_Ironrock]

Is there a way to protect the contents of your rulesets, modules, tokens, and other add-ons? The question stems from two lines of thinking. The first is preserving game integrity, and the second is purely commerical and rights focused.

We talked about this heavily at Gen Con, since it is a concern for those publishers/licensees that Code Monkey and Digital Adventures are dealing with. The answer to the question is *yes*, there will be certain features in the next version that will prevent or limit the sharing of rulesets and other IP material. The complete scope of this is to be determined, since I know that the SW development team was going to make several changes to the new version to make this happen. Once this is done CMP and DA will be reviewing it and will give a report as such to the community when we have specifics.

That is all we have at the moment. More to come so stay tuned.