I'm new at this...Is there a place where developers for plug-ins may post their ideas so that others will not infringe or "copy" their ideas? I have a friend who swears that he posted an idea, and it was plagiarized a week later. Is it a "first come first serve" basis, or is there an official posting site?

Yes, I'm making a plug-in, but...:)

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"When Israel cried out to the LORD for help, the LORD raised up a man to rescue them. His name was Ehud...who was left-handed. Ehud made himself a double-edged dagger that was 18" long..." Judges 3:12-30

I believe this board is for developers to share ideas and/or ask for help on specific problems. As for "copying" ideas, I believe if one's dumb enough to spill their idea when they are planning to make a plug-in but then someone else beat them to it then it's their own damn fault. I share my ideas for plug-ins here and on Nova's board sometimes but I don't plan on making a plug-in myself since I don't have the time nor the knowledge so I would actually be happy if someone else made a plug-in based on my idea. Also, if you believe you have a good idea for a plug-in and you're also good at making plug-ins then you shouldn't have anything to worry about if someone else made a plug-in with a similar idea/story 'cause people would prefer yours 'cause you're better right? My 2 cents.

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Also, unless your "idea" is copyrighted then you have no right to whine. Again, it's your own damn fault to spill your ideas w/o making sure no one can beat you to making a plug-in based on it.

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Once you sift out the attitude from kulong's posts, you might find something useful. The thing is, when you post an idea on a public board, there's always a chance that someone is going to appropriate it. The impression I get is that once a plug is actually finished , it's off-limits to poachers. But a publicly-discussed idea for a plug, or for some aspect of a plug, doesn't seem to have much in the way of protection. I should add that I've net really seen a lot of this kind of poaching going on here. I'd like to hear what the more established folk here have to say on this.

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"Your death will be the proof that Horus does not lie."
Roger Zelazny, Creatures of Light and Darkness

And the other thing to keep in mind is that if somebody else releases a plug that uses your idea, there's a reasonable chance that they came up with it on their own.
I've seen instances where I came up w/ some idea completely on my own, and then, some time later, encountered a post by somebody who'd thought of the same thing and then asked that nobody else use it. And that makes me mad, b/c if I use that notion, that person is going to think I took their idea, when I'd really come up w/ it on my own long before they posted it.
In short, the only way to 'secure' a plug-in idea is to get the plug released ASAP - and even then, don't expect others to abandon designs just b/c they're too similar to something you've done.
There are, however, a couple of exceptions to this: any sounds or graphics that you made are yours, and shouldn't be copied by others w/o your permission. Also, plugin names tend to be unique.

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(Insert Signature Here)

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Originally posted by Wyvern:
I've seen instances where I came up w/ some idea completely on my own, and then, some time later, encountered a post by somebody who'd thought of the same thing and then asked that nobody else use it. And that makes me mad, b/c if I use that notion, that person is going to think I took their idea, when I'd really come up w/ it on my own long before they posted it.

That happens in real life, too; a building in downtown Nashville (where I am; well, not the downtown part, but the Nashville part) has two pointy tips to it on either side. I creatively called it the Bat-building (since it looks like Batman). Lots of other people call it that, too, but they insist that they (or someone else that they know) came up with it first.

Another (better) example would be the telephone. The telephone was actually invented by someone else, too, but AGB got to the patent office first.

As for the topic, you shouldn't share ideas in a public place unless you're well on your way to having them finalized. Loose lips sink ships.

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I've been hanging around the developers board for maybe a year and a half, and I've never seen many complaints about people stealing the ideas of others. While I'm sure it has and does happened, I don't think it's too much of a problem. The developers here are a community that generally has respect for each other and their ideas.

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(url="http://"http://www.wheenit.com/monkey-robot/")www.wheenit.com/monkey-robot/(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by kulong:
Also, unless your "idea" is copyrighted then you have no right to whine.

Actually, copyright does not protect ideas at all - only their execution. So, even if your plug-in is released, you have no recourse if someone merely "stole your idea" but created all of their own content. As for the vaporware world of unreleased plug-ins, it's as EVula said: loose lips sink ships. With alarming frequency.

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David Arthur
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Originally posted by EVula:
**
Another (better) example would be the telephone. The telephone was actually invented by someone else, too, but AGB got to the patent office first.

**

I'd hate to rant on about this, but the guy (the dude who invinted the radio, Grey) who invinted it first did in fact get to the patent office first, however, the patent office got screwed up with the time, and Belle's uncle barged in and said that his nephew did indead get there first. (which was a lie, but oh well) It was a sort of race between Belle, Grey, and Edison. It's just a little UberGeek trivia. I'll shut up now.

RETURNING TO TOPIC-
Whenever I think up a plugin, either it's to stupid for anybody else to think up, or it's already been finished by someone else eons ago.

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"I've just had a brilliant stroke of genius! Oh now I've forgotten it." -Me

I'm just sick and tired of people automatically accuse others of "STEALING" ideas as if their idea is just SOOOO wonderful that everyone wants it so bad.

As some people have mentioned above, it's VERY possible for two similar or almost identical ideas to exist at the same time.

Quit jumping to conclusion and think the worst.

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Best bet is to just make the plug, then release it, and not tell anyone much about plot and such before then. Releasing pictures and all is fine, because it says nothing about the plug (in terms of plot), and I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to actually copy someone else's graphics and use them in their own plug which they release before you.

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"What goes up must come down, unless it reaches Escape Velocity and flies off to Palshife to join the Rebellion."
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Originally posted by mrxak:
**Best bet is to just make the plug, then release it, and not tell anyone much about plot and such before then. Releasing pictures and all is fine, because it says nothing about the plug (in terms of plot), and I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to actually copy someone else's graphics and use them in their own plug which they release before you.

**

I agee

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I don't think you should be too paranoid about this sort of thing, at least not here. True, it does happen, but you can't expect to put ideas out there and not leave an impression on somebody, on some degree. If you really argue about it, they could just say that your idea "inspired" them, and you can't really contest that. How many plugs have been inspired by legally copyrighted material, such as Babylon 5 or Star Wars? It's clear who had the idea first, perhaps, but you'll both take it to a different end result anyhow, and the plugs may then appear similar, but certainly not identical.

If it's an engine idea especially, it's all in how you connect it to the story in the game. In this way, some clever Control Bit trick could be hijacked by three other people, and none of the four plugs would bare any resemblence.

If it's a graphic or a ship design that someone copied, it's all in their attitude about it. I made a ship a while back called the "Apollo", which I myself made three versions of, and I believe four other people have made similar ships after seeing mine, inspired by mine. I think that's neat, personally, as well as flattering. If they ripped a sprite right out of your plug, though, it will be widely known, and they couldn't survive here by trying to take credit for plug graphics already released.

...At any rate, as far as I understand it, this developers board is just as much for sharing ideas as it is for sharing knowledge and asking questions. I like to trust in people that they won't try to take credit for something somebody else publicly posted, but whether or not they use that idea or play around with it is entirely up to them. It's all about taking credit you don't deserve, i guess.

But, if you are paranoid about it, avoid telling the world all your ideas, by all means. Like EVula said, loose lips sink ships.

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(url="http://"http://mailto:ckey@integraonline.com") - () () / }{ - (/url)
where...
...am I?

Basically, in this forum, one will post weird/interesting use of the engine to make the game better.
For example, I developped (but I'am perhaps not the first one), a way to make missions with two ends, in the standard EV Nova web board (look for a message from me in (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum26/HTML/004204-4.html")this thread(/url)). This allows the player to be really master of his destiny, cheating his employer if he wants, for example.
Even if I didn't release yet a plug-in with this feature (I'm quite busy), I would be delighted to have people using it: it makes IMHO the game more enjoyable...
So don't be afraid to have somebody "steal" your ideas: it just show they were good... and keep using them in your own products!

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(edited to fix the URL)

(This message has been edited by cavin (edited 05-03-2002).)

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Originally posted by Onyx:
**....If you really argue about it, they could just say that your idea "inspired" them, and you can't really contest that. How many plugs have been inspired by legally copyrighted material, such as Babylon 5 or Star Wars?....

**

When one does say that this idea was "inspired" by such and such, already that person has given credit to somebody. Like if I made a plug-in and I said that "This game was inspired by 'Frozen Heart' or 'The Cygnus Alliance'" I would of now given credit to those that created those 2 games.

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Nosumus Fortiolis Quad Volimus

I don't think that anyone would be callous enough to "steal" a plot of a plug while you're talking about it, and then put out something before you do. That'd be wrong, and probably result in the person's future plugs to be ignored (unless they're really outstanding.)

Matrix

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"Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool."

The problem with that, though, is it becomes a question of who had the idea first--many times, it's simply your word against theirs.

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Kalos.
(url="http://"http://www.wheenit.com/monkey-robot/")Monkey-Robot(/url)

Well, realistically, would a person actually be able to get a plug out faster than another person who's been working on it a while? If Person A works on a plug for a few weeks, then halfway through development releases all the information about it, it would be very difficult for Person B to do all the work in less than half the time. It is another matter if you make an extremely small plug that takes a few days at the most, in which case you probably wouldn't have much to say anyway, and those are pretty common-place anyway, with plenty of "repeats".

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"What goes up must come down, unless it reaches Escape Velocity and flies off to Palshife to join the Rebellion."
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Well, I found a very impressive aproach at making the systems for my Wing Commander plug-in, knowledge that I won't release until my plug-in is available for all 3 EV's... That's just the starter! I made over 400 systems in 1 week using that method, all of the systems are in PERFECT alignment with the map that comes with Wing Commander Prophecy and all the systems are connected to the right places... This is something that would take months to accomplish without my method. (unless you thought of the same aproach ) Anyways, it's inevitable to me that someone out there will read my posts and say "Hey! Wing Commander, that's a great idea! I'll make one and say I had the idea first!" But I doubt if that will a problem for me since I'm ahead. I have released alot of information about my plug-in so far but not enough for anyone to copy my plot or story or any of that since it's simply based on the Wing Commander universe and characters. If someone releases a WC plug-in before I do, oh well, I'll download it and try it out just to see where they went wrong so I can avoid the same mistakes

I say, if they steal my ideas, then I steal theirs! As for the possibility that someone has already mentioned working on a Wing Commander Plug-in... to my knowledge, no one has claimed this task.

Well, I'll be off now...

Maniac Angel Raptor

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