I don't know how practical this is, but it might be helpful to stop project theft.

So, there should be some kind of “permanent info” section that always sticks to a project, even if you remix it, download it, whatever.
The creator, (at some time, I haven't really figured it out yet,) could add permanent information saying something like “this original project was made by kayybee.” or whatever, and have it displayed somewhere next to the shared project's instructions/notes whatever, along with having it next to any remixes of it.

This could also apply to sprites. (so people don't drag all sprites into backpack, etc. but what about dragging costumes and scripts?)

—Adding permanent info—
I'm not sure when it should be added and/or allowed to change, so here's what I've thought of so far:
Remixers cannot change it. This includes if you “make a copy of project” (even if you're the creator)
Should it be “add the permanent info in the beginning, not allowed to change it again” or “you can change it however often you want as long as you're the creator and this is the original project”?

Is this idea any good?

kayybee wrote:

I don't know how practical this is, but it might be helpful to stop project theft.

So, there should be some kind of “permanent info” section that always sticks to a project, even if you remix it, download it, whatever.
The creator, (at some time, I haven't really figured it out yet,) could add permanent information saying something like “this original project was made by kayybee.” or whatever, and have it displayed somewhere next to the shared project's instructions/notes whatever, along with having it next to any remixes of it.

This could also apply to sprites. (so people don't drag all sprites into backpack, etc. but what about dragging costumes and scripts?)

—Adding permanent info—
I'm not sure when it should be added and/or allowed to change, so here's what I've thought of so far:
Remixers cannot change it. This includes if you “make a copy of project” (even if you're the creator)
Should it be “add the permanent info in the beginning, not allowed to change it again” or “you can change it however often you want as long as you're the creator and this is the original project”?

Is this idea any good?

For me, that is good! I support!

Seems nice. Might get people to stop complaining about project/art theft in Suggestions.

Support!

Complete support! I say maybe remixes should be connected though so that no matter what, when the original project's permanent info is changed, it will change the other projects' permanent info.

Support! It might stop people from wanting remixing banned!

Support if you can change.

This is kind of along the lines of what I was thinking. Support.

Brilliant idea ! +1

cheeseeater wrote:

Support! It might stop people from wanting remixing banned!

I wish “remixing” was banned.

read text below
“remixing” = ripping off

dvd4 wrote:

Brilliant idea ! +1

cheeseeater wrote:

Support! It might stop people from wanting remixing banned!

I wish “remixing” was banned.

read text below
“remixing” = ripping off

Remixing will NEVER be banned! If it was banned, then Scratch will no longer be much of a learning place.

It would work like a signature that follows onto copies of original projects! Full support for that.

However, at what point in editing is a sprite still “yours?” At what point are the scripts not yours anymore? And what if I open a new window and go through all the work to copy your sprites and scripts without backpacking? What if I slowly remove all the elements of a script, sprite, or costume until it contains none of the original contents? I don't think this will work. Sorry.

Listwizard wrote:

It would work like a signature that follows onto copies of original projects! Full support for that.

However, at what point in editing is a sprite still “yours?” At what point are the scripts not yours anymore? And what if I open a new window and go through all the work to copy your sprites and scripts without backpacking? What if I slowly remove all the elements of a script, sprite, or costume until it contains none of the original contents? I don't think this will work. Sorry.

The only possible way to stop people from copying every single script, sound, and costume one by one into a new project is by disabling “see inside”.

This wasn't meant to stop copies completely. The only way is to prevent people from looking inside. But when you have tons of costumes, scripts, and sounds, is it really worth remaking the scripts, screenshot-ing each costume, and recording each sound just to remove this? Just to copy a project?

(separate question of yours) If I had an axe, replaced the handle, then replaced the blade with the one that that handle came from, which axe do I now have? I had the old one, but none of it remains. It's completely a new axe, but I only replaced parts of it.

It just like what you said. But in that case, you should never have taken the new axe apart and replacing parts. Just use the new axe, or make your own script, if you're going to replace every single part of it.

kayybee wrote:

I don't know how practical this is, but it might be helpful to stop project theft.

So, there should be some kind of “permanent info” section that always sticks to a project, even if you remix it, download it, whatever.
The creator, (at some time, I haven't really figured it out yet,) could add permanent information saying something like “this original project was made by kayybee.” or whatever, and have it displayed somewhere next to the shared project's instructions/notes whatever, along with having it next to any remixes of it.

There's some problems with this. What if the message says something that is incorrect for future remixes? For example, if I put a permanent message on the project saying “all images and code in project were made by cheddargirl”, and then someone remixes the project changing the images, then the permanent message will say in the remix that all the images in the remix project were made by me, which would not be true for the remix project.

By the way, you do realize that the remix attribution tag is a pretty much permanent piece of information that credits the seed project owner and links back to the seed project in all remixes, right?

This could also apply to sprites. (so people don't drag all sprites into backpack, etc. but what about dragging costumes and scripts?)

We thought about that, but then it starts becoming tricky:
- What if the media was not made by the user and was from an outside source? It obviously should not be attributed to the project owner.
- What if the user opened up the sprite, but ended up making so many changes that none of the sprite's attributes remained (costumes, code, etc.)? Take the analogy of the axe mentioned earlier, it's like building a completely new customized axe from the old axe's design by slowly adding replacements in order to figure out which custom replacements are necessary to fit your needs. In the end, since all the parts are now custom made, it's definitely your customized new axe, with parts you designed unique to you and different from the old parts of the axe. Not the old one you started off with.
- Let's say a sprite's code was worked on by several users, and then someone remixes it, taking the code designed by one user. How do you attribute the code now? Do you add it to parts of a code? If so, what if a certain part of a code looked similar or the same to that found in another project? Who do you say owns a “forever, if right arrow pressed, move 10 steps” found in a sprite code?

I just named a few of the issues that we came across. Metadata on things like sprites and costumes sound great, but it soon becomes rather complicated. It unlikely to get implemented (or, if it does, it's definitely not going to be implemented anytime soon).