A secure digital asset managment network for game development and education

  • Authors:

  • Mike Pattrick;Andrew Hogue;Khalil El-Khatib

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON, Canada;University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON, Canada;University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON, Canada

  • Venue:
  • Future Play '08 Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Future Play: Research, Play, Share
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

The lack of freely available high-quality game development assets is an issue that affects instructors of courses in game development. When purchasing commercial assets for use in independent games, restrictive license agreements must be agreed to which prohibit the re-distribution of the model data and typically limiting the number of uses to a single project or developer --- licensing the models on a per student basis can become prohibitively expensive. Re-distribution of the asset data is however possible as long as the data is compiled into the executable providing a security through obscurity copy protection scheme. This paper focuses on developing a secure method for distribution of digital assets suitable for educational models of development, i.e. classroom or lab settings. We propose the development of a Secure Digital Rights Management Network that enables flexibility in the use of secured assets while maintaining security and limiting their re-distribution. The application of such a system is to be incorporated into an educational setting where students can use the secure assets during the development of class projects while preventing the re-distribution of the copyrighted data.