Somebody is violating OUR copyright for a change!

http://www.4pockets.com/game_info.ph...2&pro=X&pid=53
Well isn't this a suprise. Some blatantly stolen artwork from our retexturing has made it into their shitty PocketPC game!

Know your rights! If you created textures and see them in this game, they have NO RIGHT to use them. You still have copyright over the textures, and since most of the textures haven't been released under any kind of creative commons type license, they are violating copyright.

I don't mind people using my artwork in freely distributable games, I'm guessing the same goes for the lot of you. Selling it is another matter, and they shouldn't get away with it.

Shoot them an e-mail, nothing too harsh, but don't be nice to them either. We tried hard not to violate 3D Realms IP, so we should feel no guilt in telling these guys to stop selling their worthless game.

If someone could try to pull the texture data out of the demo data files it would be much appreciated. The screenshots most likely only tell half the story.

Some screenshots.


That nuke barrel look familiar? And those walls I remember seeing in the hi-res texture thread, along with the crate texture, and the floor, and the lights, and the roof.


The nuke sludge texture looks exactly like the doom stuff. The stripy walkway texture is taken from duke I beleive, I remember seeing that texture in the thread. If anyone can give links to pages in the thread where these textures are located it would be appreciated.


That sign looks sort of duke nukemy, not sure though. The chainlink fence looks suspect.


That floor texture I recognised from cube. According to the license provided with the texture, it is prohibited for commercial use. It is made by Iikka "Fingers" Keranen.


The floor texture is stolen from the Doom retexturing project.


The door in the distance is obviously stolen from the Duke retexturing project.


The green brick texture is parkars, and the door is also from the duke retexturing project.


Its hard to tell, but I'm pretty sure that concrete floor is mine. The brick texture and roof are both from the duke retexturing project

[jimbob]

it sorta looks build engine like too.

if they did steal it they deserve a slap on the wrist, with an axe!

[Blade Nightflame]

Definately the BUILD engine, I recognize it's map structure placing and limits easily.

[Viciarg]

Sue the sh*t out of them....crappy commerce faggots

[Renegado]

Heh


The enemy's muzzleflash is also from Duke3D, and that "Pulse Rifle" is obviously a slightly modified Doom shotgun

Renegado said:
Heh


The the enemy's muzzleflash is also from Duke3D, and that "Pulse Rifle" is obviously a slightly modified Doom shotgun

The energy bolt is from LameDuke I believe. The hand/glove is from Doom definitely.



And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty certain those stairs^ come from Doom.

The question of course becomes: did they just copy and past, or recreate them.

[jimbob]

The game utilizes our custom realtime ray-casting engine to deliver a realistic 3D playing environment.

not verry bloody likely. if they have the time/skills to make an engine they should also have the time and skill to make some own art.
[edit] the nuke barrel from screen one is a direct cut and paste from duke 3d, 3dr should sue em! since they are making a profit from this stuff.

[Rider]

I've been an avid BUILDer for quite some time now, and I recognise about 8/10th of all the textures (retextures included) from Duke3D.

I wouldn't be suprised if they used Jonof's port to convert BUILD to PocketPC

@3DRCrew: They shouldn't be able to get away with this. This could Seriously hurt the Duke IP!



Edit: I'm trying to get the Demo to run on my Home PC... since I have no PocketPC, but I'm intrigued to see what else looks familiair. No luck so far

[Parkar]

I have seen some games using "stolen" art before but this is redicilus, did they do anything at all them self?

Please tell me people don't have to think about this...

OF COURSE it is sadly ripped off...

and I could swear that the sky in the background is ripped off of Max Payne 1 - first level (prologue)

[Killd a ton]

Thers also monsters form ut 2003 and quake3, the rusty robot is also from some ware else.

they didn't even spent one sec asking any body if they could use the stuff and just coppyed it, didn't even bother to tell ppl that it would appear in there game, they are rood and law brakers, i say lock them down and ban them from the internet

edit by "custom engine" they probably mean that they made jfduke run on a pocket pc...

[Rider]

Well no luck on getting the Demo to run (if anyone else happens to know-how, PM me or something) but I did notice something else


That looks like a Quake2 PlayerModel converted to sprite format to me.

see?



btw, this game doesn't really show a lot of innovative map design. A big room, with stairs and 2 doors?

Wow!

[Parkar]

Its a ut2003 player model not a quake 2 model. I have even made a skin to that model once.

[Quakis]

I think what they have done is seriously stupid, And if you look at the texturing too, it shows they cannot use them well either - like the last screen, too random.

Im not saying this is a good thing though, using stolen art etc and making money out of it is just going over the top. I'd say shut them down.

[Kristian Joensen]

jimbob said:

not verry bloody likely. if they have the time/skills to make an engine they should also have the time and skill to make some own art.
[edit] the nuke barrel from screen one is a direct cut and paste from duke 3d, 3dr should sue em! since they are making a profit from this stuff.

Not necessarily a good programmer doesn't necessarily have art skills.

[jimbob]

Rider said:
Well no luck on getting the Demo to run (if anyone else happens to know-how, PM me or something) but I did notice something else


That looks like a Quake2 PlayerModel converted to sprite format to me.

see?



btw, this game doesn't really show a lot of innovative map design. A big room, with stairs and 2 doors?

Wow!

its a ut2k4 model converted to sprite

my point about the engine skills etc was that if they are willing to spend time editing an engine ( if they even did that and not just stole the build engine too ) than why would they not have someone working on less time consuming work like texturing.

[Killd a ton]

http://www.4pockets.com/nbuy.php

Ok I guess we should remind them what copyright is....

I did some research at it is 4Pockets them self who has released the game.

[Kristian Joensen]

jimbob said:

its a ut2k4 model converted to sprite

my point about the engine skills etc was that if they are willing to spend time editing an engine ( if they even did that and not just stole the build engine too ) than why would they not have someone working on less time consuming work like texturing.

Maybe they don't know any artists.

[Kev_Hectic]

Swiss Cheeseman said:
Some screenshots.


That nuke barrel look familiar? And those walls I remember seeing in the hi-res texture thread, along with the crate texture, and the floor, and the lights, and the roof.

That nuke barrel looks like it was ripped straight out of Duke 3D, and the crate texture was something that Neil Roy (Night Hacker) found and slightly edited, I think?. But I'm pretty sure it wasn't originally his texture to begin with.

The nuke sludge texture looks exactly like the doom stuff. The stripy walkway texture is taken from duke I beleive, I remember seeing that texture in the thread. If anyone can give links to pages in the thread where these textures are located it would be appreciated.

I don't know who made the black/ yellow stripe texture, but I know it's in the HRP. Also the wall texture in the background was made by Kef_Nukem for the high-res project (then it was later replaced by one that Pitherplus did).

That sign looks sort of duke nukemy, not sure though. The chainlink fence looks suspect.

Yeah, the sign does, but those kinds of sign textures are pretty generic in FPS's. Also, that texture on the ceiling looks like the one I did (tile: 0340) for JFDuke, either that or it's the original tile that 3DRealms made.

The door in the distance is obviously stolen from the Duke retexturing project.

Yup, it's one that Motionblur did, no question about it.

The green brick texture is parkars, and the door is also from the duke retexturing project.

The "X" door is another one of Motionblur's.

Its hard to tell, but I'm pretty sure that concrete floor is mine. The brick texture and roof are both from the duke retexturing project

Looks like it.

Wow, this game is truely f*cking sad.

[AlgorithMan]

jimbob said:
my point about the engine skills etc was that if they are willing to spend time editing an engine ( if they even did that and not just stole the build engine too ) than why would they not have someone working on less time consuming work like texturing.

because it's cheaper... and I doubt that image creating is less time consuming than programming - especially if you base your work on a different sourcecode... and I'm pretty sure that this engine is based on the build engine, which is a copyright violation either...

did you see in the features: gamma settings, jetpac, nightvision (also binoculars - they must have edited the engine at least a little...)
cya

AlgoMan

[Viciarg]

This stained glass window looks like from Hexen or Heretic. Time to notify id and Raven, don't you think?

edit: It's definitely Hexen.

[Blade Nightflame]

Hehe, oh god. I can't imagine the poor saps who'll get Email Bombed by 3dR, iD and even Epic games! Hahaha.

[Kev_Hectic]

Does anyone know if it's possible to play the Pocket PC demo on a computer with Windows XP? I'd like to know because I want to take a closer look at this game.

[Nukkus]

been picking through the code, it's DEFINATELY the BUILD engine. Joe, you gotta take these pricks down!

[TerminX]

This is definitely some major copyright infringement, infringing on the copyrights of 3DR, iD, Raven, Epic, god knows how many other commercial game studios, our good friend Ken Silverman and last but not least quite a few HRP texture authors.. for multiple games! This is absurd, and I hope to see multiple lawyers from all over jumping down these people's throats.

[Kev_Hectic]

Nukkus said:
been picking through the code, it's DEFINATELY the BUILD engine. Joe, you gotta take these pricks down!

Wow, they're even violating the GNU Public License for the source code.

These guys are going to get roasted.

[avatar_58]

Tell me this has to be a belated april fools gag.... These can't be serious with this game....those textures are ripped so blatently....some are high res while others are low?

Has any publisher of the dozens of ripped of games done anything yet? I want to see how log this thing lasts...

[Killd a ton]

they even claim "Copyright (c) 2004 - 4Pockets" for the game.
how did you get to look at the code ?

hers what i found

0LEVEL01.003 and
0LEVEL02.004 are map

0000MAIN.015 some kind of data file

REDSEC~1.001 main exe

000000GX.002 probably setup exe

DEMOAR~1.000 and
MAPLINKS indfo files for the game

i found some references to adobe psd format in the main exe

it uses some sound system form http://www.shlzero.com

and some peases of xml code

thers 12 maps for the full game...

actualy i found

edit: i did consider if it is a aprils fool and actualy another site reported that this game on april the 1 but this is a working installer with a workin PocketPC program, a fiting icon all the right coments in the exe for it beeing a game (door locked, clime lader and stuff like that), plus the game is for sail form multiple sites. So i find it unlikely to be an aprils fool. if so its a bloody weal made one with.

[TerminX]

My findings:

[terminx@echelonvii 2112]$ file *
000000GX.002: MS-DOS executable (EXE), OS/2 or MS Windows
0000MAIN.015: data
0LEVEL01.003: data
0LEVEL02.004: data
COPYRI~1.009: ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators
DEMOAR~1.000: Microsoft WinCE install header, architecture-independent, 15 files
DEMOOVER.006: ASCII English text, with CRLF line terminators
INSTRU~1.007: ASCII English text, with very long lines, with CRLF line terminators
INTROD~1.008: ASCII English text, with very long lines, with CRLF line terminators
MAPLINKS.005: data
NEWS_001.010: ASCII English text, with CRLF line terminators
NEWS_002.011: ASCII English text, with CRLF line terminators
NEWS_003.012: ASCII English text, with CRLF line terminators
NEWS_004.013: ASCII English text, with CRLF line terminators
NEWS_005.014: ASCII English text, with CRLF line terminators
REDSEC~1.001: MS-DOS executable (EXE), OS/2 or MS Windows

[Blade Nightflame]

I'd say a certain quote from Manhattan Project, but I'm afraid I'd get a warning or get flamed by George or Joe, but here goes anything.

"Their queen must be around here somewhere, that bitch is gonna pay!"

Not exactly correct, but who cares? >_>

[TropicalHyena]

Somebody suggested that red-orange-yellow sunset sky might be from Max Payne, well, doesn't it look a whole ton like all of the default Quake II strogg skies?! I think it's ripped from Quake II.

I'll be honest, I can understand -a- copyright infringement or to, like stealing a texture, and changing how bright it is, or changing a small part of it, or something. But whoa, when you rip 100s of items, without altering them at all, and then plaster them in your screenshots for ads, what the hell do these people think was going to happen?

[Killd a ton]

the slime in this one is from a high res doom project


The only way they could be un aware of them braking the law would be if they lived some where ther is no copy right law but that dosent work as they tryed copyrighting it them self, or if they are 2 years old and never head about law befor but then again how do they have a net shop an PocketPC only thing left is that they expected that no one familiar with the original art would ever notes the game....

[Scooter]

Realistic 3D Environent
First Person Perspective Gameplay
Real-Time Lighting, Shadow and Reflections
Various Weapons and Ammo to Collect (WOW!!!!!)
Telescopic Sights
Night Vision
Jet Pack
Binoculars
Multiple Save Game Feature
Gamma Setting
Multiple Detail Levels
Custom Key Configuration
Difficulty Levels
Expandable Mission Pack Compatible

Nigth Vision and Jet Pack!?

[Nacho]

Sue them. Do it now. Do it fast. Don't make it last.

[Krid]

Question for 3DR: Would you consider loaning us your lawyers? Or attaching the afflicted members as plaintiffs to whatever lawsuit(s) you plan to file in regards to images stolen from you and their very clear violation of the license under which they were using the code? Nothing gets street cred like going to bat for the rights of your fans, and this is a VERY solid case. Plus, it would be nice to bear the title of the first and only developer to defend your fans in court.

The big concern is few if any of us have the resources to do anything about this, so the most we can do is stuck in a position of being unable to do anything besides making idle threats. I don't want anybody on the the DN3D and SW retexturing projects to have to worry about getting ripped off by thugs like these. I doubt anybody here would pull-out over this, but they're probably feeling the shittiness that anybody who gets intellectually raped feels.

I don't expect you to do so - I know it's a very unreasonable request - but I figured it was at least worth asking.

---

This brings up a point that needs to be discussed: What should be done about the licensing of these projects? Should it be a simple "Not for commercial use" warning, or something more like the Creative Commons license?

[DLT]

Wow thats quite something they must have ripped off at least 3 major devs and a whole host of amateur guys.

Quite a disgrace and to make things worse it seems the engine is not even there own.

Tsk tsk

[Kev_Hectic]

I wonder if anyone from the Doom retexturing project knows about this game yet? Or if any of the iD, Epic, or Raven guys do for that matter...

[Rellik66]

I dunno, I tried to visit the New Doom and jFiles forums just now, but they are both currently down.

[edit] my connection might be funny, but I finally got through. I did not see any mentions in the Doomsday forum or the resources forum.

[mental stampede]

Has anyone tried PMing George, Charlie, or Joe?