Creating Mesh of Copyrighted Characters

[Ashasekayi Ra]

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Kwakkelde Kwak wrote:

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Ashasekayi Ra wrote:

Thankfully, you can use a free 3D suite to make any one of SL 's assets with the same level of professionalism as you could with Max or Maya. So, in the end, price isn't an excuse for using pirated software in the case of SL content creation.

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I hope I am misreading your post, but I most certainly don't run illegal Autodesk software.

I use the software for SL because I have it at my disposal, I didn't buy it for SL creation, that would have been insane in my position as small SL business owner.

Not that I need it at this point or anytime even remotely soon, but if there's a good 3d painting program out there for free, I'd like to know. So will many others I bet.

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Hmmm... I' m not sure why you would assume I was accusing you of using pirated software. I had no clue what programs you use. To address your 3d painting question, you don't need 3D painting to make content in SL. A texture artist can paint textures properly in a 2D painting program. They did so for years before 3D paint programs existed. That said, Blender does have 3D painting capabilities. I personally use Blender, Zbrush, Xnormal and Photoshop for most of my work. But. I could do the same work with Blender and Gimp. The main difference is that I'd have to put in some extra effort with the texture painting process.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

Just making sure.... apparantly I read it wrong...

A 2D painting program is however not an alternative for a 3D painting program, you can get close I bet.. it does take you about 20 times longer to line up the seams though for example. Also seeing things in perspective helps a lot, especially on nasty pieces of the horrible UV layout of the SL avatar. Being able to get the same results doesn't by defenition mean it's a real alternative.

The artist will always be the biggest factor, give a true artist a pencil, piece of paper and a scanner and he'll get better results than someone without talent using all the software money can buy. That ofcourse doesn't mean the pencil is an alternative to the very best software around...I think that's more or less my point:)

The 3D painting in Blender sounds interesting... worth taking a look at.

[Masami Kuramoto]

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Bouttime Whybrow wrote:

policing for a private company is a civic duty? and so if some regular joe comes across a mickymouse avatar and doesn't notify disney they are neglecting their civic duty? hardly IMO.

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It becomes a "civic duty" if the guy with the Mickey Mouse avatar happens to be competing with you in the SL mesh marketplace. And that is also the reason why the DMCA seems so ineffective: Normal people don't have an incentive to bust someone else's mesh business, so they won't report any possible infringement. They just don't care enough. Only competitors do. Envy is a strong motivator.

The rights holders of course want us to believe that neighborhood watch is a civic duty because they are too cheap to offer rewards. Why pay a bounty if you can have your hit squad for free?

As a libertarian, I find the concept of intellectual property highly questionable. First, it's a monopoly granted by the government that limits everyone's free speech and property rights. If someone has the talent to model a Mickey Mouse avatar from scratch, who are we to deny him the right to do so? Why is it OK to model someone else's furniture, clothing etc. but not someone else's cartoon character? If copyright is so essential, why don't we copyright everything man-made? At least that would be somewhat fair.

Second, copyright is a form of socialist welfare for a class that considers itself privileged. Normally, if your job doesn't earn you enough money, you'll look for a different one. You'll learn something new. Not so if you are an artist. These days if your art doesn't pay well, you'll point at copyright and say: "I'm creative, so I'm entitled to make a decent living from the things I like to do. I deserve to profit from today's work for the rest of my life, plus 95 years. I deserve to have everyone work for me and provide me with $2000 worth of stuff every day because of that song I wrote twenty years ago. If I can't do that, then copyright is flawed and needs to be expanded, at the expense of civil liberties if necessary. God beware if I had to spend my time on a day job like the next guy!"

We have to face the reality that an economy based on physical needs cannot function if everyone creates art instead of doing something useful. So the phenomenon of the "starving artist" will never go away, no matter how far we expand the reach of copyright. There will be no free lunch for all, sorry. If you are not already making a fortune under the copyright regime we have now, you never will, even in a police state where all electronic communication is monitored for "piracy" 24/7 and every book, every song, every movie is DRM-encumbered for eternity. In a free society you can't force people to work and pay for the things you enjoy doing. You can only make them want to pay, and that takes skill.

[Dilbert Dilweg]

It's hard to report stuff that you do not own the copyrights to. Yesterday somone dropped a Porsche Carrera GT . Designed and named so. Somone said above that it would be my civic duty to report it? I am not the owner of the porche trademark. So why would they listen to me? How do I know they didnt get permission from Porche corporation? Whats my Incentive to report it? What would I gain or lose? It's a tough call unless it is my product and I can prove copyright infirngment. If I report that Porche. Shouldn't I have proof that this is indeed infringment and I know they don't have permsssion?

 

What is really odd. This car has a texture under it that has the name of the original creator. but the current car shows it was createD BY ANOTHER RESIDENT...Another Mystery lol

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

I don't litterally recall the "civic duty" phrase, but I think what was ment was the reporting to the IP owner, not to LL. In that case they will have the information right there to see if it is legal or not and they can notify LL.

LL won't respond or act if you report possible IP infringement, unless you are the actual IP owner.

[Dilbert Dilweg]

What I find funny Facebook Has Copyrtight filters in place when creating pages... If you try to create a name thats listed as a copyright it will be rejected till you provide proof of  who you are and your rights of use,,

SL could probably do the same.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

Yes that sounds like a good idea, but there are downsides.

To stay with your Porsche example...it's also a female name. So everyone who is called Porsche should ask for permission to use their own name....that doesn't sound right.

You can't copyright a certain phrase or word or name. You only have copyright in a certain context. That's very hard to filter...

I don't think LL would ever imply it, because of the extra overhead..personally I wouldn't really mind, as long as the copyrighted phrases are by request of the IP owner. But then I think there won't be a lot of companies who would file those phrases...I don't think Porsche or Armani or Sony or whoever is going to log into SL to do such a thing.