Using CC0 and SIL Open Font License

[CRTVDex]

Is it okay to use SIL Open Font License and CC0 Licenses in our works. 

For example using a CC0 Licensed texture to paint your work, or using SIL Font on your store logo etc.

I ask because TOS and other forum topics confuses me.

Have a nice day. 

[ChinRey]

I don't think anybody has managed to come up with a precise answer but we try our best.

Technically the SL TOS requires you to hand over quite a bit of rights to LL for everything you upload and you can't do that unless you actually have those rights yourself of course.

When it comes to fonts, it's fairly simple: the font creator doesn't have any ip rights to the text written with it in much the same way a paint manufacturer doesn't have any ip rights to an artist's painting. As long as you have the license to use the font for commercial purposes, you can.

Textures are a bit more complicated though. If we're to take the TOS literally, you can only use photos you've taken yourself and your own original artwork as bases for your textures but an interpretation as strict as that would probably exclude 99.99% of all textures in SL and that's simply not an option.

I think the general consensus is that it's ok to use and distribute CC0 content non-commercially (charging a Linden or two to cover upload costs still counts as non-commercial if you ask me). It is also perfectly ok to use modified CC0 content commercially and to use unmodifed CC0 content as part of your build. Selling CC0 content for profit as it is not ok but nobody's going to kill you for it - if they did half the texture merchants on MP would have been dead by now.

Here's an example. This drape texture is the straight output from one of the presets of a FilterForge filter:

It's a ready made texture. If you have FilterForge installed, all you have to do is download the filter for free from the online library and click on the "Save Image" button. If you don't have FIlterForge, you can grab the factory preset textures from their web site, it's all CC0.

If you uploaded this to SL and sold it for profit, you would be on morally thin ground (I wouldn't be since I also made the filter that generates this effect ) but it would not be illegal and this is exactly what many texture merchants do. Any other use of the texture - even something as simple as adding it to a prim and sell - is perfectly ok.

This is the same filter applied to a CC0 texture - one by the great Linda Kellie:

Load filter, open base texture, click the save button. It takes less than a minute but it still counts as an original work and if you put that much effort into it, you own it and are free to do whatever you like with it.

Edited November 30, 2019 by ChinRey

[CRTVDex]

Thank you very much for the reply! From what I get, it's okay to use SIL and CC0 (modified better) in our works.

[ChinRey]

17 minutes ago, CRTVDex said:

From what I get, it's okay to use SIL and CC0 (modified better) in our works.

From what I can see, yes. But I'm not a lawyer and I can't give legal advice of course.

Edited November 30, 2019 by ChinRey