As suggested, here is a thread for the following status update chain: As I take it, we could possibly make some content protection setup for authors by using the encryption hooks in our zip libraries. To what degree we would cater to that is hard to say but I am on the side of making it easier for semi-pros or professionals to release TDM missions without fear of losing their assets to the community. That said, missions can include distribution clauses in the readme so you can still legally enforce your ownership of custom assets in your pk4 pack. Obviously we would need to carefully review the license terms if the mission author wanted us to include these non-free assets in the core mod but if their request is that only TDM can use the assets then that's no different than the many commercial texture assets we include that have non-commercial clauses that don't allow TDM to simply offer them as a Texture Pack (etc). Edit: Thread closed. See discussion here: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18924-securing-assets/