If anyone claims they’ve bought your asset or so forth on these forums, it doesn’t hurt to check. Asset piracy is a large problem and it should be nipped in the bud.
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i think the problem is that some customers are illegally posting/sharing assets online
as someone who buys assets from the asset store it looks like unity asset store has very easy way for authors to check invoice numbers even to the point that some asset authors have it automated…
but i dont know of any protection once they customer gets.
perhaps one thing that could be done is for unity/authors to start going after sites that post assets using dmca take down requests
beyond that its very difficult…
if unity has not already done so they could setup some email address where customers could report these sites. it could be sort of the service the unity asset store provides to its authors…
another thing that could be done is when they show up in use authors could ask for proof of license, aka unity invoice number and track use that way…
or unity could setup some site where customers could register usage of owned assets. so for example if i own a certain asset that you published it would show up and i could say im using it in this game and get some authorization for use. if some game for example comes out and has certain asset without such authorization than you sort of know that they are using illegal copy… so licensees are basically saying where they are using and system/authors could use to verify.
I doubt that there’s anything worthwhile we can do to stop dodgy use of our assets. But if someone wants support then I think it’s a pretty fine idea to make sure they’re legit users before spending your time on them, which might even net you a few sales.
I won’t lie, i’m happy to try out an asset before ive bought it and i’m glad i do cause the majority of the time it would have been a complete waste of money. I do however buy anything that i’m going to be using in what i’d consider as of importance - im not making money for my work so i have to pick and choose carefully, and what is important is what realises my aims, very little to do with how anything scales into larger profitability
So if you catch me red handed trying something *(my name will be lazygunn in emails) make any process you think is suitable, i cannot do a thing about my circumstances but im an honest man and im proud of that so… im saying thats that
In addition however, i will add that piracy is rife, like ridiculously rife, and there are people i know who organise group buys on other sites running rife on the forum really being very obnoxious and i find it intolerable, trolling and lying at the same time hardly reflects well on these peoples personal qualities
Unity SHOULD if at all possible integrate the licensing from the asset store more firmly with its own product licensing because atm asset creators can do nothing but shoot down pirate links all day to protect their interests or, a wiser move is to keep all support hidden and personal, or form based from a web site, so noone knows how to use what they bought unless they’re actively communicating with the asset creator
A final suggestion is that asset creators really do their absolute best to show what their asset actually does in excruciating detail so people know EXACTLY what they are getting. That feeling that you just bought garbage is not a good one and you can get a refund but it makes the whole store seem trashy and inconsistent. Its hard to curate these things though so this isnt an insult to unity’s asset QA guys.
Piracy’s never going to be stopped, and i cant lie i benefit from it from time to time otherwise i would have absolutely nothing to do, and it helps me form big purchasing decisions (which on my budget is hair-raising and affects the household) - but! asset creators, even if you do not wish to bring it uo with people you feell are using your asset and have not bought it, keep your eyes on them and make sure its all done in thbest meant manner - if your work is disrespected, misused or really any reason you have reason to feel angry at the use of the asset i wouldnt blame you for taking some actuion, even if it was me in the firing line.
As far as I know though, i’ve been using all bought stuff lately! I hope it stays that way, i’m getting over using other peoples stuff to create MY vision, talking particularly in the realm of models and other art assets
one thing unity could do i guess is require that all asset authors release a webplayer demo that people could move around freely and their their asset, i guess this would not apply to all assets like stuff in editor
also integrate drm into unity editor/runtime that uses generated signed/encryped file with all the licensed assets used and have utility that authors can use to see if some game/etc using unity uses their asset. so it would have like licensee id and asset ids with the build and some utility where you could view that information an search for asset id. or perhaps name.
same with editor it could have some cached local file that is signed/encrypted and it contains licensee id and assets id when person opens protect it checks to see if all the assets are licensed
sure people can go around it, but many wont. also if an asset is found like model that author queries and there is no asset license then they know its illegal
also unity could require licensee to submit all their released stuff and check and if someone later complains at some site the system can check and flag for someone to take a look. so licensee submits work which has said signed/encrypted file it can check against what is licensed. then if someone complains about model x from asset y then it can check said release of license to asset y.
unity could also do licensee/author verification to make sure good name/address sort of like paypal and could require that anyone publishing/buying be verified. they could do a bank check like paypal. so basically they ach couple pennies. require phone number that is verified to name. most of these things can be automated. paypal / financial companies do stuff like this. also they use mail to send u stuff you have to sign. no po box allowed. also they make phonecalls to verify. and they do it periodically…
i mean it would require a bit of effort an dtime to do these kinds of things… and in the end authors will be paying and i guess passing it up to their customers…
daz does stuff ive noticed when i get something and so does steam so they should look at what others are doing and work towards…
I’m a little surprised that some licensing mechanism isn’t in place for you to code into your products with the asset store… perhaps a nice little API could be provided by UT for Pro customers that would allow them to setup a store front here…
perhaps it’s time… considering how much the asset store has been touted as it has at Unite I would think that your interests are their interests.
@ lazygunn
piracy hurts everybody
it makes it more difficult for authors to stay open and working on assets
i dont think unity authors are getting riched these are mom/pop operations
i actually feel sorry/sad for some of these authors seeing how hard they work and the value of their work at very affordable prices and them having to think they are struggling because as some suggest there stuff is being so much illegally used.
also it drives prices up so when you do finally buy it will cost more.
but i do agree some authors are very bad and unity needs to have harsh talk with them and if that fails get rid of them
cause they hurt the value of the asset store and their customers who buy these horrible assets
unity needs to strive to be more like daz and attrack quality authors like daz has and keep them feed so we all benefit. and it dont help if their stuff is being stolen so much. so unity should do what is reasonable to make sure its a good safe honest marketplace. i would love to have the quality of stuff i find on daz. i would think unity should be getting a list of all their email addresses off that site and emailing them asking them to join unity asset store and saying its a safe happy place where they can make money to feed their families or whatever they do with it.
and seeing these posts dont help bring authors in… so it should be addressed somewhat. hopefully not just by having this thread locked/deleted and we all banned 
also unity should i think require 1080p video and/or web player and that their assets include full source code or a reasonable / affordable way to get their source code like if the author stops supporting it, etc. also they should require documentation and complete sample scenes.
no more of this where author has all these videos, web play demos and the assets comes with nothing so good luck ever using it
they also should have some x day money back. basically u get your money back you get flagged and author gets flagged and you no longer have licensed. if you abuse it or author abuses it they are gone… too many people asking for their money back you are gone. you asking too many times for your money back you are gone. and both author and buyer are verified to begin with like with paypal verified account or by bank account… or even service that does verification…
finally, saying you dont make money it is still not license/right/excuse to steal someone elses work… which is what copyright infringement / stolen intellectual property is.
basically you breaking federal/international all fbi/interplol i think, so u risking a lot just to try a little asset.
tbh, considering that many people who uses Unity Free (and there are a lot of them) also making stuff for the AS, this should not be Pro-only.
i use unity free and i would hate to be excluded, i pay for all my stuff 100% even the stuff that sucks and im stuck with 
I agree ostensibly with your feelings towards piracy, youre right, im just not in a position to not take advabtage of it, as like I say without it you could say it would would sigbnificantly affect my quality of life (I’m not going into a sob story), i’m just honest about it as some way to say sorry that i’m using the system (piracy in general) that way
There are certain groups of people in certain circumstances who dont and never will get any external support to support their pastime and ostensibly, work to one day get back into work. Telling them piracy is wrong is a complete waste of time because its either do it or have nothing. Like I say i’m not going to talk about my personal details publicly but im sure if anyone cares enough they can ask in PM.
You do have great ideas however, and it would be nice, definitely, bringing asset licenses under the same umbrella as the main product with license keys and suchlike queryable for any asset and its owner in a build
if unity does not do it there is no reason someone with a little coding skills could not do it. .net/java have all the apis to pull it off and u can always query/tie into unity apis / website… unity could just do like steam and publish public api for drm for their store to verify asset / licensee / author… and people could do the client for them for asset authors to license or unity could do it all themselves. also there is enough undocumented but public c# api to perhaps to do it… it would not be all that hard and then license it to unity… he he he money making idea… i bet authors would love it… unity asset drm asset i came up with the idea ok… i’ll take 1st $1B… need it for my requirement cause by the time that i retire that is what basically a 12oz can of soda will be going for at they rate they are printing
haha, therein lies my next problem, i cant make significant money (more than £4k a year iirc), at all on things i create, unless i can guarantee it will henceforth support myself and my partner (and our planned family) forever
so it better be big money if you cut me a share!
So
What prevents the pirate from removing those things?
Unity3D Asset Piracy Cons:
- Asset authors don’t get paid for each download
2.Possible to get tricked into spending time to provide support even to pirates
Unity3D Asset Piracy Pros:
- Unity3D creators get to “try before they buy” (even if they don’t always buy)
- Word of Mouth, Publicity - more people using your Asset, even if stolen, means more publicity and feedback - for instance, even if your support thread in the forums is 50% pirates, it will still look more imposing and impressive
3.A pirated download does not equal a lost sale (not exactly a “pro” but something to think about) - More people will be drawn to Unity and when they will be able to, will start spending money instead of money: imagine a poor student using a pirated version of Unity + pirated assets - later when he gets a job as a Unity3D dev all of a sudden he needs the “legit” version of the plugin for work - a new customer is born that, without piracy, would not be a unity3d dev and would never use your asset
Wow I didnt think developers would steal from fellow indie developers.
And it will cost you twice as much of your own time dealing with people who haven’t, and most probably never will, pay you a cent.
This is complicated further by the possibility that people who’re pirating are more likely to be less intelligent (I don’t feel bad making crude assumptions), so are probably more demanding on a support front.
A popular defensive myth. The reality is, it’s impossible to substantiate.
The same as above. It’s an idealistic view, the problem is people don’t behave idealistically.
I am not an asset author myself but i have been buying the odd asset on the asset store. One thing i would really like to see is unity offering free, limited licences of assets so you can try them out. I have been spending money on assets that would not completely suit my needs (though the description and forum post suggested otherwise)
Piracy will never stop. The best thing to do is make it easy and attractive to buy the right product by letting potential buyers play around with an asset for a few hours (or days… idk) before buying. As it stands now i have quite a few assets on my wishlist, but i’ll be damn sure to try them and fiddle around before i actually buy them
this makes it easy to catch tehm
since in pirated version would not be registered / there is no authorization for use.
so if an asset is being used in some game, application, etc that is not registered / authorized its easy to tell since author can go to some website / run time utility and lookup the asset get the id and look up the game/application, etc and if not found no license easy to do dmca takedown could be automated you can run scans for your assets inside unity solution and check for license. also i guess they can look up for a game/application, etc everybody who licensed it…
basically it keeps track of who is using which assets for what. could be easy website. they already know authors of assets and buyers of assets. what they dont know is where they are being used. so license could be changed easy enough to require registration of game/application/etc. unity could also require that people submit a cioy of their game/application/etc. so when u see a game that uses unity you could lookup the name of the game/application/etc, author, ect and see if they are licensed and authorized to use in such game/application/etc
how could it be defeated by pirate, i guess they could use the name of some other game/application/etc that is authorized, and the name of some other author that is licensed. but it would be different game/application/etc so its obvious since both wont be the same
some valid points as to pros of piracy…
the thing is not to stop people playing around as much as people making money off it
so if its commercially you want easy (automated) way of searching/finding out and using courts, laws, dmca takedown, etc
but if its someone playing around not making any money then its less of a problem by their use.
The majority of them are people that do it for fun on their own and won’t ever publish anything. Unfortunately, I think that is still a sizable portion of Unity’s userbase.