How can you be on a piracy site yet know nothing about piracy? Go buy a copy of a movie you like, better yet, go with a video camera into a theater and record it. Please then sell your bootleg copies in front of a police station and then report back to us.
Patreon Account Selling Pirated Games - Developers Beware
- Thread starter Conviction07
- Start date
- Aug 25, 2017
- 1,761
- 3,963
I'm no authority on copyright laws but I'm absolutely certain you're wrong in this case.
First sale doctrine doesn't apply to video games (in the US) and even if it did, he's not reselling a copy of a game, he's selling download links to unlimited copies. That's not distribution, that's reproduction.
Umm NO and NO. You don't BUY the game on Patreon, you support the DEV. There's a MAJOR difference. I think you're also confusing "Goods" with "Copyright" material. For one thing, selling ANY game using the RenPy engine is forbidden...so I don't know what you're talking about.
(Keep in mind I don't actually know all of this. I'm getting this through a third party)
Apparently, that's the case. This person reverse image searched one of the pinups, and found a couple more.
You must be registered to see the links
(He says "If you like my outfit, let me know" Even a tag on his post is "Myself" 
)
You must be registered to see the links
(Url of this image says "attractive-christmas-girl-in-a-sexual-lingerie-and-red-mittens-and-santa-s-cap-christmas-ni.jpg")
Ren'py license agreement:
So yes you can sell games on Ren'py as for how you view patreon The games are given as rewards to those that support at a certain level so it is the legal definition of a sale or service in kind. The support on patreon at that specified level is a grant of a license to use the game for the period of patronage. Not for Resale
- May 6, 2017
- 774
- 3,313
I don't have to prove it. They claim to be buying the games as soon as they're released, which implies they'd have to be pledging to the higher tiers so they can gain the earliest possible access. That's $10, $20 or even $30 or more PER game and then making their entire catalogue available for a measly $1. There's no way they'd be turning a profit with that business model unless they had maybe thousands of patrons. And you can bet your ass they're not playing the long game because they'd be stupid not to know it won't be long before they're shut down. They're pulling a hit and run.
And as for having the right to sell it, this isn't a single, used copy of a video game they're selling on ebay where in doing so they're relinquishing ownership of it. It's a limitless, digital copy that they're mass distributing.
So I have got it wrong and I apologize about that comment I made. So if someone cannot buy the game and are only contributing money to the devs, because of using Ren'Py for example. Then surely anyone can share the games if they so choose? What legal rights do devs have to stop it, is what Miagamehouse doing illegal? or just morally wrong. I am no expert on the subject so can someone enlighten me. Can a dev sue them in a court of law, for what they are doing.
They aren't contributing money to devs though. They're just copy/pasting download links from here and selling it for $1.
Is it illegal? I don't know. Should it exist? I don't think so.
edit: In any case, I don't think Patreon would ever allow people to sell another Patreon's content.
W65
Active Member
- May 31, 2018
- 779
- 879
You folks developing on Patreon are probably already savvy to this kind of thing, but if you haven't done so then you might want to investigate exactly what Patreon's stance is regarding their ownership of your work. I wouldn't imagine that they could make any claim to it at all, but strange things happen since they're sorta digitally touching the money side of things. It pays to protect your rights regarding your work and to know your exact standing with respect to folks who are working with your property (even if Patreon ends up being sort of a glorified advertising platform).
It also could be of benefit for you to expressly state the license under which you're distributing your stuff when you provide links or however you distribute digital content both to patrons and the public. I'm not an intellectual property professional, but if you're a digital content creator and make enough money to do it reasonably, you might want to consider consulting one to be sure that you're correctly protecting your rights as a creator. It'd be terrible to try to DMCA someone pulling tricks like this and then get hung up by something you can't prove or some thing like that. Indie Japanese game devs are able to have file sharing sites pull their content under DMCA (or at least to get Google to delist links to it), so it's reasonably possible for small dev houses to do it, I expect, even though I know nothing about the procedure or the law itself.
I guess what I'm saying is that if you're a creator of digital content of any kind, it's a wise move to educate yourself about intellectual property law enough that you can correctly assert your rights when you feel you need to do it. That's sort of a truism when it comes to anyone charging money for anything, really.
(I feel like this is the kind of thing that an adult video game developer's association would be able to help struggling indie devs with, but that sort of thing doesn't exist as far as I know.)
It also could be of benefit for you to expressly state the license under which you're distributing your stuff when you provide links or however you distribute digital content both to patrons and the public. I'm not an intellectual property professional, but if you're a digital content creator and make enough money to do it reasonably, you might want to consider consulting one to be sure that you're correctly protecting your rights as a creator. It'd be terrible to try to DMCA someone pulling tricks like this and then get hung up by something you can't prove or some thing like that. Indie Japanese game devs are able to have file sharing sites pull their content under DMCA (or at least to get Google to delist links to it), so it's reasonably possible for small dev houses to do it, I expect, even though I know nothing about the procedure or the law itself.
I guess what I'm saying is that if you're a creator of digital content of any kind, it's a wise move to educate yourself about intellectual property law enough that you can correctly assert your rights when you feel you need to do it. That's sort of a truism when it comes to anyone charging money for anything, really.
(I feel like this is the kind of thing that an adult video game developer's association would be able to help struggling indie devs with, but that sort of thing doesn't exist as far as I know.)
N1K17Y
Active Member
- Jun 12, 2017
- 829
- 2,383
thats just in theory. how is "give me 1$/3$/5$ a month or you dont get access to my game" anything but selling it ? maybe you dont buy it, you can call it a subscription fee but its definitely far from support. especially with someone like Palmer for example who even has DRM on his game.
plus im pretty sure there are games on Steam that are made with renpy. i doubt all of them are free
i dont think any devs here can sue you if you download their game and present it somewhere else as yours. but the platforms you are using to sell it to others might step in and ban you.
- Aug 3, 2017
- 3,556
- 37,549
HiEv
Member
- Sep 1, 2017
- 385
- 789
Not entirely accurate. You can report a Patreon account for copyright infringement using this form for "
You must be registered to see the links
", without having to file a DMCA claim. (Found at the bottom of the "All About Being a Patron" section in Patreon's
You must be registered to see the links
.)Looks like these photos were taken from Shutterstock. From photographer Kiselev Andrey Valerevich's portfolio. lol(Keep in mind I don't actually know all of this. I'm getting this through a third party)
Apparently, that's the case. This person reverse image searched one of the pinups, and found a couple more.
You must be registered to see the links(He says "If you like my outfit, let me know" Even a tag on his post is "Myself"
You must be registered to see the links(Url of this image says "attractive-christmas-girl-in-a-sexual-lingerie-and-red-mittens-and-santa-s-cap-christmas-ni.jpg")
You must be registered to see the links
Patreon is subject to the laws of the state of California and US copyright and trademark law. Which Infers that when you create something it is your Intelectual Property or IP therefor ownership is implied. why we don't sue US law is costly lawyers are expensive and by the time you won the case you spend more on court and legal costs then your patreon makes so you lose more money. Now if we were to sue you get together with multiple creators and do a Class action lawsuit. cheaper and more power to it as a group then one dev
- May 6, 2017
- 774
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Well, on the bright side it looks like he's already on the decline. 12 Hours ago he was sitting on around $185 a month, now he's at $158. Although it could just be because it's the beginning of the month, I'd like to think we've had a hand in it too.
- Aug 6, 2016
- 7,793
- 45,594
I wouldn't be surprised if their links are the same as ours which means they did not pay for it. Keep reporting this fool to patreon until the crows come home to roost.
infernoxpx
Newbie
- Feb 26, 2018
- 99
- 62
Hey just wanted to let ya'll now that I'm the guy that @Runey mentioned earlier who found the images and reversed searched them to find out that they aren't "Mia's". I'm betting the Christmas pinup album that they're hyping for 5 dollar backers is probably stolen pics of the same girl.
I also found their YouTube channel which has about 7 videos and 8 subscribers so far. Pure walkthroughs only.
Whoever they are, it's clear that "Mia" does not exist. It's a union of people. And the 100 dollar pledge even promises that you become an official member of the team.
I also found their YouTube channel which has about 7 videos and 8 subscribers so far. Pure walkthroughs only.
Whoever they are, it's clear that "Mia" does not exist. It's a union of people. And the 100 dollar pledge even promises that you become an official member of the team.
- May 6, 2017
- 774
- 3,313
One guy on discord said they posted the same mega link to one of his games but with a broken url. So they couldn't even get that right lol.