{"id":1195262,"date":"2023-10-23T13:46:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T17:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1195262"},"modified":"2023-10-23T13:46:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T17:46:10","slug":"dev-sets-up-goatse-trap-for-sites-that-steal-his-free-web-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1195262","title":{"rendered":"Dev sets up \u201cgoatse\u201d trap for sites that steal his free web game"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \"Is<\/p>\n

Enlarge<\/a> \/<\/span> Is this “evocative” header image stretching the limits of good taste? (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/div>\n

Here at Ars, we’ve seen time and again how simple web and\/or mobile games can be cloned<\/a> or outright stolen<\/a> by unscrupulous developers<\/a> aiming to cash in on someone else’s game concept. But developer Josh Simmons was in a unique position to inflict a particularly rude punishment on websites that were directly stealing and monetizing his web game Sqword<\/em><\/a> without permission.<\/p>\n

Since its launch last year<\/a>, Simmons says he has attracted a “steady group of daily active users” for Sqword<\/em>, which involves placing letters sequentially in a 5\u00d75 grid to make as many valid words as possible. But as noted on Simmons’ blog<\/a> (and noticed by 404 Media<\/a>), searching for Sqword<\/em> also brings up several “game aggregator” sites that simply embed the game content from Sqword.com<\/a> in an iFrame window, only now surrounded by annoying banner ads.<\/p>\n

“This made me angrier than it should have\u2014not because Sqword<\/em> is a cash cow\u2014we don’t run ads on the site and don’t make money from it, it’s just for fun\u2014but because it was a passion project with friends, something pure and intentionally free to play WITHOUT ads,” Simmons writes. “It’s against my ethos as a developer, there are banners and popups everywhere. If I build an app, I believe it should either be free or it should be upfront about what the subscription or purchase price is (and then not upsell you). I couldn’t abide seeing my code monetized in this way.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read 4 remaining paragraphs<\/a> | Comments<\/a><\/p>\n


\n
\nSource: Ars Technica – Dev sets up \u201cgoatse\u201d trap for sites that steal his free web game<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enlarge \/ Is this “evocative” header image stretching the limits of good taste? (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) Here at Ars, we’ve seen time and again how simple web and\/or mobile games can be cloned or outright stolen by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1195263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,110],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-1195262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-ars-technica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1195262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1195263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1195262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1195262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1195262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}