MESH THEFT

AdelleG · Joined: 10 Oct 2009 Posts: 466 Location: USA - CA

Hi does anyone know how to prevent meshes from being stolen? like idk put something in the mesh so if it gets stolen or something it can be identified who stole it so ppl can file a DMCA? If someone knows a way please let me know ty
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nerseus · Joined: 27 Mar 2007 Posts: 1636 Location: USA - AZ

I think if you boil down the problem to how people are stealing meshes, textures, etc. there's really nothing developers can do directly. That is, the file formats that are uploaded don't support any sort of encryption in which you could embed your personal mark. Some file formats allow "extra" info, such as EXIF data in JPGs, but any decent thief could easily remove that in any paint program out there.

The best we can hope for is to get IMVU to put protections in place. I'm guessing saying more would probably borderline on breaking IMVU's rules *but* people do have a right to assemble. I'd suggest either finding someone that's started a movement to get IMVU to make changes or starting such a movement yourself.

It *does* suck for developers to have items easily stolen. I'd actively support any such movement.

Good luck

AdelleG · Joined: 10 Oct 2009 Posts: 466 Location: USA - CA

Auntiepjl · Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 1:18 am Post subject:

IMVU does have software which can compare one mesh against another and see if they are identical.
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AdelleG · Joined: 10 Oct 2009 Posts: 466 Location: USA - CA

twistednanny · Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 2679

Unless a new tool is introduced, you cannot open CMF, XMF files in 3DsMax.

But I've filed DMCA on stolen meshes before and they were removed.
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LunaPrimero_disabled_5383 · Joined: 10 Jun 2010 Posts: 66 Location: USA

i assume we could just sent dmca to imvu as yeah some program out there even could change stolen files like xsf,xmf,xaf and etc u name it ..
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neo1471 · Joined: 22 Jul 2005 Posts: 3632 Location: United Kingdom

imvu are working on a program and have been for a while to search all catalog items and then compare them with all new items as they are uploaded to then auto send a notification to the original owner when it believes there has been a theft, but with issues such as multiple accounts to track to auto ignore and trusting the user that got sent a "is this your product" messege and then making it so that system cant be easly fooled takes time when they have the time and budget to work on it, so u can imagin how pain stakingly slow it is for imvu to get right

for meshers we can place a "signiture" in mesh, just having quite litteraly your name the size of a pixle writen in mesh shows as a uniqu identifyer which could easly be scanned for even in the chicken files, the files save to a level of acurasy well beond what the render engine bothers computing but makes no difference to scan for it

The only real way to get "notified" someone has stolen your mesh is to become famus on imvu and build stuff so uniqu that it can be spotted a mile off, im sure some of my stuff has been nicked without me noticing just yet as with many of us, the more popular a theif gets the sooner they get banned, fortunatly they become victums of there own sucksess and greed
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EnglishTiger · Joined: 16 Jan 2009 Posts: 2963 Location: United Kingdom

Because there is no way of knowing "who is reading what in the forums" there really is no Safe Way of Publicly Discussing Mesh Security. The only probable safe answer is to try to find a way of doing it, check to see if that method works within the IMVU/Cal3D Constraints and then Tell Nobody what you have done.

Without giving anything away I can think of at least one, relatively simple to achieve, XMF change that would cause a File Comparison Routine/Utility to return a "Not Identical Result" which makes the task of Creating Software that is 100% Accurate when comparing files even harder.

P.S. Don't forget that anything you try to Embed in a Mesh File will be Visible to the Determined Mesh Thief so it can really only be used to combat Mesh Theft by the lesser skilled Miscreants.
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neo1471 · Joined: 22 Jul 2005 Posts: 3632 Location: United Kingdom

security is only ever a wall to get over, where theres a will theres a way, would be nice if stealing stuff from imvu wasnt so easy but then encripting files and having them thoguht of "encripted" (or at the very least a propiotry hard to decript format and not have images left as pgn's ect) would be nice, but cost and time at the end of the day its cheaper to stop these things at the credit level and catch them after they have already sold our products into oblivion
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AdelleG · Joined: 10 Oct 2009 Posts: 466 Location: USA - CA

i wonder ... do u guys know for example how the company blizzard that made the games starcraft world of warcraft diablo etc in order for u not to have your account stolen they have an authenticator like u can put it on ur phone and only you can access it and if u have that authenticator even if someone cracks the password for the account they still cant use it because of the authenticator, would be nice if imvu would do something like that for those who make meshes or even textures the authenticator its VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY hard to crack its pretty much almost not worth cracking because its such a pain in the butt so imvu if u see this then it would be nice if u would take it into consideration because Vip thing i dont see that would do anything
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EnglishTiger · Joined: 16 Jan 2009 Posts: 2963 Location: United Kingdom

The biggest problem with IMVU, and the main Mesh/Texture Security Problem is the way in which it/we work. Not only is the IMVU system dependent upon Caching Assets on the User's PC the Concept of Derivable Products, as it now stands, makes the problem of Securing those Meshes and Textures even harder. The simplest solution is not to embed code into files or to even encrypt them but to radically change the way in which the system and content creators work.

Don't forget that under the current "Working Arrangements" the IMVU Software on every Content Creators PC is going to have to Include the Ability to Encode/Decode Encrypted Files.

So, instead of the Product Creating Process taking place on the users PC it needs to be happening in a Secure Workspace on the IMVU Servers. If the assets only ever exist on the IMVU Servers then it is going to become Very Hard for the Miscreants to get their hands on them. Unfortunately, since it would probably mean that Products which can be edited (developed) would need to be on a different server to the Normal IMVU Catalogue it could also mean that the Definition of what Constitutes a Derivable Product would have to Change.

Bringing about those changes is not Rocket Science - but given the Inability of the IMVU Engineers to get anything anywhere near right 1st Time we could Potentially be talking about Rampant Mesh/Texture Theft for the foreseeable future.

Asset Security is not the only Part of the System that needs addressing. Account Security within IMVU continues to be severely weakened by it's Users. Far too may are still willing to share their Passwords with others. It is a sad but True Fact that 50% of "Hacked Account" claims are not as a result of Actual Hacking but because the Account Owner allowed others to access their account or gave them, directly or indirectly, the information to allow the Miscreant to Sign into their Account.
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evaannese · Joined: 05 Sep 2011 Posts: 206 Location: Indonesia

[quote="AdelleG"]Hi does anyone know how to prevent meshes from being stolen? like idk put something in the mesh so if it gets stolen or something it can be identified who stole it so ppl can file a DMCA? If someone knows a way please let me know ty[/quote]

differentiated by age of the Accused as copyright theft product, based on the twin mesh size without any texture, with the help of xaf file size.
when the mesh is considered twins and were the same size as well as some file2 XAF were considered the same. so we can see the older product in date , year, day, month, hour .. how about this ?
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http://www.imvu.com/shop/web_search.php?keywords=&within=creator&page=1&cat=&bucket=&tag=&sortorder=desc&quickfind=new&product_rating=0&offset=&narrow=&manufacturers_id=83645600&derived_from=0&derivable=0&show_duplicates=1&sort=id

SexyMacMan · Joined: 24 Jan 2011 Posts: 72 Location: USA - WA

I do designs with poser software and mesh stealing and whatnot is a big issue, what some devs do is insert a small watermark on the outside of the actual design.

Also you can put a watermark on the entire image and alpha it till its barely visible, if you are good enough you can find the coding added to the image and use that as a marker for discovering your own things if you suspect theft. there are lots of programs out there that allow you to make a watermark and it gives you the code.

I have one such program call police image it lets me break the image down little by little to find a watermark

Just some ideas I watermark everything I have

smilewithtears · Joined: 18 May 2007 Posts: 333 Location: Netherlands

just create a small shape with his own texture id and place it inside your mesh,a letter ao something.
so if the thieves change the texture of that shape by masking it,there still should be the texture slot on the mesh.
i dont think they take the efford to reload meshes into max/c4d to really remove parts of it,so by deriving you can make that shape appear again and so proof that you r the right owner.