Possible tip against piracy

[PerrydPelle]

Sadly piracy is a big problem in the ETS2/ATS community, but I might have found a way to minimise it. I have noticed that my IL-RL open border mod has not been pirated, not the old, not the new one, I think this is because I didn’t provide any screenshots in the first post, and uploading to those dodgy sites requires at least 5 screenshots, which the thieves get from the first post, I have now put 5 screenshots in all my IL-RL border topics, and if they get pirated now, then we know that there is a solution, don’t include screenshots.

[PerrydPelle]

And I was right, now that I provided five screenshots, it got pirated http://www.ets2world.com/promods-v2-45- ... v2-0-ets2/ So, for anyone who wants to upload a mod in the future, DONT provide any screenshots!

[BenganJ]

DAMN, they are not only PIRATES, they are LAZY ones too!

[PerrydPelle]

I wouldn’t be surprised if those pirates don’t even play ETS2 or ATS, and if they do, they probably pirated it

[whatever]

This is a bit of a necro, but you might want to consider this:
There are hundreds of mods within the ETS2 community, yet within a few minutes of your release it is uploaded all over the web. How does that work?
I have reason to believe that the mod pirates are using regular expressions, looking for version number changes of the mods. That process can be automated pretty easily and all you need is a database of mod names/version numbers and compatible mod versions/game versions. If you then parse the usual forums regularly enough you will be able to find any mod update. Since it has been consensus in the ETS2 modding community to use version numbers as a marker for new content, this is a pretty easy job for anybody looking for updates by automated means.

Let's have a look at the Finnmark Mod as an accidental example. This mod might have accidentally contributed to our understanding of mod piracy: It does not use version numbers. It just uses version names. "Varanger" "Nordkynvegen" etc. The files have an internal build or version number but that number never appears in the promods forum topic where the new versions are released. The forum topic, however, describes compatibility by referring to the promods and game versions.
On its first release the Mod was uploaded all over the web within 24h. Then, the second release came around, which was named "Nordkynvegen" rather than 0.2 or 43.2 or whatever, additionally the game and promods versions never changed in the meantime, so the forum topic title just went from one name to another, leaving the displayed versions of promods and ets2 unchanged. This release never took on traction and to this date you cannot really find it on the web. Release had been beginning of Febuary. Eventually ets2 1.40 came around and with it promods 2.52. Then the Finnmark Mod released a compatibility update at the end of March... This one was still labelled "Nordkynvegen" since the content did not change, but it had an internal new build number. However, more importantly the forum topic title changed to show it was compatible with the new versions. Then, within hours once again that release was to be found all over the web. Consequently, the "Samelandet" release which works for the same versions as before the 2nd version of Nordkynvegen did not get uploaded to the websites in question. The release is already 10 days old. It is nowhere to be found...

To sum it up: There is evidence of uploaders not uploading a new release of a mod for about 2 months, simply because the version number never changed. A change of version numbers, however, triggers uploads to everywhere within 24h.

Even more hilariously, the re-uploaders gave the Finnmark Mod version numbers like 0.1 and 0.2. This might be due to the fact that they need to work with version numbers in order to find out what kind of version already has been uploaded in order to avoid unnecessary uploads on their side.

[BenganJ]

@whatever

A really interesting idea! Thanks for that! Even for troubleshooting problems with mods
the INTERNAL version number will be enough, as SCS in the game log display the one
from the manifest file.

[orucovic]

Tbh, I personally never install mods without looking at the screenshots in the first place. So, I am not so sure if this is the best solution.