Post by jackalocked in My game got stolen and it appears as the first result on Google search! How can I stop this from happening?

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The stuff stolen from me got succesfully taken down! (or deleted since the user is actually still active, not sure who did it.) However, the google search results still shows the itch.io page on the first row, so how long does it exactly take it to be fully gone? Or it won’t go away unless I do something about it?

About the prevention thing, it looks like that I can’t really protect my Scratch projects from theft aside from putting watermarks like what redonihunter suggested (even though those are still easy to remove just like what Red Wing did on the bitmap thumbnails)… I was thinking into putting a disclaimer on my games saying that any sorts of theft will result on a DMCA takedown (which I actually filled one yesterday, but got stuck at the paywall), but then Scratch would delete my games because of their “embrace remix culture” (let other users copy your projects) policy.

So this means that this could happen again at any moment and left unnoticed for months (probably my fault for not giving enough supervision to this specific game), but the good thing is that the stolen projects got taken down pretty quickly than I expected! (unless they got deleted by Red wing himself)

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redonihunter63 days ago

I am not familiar with policy on Scratch. Do you even have copyright on stuff you release there?

Apparantly not.

All user-generated content you submit to Scratch is licensed to and through Scratch under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. This allows others to view and remix your content. This license also allows the Scratch Team to display, distribute, and reproduce your content on the Scratch website, through social media channels, and elsewhere. If you do not want to license your content under this license, then do not share it on Scratch.

Please read the license. Anyone can redistribute and "remix" your stuff anywhere, provided the license agreement is followed. Also you are not allowed to restrict that content after the fact or revoke the license.

While it is a policy, the consequences of that policy are not mere policy. It is license stuff. If the copycat had included attribution and what else is described in the license and links to the license everything would have been in order.

Also, did you block that account? If so, maybe unblock it and reload the page...

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jackalocked62 days ago

According to the license, an user can remix the project and distribute it under this condition: as long as he gives credit to the original creator and doesn’t claim the game to be his own (and also sharing the same license, but he at least made the game free unlike other cases). Red wing didn’t follow the attribution conditions, he didn’t give credit and even erased my name on the game swapping by his, claiming my game to be his own.

According to https://creativecommons.org/misuse-of-works/ , I can still send a takedown notice for misuse of the creative commons license (not giving credit & claiming the game to be his own), the user can contest the takedown and give a second look to the material (but there was enough proof that he stole my stuff and removed my name from the thumbnails anyways). It also says to notify the thief before taking action, which is what I and other people did (basically called him out), however I tought that he was inactive since his last posts where posted +100 days ago.

The thief did indeed apologize (“chat GPT write me an apology email for stealing his stuff”), but he still has the other stolen content up on his page (he didn’t only steal my stuff), which it clearly says that he just didn’t want to have consequences since I noticed his stolen work (he could possibly be just a bot aswell).

Even if it says that I can takedown creative commons material, the stuff has been taken down already, so I’m now trying to cancel the DMCA takedown request (I didn’t proceed further that the 1st step because of a paywall but anyways).

Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m still new to this copyright stuff

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redonihunter62 days ago

provided the license agreement is followed

As I wrote.

You also talked about putting disclaimers on your work that might violate the license.

Copyright and Software licenses are related but not the same. You have copyright without using a license. But the particular license you are forced to use by publishing on Scratch gives anyone so much rights that for many intents and purposes you have no copyright - provided they follow the license rules. Because you literally cannot hinder anyone from copying your stuff.

Hitting the repot button on a page with "Uploader not authorized to distribute" is one thing. But going through the actual dmca process another. If you need to do such things, make sure, it is the correct legal tool.

Since the pages were taken down, the immedate "takedown" already took place. Remember, the people talking here are not lawyers. Legal consultations cost money. It is personal opinion and observations you will get here. You wanted the copy down, it is down. The actual dmca takedown is for situations when someone refuses to take it down.

So good luck with getting on top of google again. But the license you are using will not prevent this from happening again should the license be followed, to get on topic again.

One can attribute a project on Itch with a license, but it might be that this particular license is not allowed on Itch - for a game. Assets can have some of those cc licenses and you can say that a game you have has assets with a cc license and you are probably required to, hence the possiblitly to attribute those licenses.

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hechelion63 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Google will stop indexing the result over time, it has nothing to do with Itch.

However, what redonihunter just told you is very important, I advise you to cancel any DMCA and teasers with a lawyer, since you are claiming copyright on a product that you yourself license as CC, which could lead to a claim against you, even taking you to court if the other part really wants to.

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