Check this out!

Note: Please check the link. This is not a part of the Scratch website. This is @griffpatch's Scratch project uploaded to another site with no recognition.

It's an exact copy of @griffpatch's Geometry Dash.

It's his work uploaded on there so that it gets more views.

My question is whether it's legal to do something like that.

(May I note: I am NOT considering to do something similar. People I know have started viewing this, and I don't want them to be using illegal content.)

Other notes:

1.

Geometry Dash is a series of five video games developed by Sweden-based developer Robert Topala, and published by his company, RobTop Games. The principal game, Geometry Dash, it is a rhythm-based platforming game which currently has 21 official levels and has more than 40 million online levels made by players.

Never ONCE was @griffpatch credited.

2.

KD wrote:

I like this site

This is just outrageous. Whoever uploaded this had no part in anything involved in it, and the user likes the things in the site? And there's no clarification that this was not created by whoever uploaded this? That's why I think this exists to get more views.

3. A user named “griff patch” made a reply:

thank you joey for liking my game well not my game it was my dads but he passed so im doing it for him thx so s much >'- -<

Does @griffinboy use bad grammar, though?

Another one named “griffpatch” replied with:

im having shout outs so if you want one plz like my game soon there will be a new update theres gonna be lot of bonus round and as i said it have fun like my game and rate it also the first shout out goes to : MARK well done

It's good to note that there was no new update. It's been like the same for a while, and that comment was from last October. This guy is probably a fraud. Also, @griffpatch has never used grammar like that anywhere that I've ever seen.

I don't think it's very legal, even though it's licensed to the CC license.
To be honest, they're not very smart for leaving in the credits.
EDIT:
It looks like they have illegal ports of games too.
It looks like they can use a lawsuit

Probably not, but I'm not sure. There's always a possibility that Griffpatch allowed it, even though it's small.

Vercte wrote:

I don't think it's very legal, even though it's licensed to the CC license.
To be honest, they're not very smart for leaving in the credits.
EDIT:
It looks like they have illegal ports of games too.
It looks like they can use a lawsuit

KaraKorussi wrote:

Probably not, but I'm not sure. There's always a possibility that Griffpatch allowed it, even though it's small.

Okay! Thank you! I know we're not sure yet whether it's legal, but I'll give them a heads-up when I can.

EDIT: I would still appreciate it if someone who was sure of its legality to let me know!

Yes it is legal, as long as you credit griffpatch.

Scratch Projects are under CC BY NC SA
BY - credit author
NC - non commercial
SA - share alike (don't copyright it)

There is no exact copying rules

The license that Scratch uses (CC BY-SA 2.0) stipulates that any use of licensed work must contain proper attribution - and I literally can't find any legal page on that site. There also isn't any attribution to Griffpatch on the front page, so immediately this site is in violation of that license.

But it's not as clear-cut as it seems, because section 2 the full license (and not the human readable summary) says that “Nothing in this license is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any rights arising from fair use, first sale or other limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner under copyright law or other applicable laws. ” So does this meet the UK's fair dealing criteria (griffpatch lives in the UK, according to his profile)?

This site suggests that it would not, because it uses the entire copyrighted work, there is no appropriate acknowledgement of the original copyright holder, and that the site seems to be a commercial enterprise (there's ads on it if you disable your adblocker). Factors that do not weigh against the use include that the work was not acquired illegitimately, and that the use (probably) does not interfere with griffpatch's exploitation of his own work,

So unless he approved of it in a PM conversation, this is most likely illegal.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a copyright lawyer. Copyright law is hard and confusing, and I'm just trying my best based on my limited knowledge of how the law works. This post is for informational purposes only and should not be used as specific legal advice. If you need specific legal advice, you should contact a copyright attorney.

it's against the community guidelines, so report it for “exact copy of project”.

scratchykit5743 wrote:

it's against the community guidelines, so report it for “exact copy of project”.

Um… It's not actually on scratch. Did you see the link?

I'm not sure this is okay unless of course he remixed it. :[
You might want to report him or tell him in the comments why he should take it down. Like i said, i'm not completely sure if this is okay or not, but you should still worn him to take it down.

Can you put in the OP that this isn't Scratch? People aren't understanding this.

Vercte wrote:

Can you put in the OP that this isn't Scratch? People aren't understanding this.

Sure thing! One moment…

EDIT: Done!

I was looking through the comments, and I found out that a user named “griff patch” made a reply:

thank you joey for liking my game well not my game it was my dads but he passed so im doing it for him thx so s much >'- -<

Does @griffinboy use bad grammar, though?

EDIT: A user named “griffpatch” replied with this:

im having shout outs so if you want one plz like my game soon there will be a new update theres gonna be lot of bonus round and as i said it have fun like my game and rate it also the first shout out goes to : MARK well done

It's good to note that there was no new update. It's been like the same for a while, and that comment was from last October.

Also, @griffpatch has never used bad grammar anywhere that I've ever seen.

scratchykit5743 wrote:

it's against the community guidelines, so report it for “exact copy of project”.

EmEm317 wrote:

I'm not sure this is okay unless of course he remixed it. :[
You might want to report him or tell him in the comments why he should take it down. Like i said, i'm not completely sure if this is okay or not, but you should still worn him to take it down.

Please do make sure you actually looked at the link. It's not a part of the Scratch website, but it's a Scratch project uploaded somewhere else.

Whoa whoa whoa, griffpatch wasn't credited? There's the illegality for me, his game has also been uploaded here.

I think this is a huge legal issue, if it's under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, griffpatch HAS to be credited, like Flowermanvista said, unless he gave them permission via private conversations, this is most definitely illegal

Super_Scratch_Bros20 wrote:

I was looking through the comments, and I found out that a user named “griff patch” made a reply:

thank you joey for liking my game well not my game it was my dads but he passed so im doing it for him thx so s much >'- -<

Does @griffinboy use bad grammar, though?

EDIT: A user named “griffpatch” replied with this:

im having shout outs so if you want one plz like my game soon there will be a new update theres gonna be lot of bonus round and as i said it have fun like my game and rate it also the first shout out goes to : MARK well done

It's good to note that there was no new update. It's been like the same for a while, and that comment was from last October.

Also, @griffpatch has never used bad grammar anywhere that I've ever seen.

I would not be surprised if people impersonate griffpatch outside of Scratch.
And considering that there was never an update to the game, I think we can assume these people are not griffpatch.

There is also an app on the galaxy store (for yall samsung users out there) called “scratch projects” which ports the projects onto the app and makes it with mobile controls not sure if thats legal because you can upload projects under anyones names (works only with 2.0 projects)

ittybitmap wrote:

There is also an app on the galaxy store (for yall samsung users out there) called “scratch projects” which ports the projects onto the app and makes it with mobile controls not sure if thats legal because you can upload projects under anyones names (works only with 2.0 projects)

That's not cool and neither is the guy from the OP

I am 99.99% sure that that was made before griffpatch's project

scratchmaster295 wrote:

I am 99.99% sure that that was made before griffpatch's project

Are you sure? His is from 2016. I'm not checking all of these countless comments, but most of them are from 2019.

EDIT: I went through at least 30 “see five more comments” (That's an educated guess. I don't count how many times I click that. However, I clicked it constantly, over and over. I'll get a more accurate response momentarily.). They are mostly from during or after August 2019.

scratchmaster295 wrote:

I am 99.99% sure that that was made before griffpatch's project

Then why does it say “ported to Scratch by griffpatch” in it?