Anti-piracy measures reverted

Sometimes you have to try something to see if it works. A few days ago I introduced some extra checks that restricted exporting from ModelConverterX when you are modifying a model for which you don’t seem to be the author. I have now reverted those changes, because they didn’t work out as expected. There are three main reasons why they didn’t work as theoretically assumed:

  • The mechanism to detect if you are the author was not robust enough, it also gave this warning for people who were modifying their own models.
  • The mechanism didn’t account for the fact that some people want to make modifications for their own usage, without the intention to redistribute them.
  • The mechanism was mainly intended to protect the complex 3rd party aircraft models, but it turned out more and more AI models also use custom animations. It was never the intention to limit the modification of such models as well.

So due to these reasons I have removed the restriction again now and you can use ModelConverterX on any model as before.

Of course it is still very important that developers respect each others copyright. So that is something that I will keep stressing on the forums. But it didn’t turn out to be feasible to let ModelConverterX check this, without restricting many genuine users. What remains is an appeal on all developers to only distribute work that you have made yourself or for which you have permission to distribute it from the original author.

8 thoughts on “Anti-piracy measures reverted

  1. Ron Attwood says:

    Thank you Arno. Not only for actually listening to people, but for creating what, for me, is an essential tool in my repaint endeavors. I don’t think I’d bother without it!

  2. Ron Attwood says:

    Oops! I spoke too soon! 🙂 The new version which I presume is the one I downloaded from ‘Development Updates’ still displays the same result minus the ‘warning’. Perhaps there is another location for it?

    • arno says:

      What results you mean? The last version is under development releases indeed.

      • Ron Attwood says:

        I did download from development releases. I hope this link to my screenshot works
        http://www.finnglish.co.uk/scrns/MCXa.JPG
        Best I can do to explain. Is there a log for the error?

        • arno says:

          I think I have fixed this one yesterday evening, so try again with today’s release please.

          • Ron Attwood says:

            I got another copy today..twice! Still the same. I’ve deleted all old copies except 1.30. I’ve cleaned the registry although I don’t think you make any registry entries. Still the same. Oddly enough the old entries in the import list are still there! That can’t be right can it?
            Can I be the only one having this problem? I don’t see anyone else crying. 🙂

          • arno says:

            You’re not the only one I think, got some error reports and an email about it as well.

            I guess there’s another bug then. I’ll try some of the files from the error report and see if I can reproduce.

            The last file entries are stored in the user settings and are stored per version number. So that they remain is ok.

  3. Jirayu Tanabodee says:

    I think it might me a good idea if the maker of the model and texture can add their password through MCX and the password will get embedded in BGL file.
    MCX can let other people see the model with texture, but it prevent exporting into MDL and texture without authorized password. That would be great if it is possible. I don’t know it can be true, just only suggesting.

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