Heya there,

I came across a certain topic on the Steam Community forums, in which advertised a website called PortalDB.

On taking a look at the maps that have been cough uploaded cough to the website, it appears that the map 'uploads' are identical to the ones that are in the download database on ThinkingWithPortals. So this website appears to be leeching data and files from this website by pulling data from the downloads.

Your thoughts on this guys actions?

http://www.portal2maps.net/ seems to do the same, except they just send you here, they don't host the files themselves. I was going to mention it earlier, but I forgot.

Rubrica wrote:
http://www.portal2maps.net/ seems to do the same, except they just send you here, they don't host the files themselves. I was going to mention it earlier, but I forgot.

I know about Portal2maps.net, and I knew that it directs you here. Otherwise I would've mentioned it. =P

The only reason I mentioned the website is because they seem to be re-distributing content without peoples permission.

lol yeh they seem to take all the map stats and just copy/paste the database info

And then they don't even have my map! :@

KenJeKenny!? wrote:
And then they don't even have my map! :@

GASP! Sacrilege!

Hmm... I smell a possible lawsuit?

MasterLagger wrote:
Hmm... I smell a possible lawsuit?

Are you American?

Yeah, nice guess .

It does appear as though some data is being taken from TWP, mainly the description and possibly other information. In any case, if they are in fact uploading maps to their site without the authors' permission I will bring this up to the rest of the staff and figure out what to do.

Well, they are, in at least one case; Lostprophetpunk's map is on there, and, considering he brought this up, I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be.

I've seen other Portal 2 Mapping Websites besides TWP. It's possible that they copy some good maps from other sites and stick them on their site.

WinstonSmith wrote:
It does appear as though some data is being taken from TWP, mainly the description and possibly other information. In any case, if they are in fact uploading maps to their site without the authors' permission I will bring this up to the rest of the staff and figure out what to do.

They are uploading the maps to their website. I have never ever uploading anything or been in contact with that website at all. Apart from browsing it to see my map there. I'm pretty sure none of you hae uploaded your maps there.

Poral2Maps.net has the idea to this guys plan, but they carry it out in a way that they don't break any rules etc, by directing the downloader to this website for the download.

Isn't it possible to block certain links to or from websites?

MasterLagger wrote:
Isn't it possible to block certain links to or from websites?

Ahm...not quite sure what you mean here, but it is possible to prevent hotlinking files. Unfortunately, this doesn't stop someone from manually downloading a file and uploading it or writing some sort of script that downloads even non-hotlinked files and uploads them somewhere else.

Well, if all else fails, publicly humiliate the people taking this site's maps. Maybe ask the people that posts stuff on Steam News (ex: kotaku) about doing a report about PortalDB redistributing maps. I know what they're doing is "legal", so having an story giving them bad publicity would also be "legal."

Then everyone would steal it just to get into steam news. No?

iWork925 wrote:
Then everyone would steal it just to get into steam news. No?

I hope that was sarcasm. Nobody likes receiving bad publicity.
I still think my last post is a good idea if nobody else has anymore ideas.

As it says on the news page: > Quote:

We have done a lot of work and PortalDB evolves greatly. We hope you enjoy this service and keep submiting your great work.
If you feel something needs to be changed or improved don't hesitate to let us know: Every suggestion is welcome. Simply send an email to
admin/a\portaldb.net

So probably the best thing to do would be to have the TWP staff send an email to the aforementioned address, notifying whoever is waiting on the other end that what they're doing is kinda sorta illegal and that they should stop ASAP.

Ok that's a good idea. But if the staff does e-mail the admin, I would advise not to give them an ultimatum. By which I mean: Don't say your going to do something if they refuse or ignore the message. That might cause some issues.

MasterLagger wrote:
Nobody likes receiving bad publicity.

I've got news for you mate, bad publicity is still publicity. Friday was a horribly written song, but it still racked up a fair amount of view on YouTube, didn't it?

Anyway, though we haven't discussed it yet I can say the last thing we're going to try is public humiliation, that's a last resort if at all.