Can I sell Turbosquid stuff in a store

[ethan Renfold]

  I have been thinking about having a store but I can't make mesh so wondered if I could just use mesh already made, and just have a marketplace store. I had thought it was not allowed to do that but someone tweated this page and it looks like it might be  https://pinterest.com/OMDGSL/interesting-things/ 

[Griffin Ceawlin]

From TurboSquid's FAQ:

I want to buy a product from TurboSquid and use it in a virtual world community, like Second Life. Is that allowed?
TurboSquid 3D models, conversions, and any altered or unaltered part of a TurboSquid 3D model, may NOT be imported, uploaded, reproduced, made available, transmitted, distributed, or sublicensed in Second Life or other virtual world communities. We prohibit any inclusion of TurboSquid material in any software that imports open 3D file formats (e.g., Second Life, 3D modeling software, etc.), and while we respect the Second Life and similar communities, our artist community does not believe the IP protections for their work are sufficient for these uses.

ETA: The person who runs that Pinterest page is, I think, well aware of TurboSquid's policies and is pointing out the "error" of a particular SL merchant (notice I didn't say creator).

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Others may be doing it legally or illegally.  The ones that are doing it illegally just haven't been caught - yet.

You can do it legally only if you have a license from the IP rights owner in writing stating that you can sell the items for profit and that you can do it in Second Life or generically in 'virtual worlds' or similar wording.  You would have to follow the terms of the license exactly. 

Since it is likely that a lot of people would know you didn't create the things, you would need to state that it is not  your work but that you are selling it under a license to avoid being reported and/or hassled.  It would be a good idea to have the license in writing from the IP owner to give to anyone that questions you about it and to include it in the product package.

Don't expect a lot of sales though.  If you can do this so can anyone. Why pay you when anyone can get it from turbosquid themselves without paying your mark up.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

Noticed your link is broken. Fixed: https://pinterest.com/OMDGSL/interesting-things/

[Dartagan Shepherd]

Turbosquid isn't the only place that specifically disallows Second Life, either. Most are sold for final rendered product or games and certainly not for sale for a fraction of what they're worth outside of Second Life.

Their terms, service and marketplace are volumes better to boot. And they don't use funny money.

Turbosquid and friends make more money with higher priced items, unlike LL that makes more money in general the cheaper your products are, leaving more money to spend on advertising, tier, etc. and keeping their people grinding for couch change, go figure.

[ethan Renfold]

Yeah thats what i had kinda thought but these big stores are doing it and nobody says anything about it that I seen only that one page.  If LL doesnt care and the ones who made the mesh dont care and nobody says anything even when it is big stores then, meh.

[Pamela Galli]

I saw this link a couple of weeks ago in a SL Universe thread on ripped mesh I check every now and then, along with hundreds of other people (the thread is 47 pages and has over 100,000 hits I think). What is eerie is the silence shrouding it. Creators are keeping very quiet about it. Bloggers continue to blog the stores mentioned. The stores continue to sell.

This problem cannot be stopped. It can only be fought. And the only way to fight it is to speak out, to publicize what is happening, because I know most customers have no idea how widespread the problem is. They figure if something gets the stamp of approval from bloggers, and it looks good, and it's a good price, it must be okay. 

 

[Rya Nitely]

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ethan Renfold wrote:

Yeah thats what i had kinda thought but these big stores are doing it and nobody says anything about it that I seen only that one page.  If LL doesnt care and the ones who made the mesh dont care and nobody says anything even when it is big stores then, meh.

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Perhaps the problem is that Turbosquid does not have the option to sell full perm creations for use in SL.

Some creators may just be happy to get the sales and are not that worried about what people do with it in SL. If creators are getting decent money out of Turbosquid sales compared to selling full perm items in SL, then it might be the better place to sell their creations. Customers would be getting the file format to use in 3D applications, whereas you usually don't if you buy full perm mesh on the MP, making it a more attractive option for some customers.

What I'm getting at is this - if Turbosquid does not allow creators to sell full perm items to be used and sold in SL then maybe some creators are just turning a blind eye when this happens. They might just want to get the sales and don't care if their items get sold in SL. Hence they do nothing.

[Rya Nitely]

I just noticed that a free 'Rowing Boat' I recently bought on MP is also on Turbosquid. But how would I know that the creator of the free 'Old Rowboat' on Turbosquid and the seller of the free 'Rowing Boat' on MP are not the same person? Maybe the fact that they have named it differently is a clue. Usually people stick to the same name. I always use the word 'rowboat'. But how would I be sure?

If you wish to see for yourself to compare the items then do a search on both sites using cheapest first. Not hard to spot.

I think SL is becoming more and more infected by these items everyday. Especially since Turbosquid has so many good quality free items.

[Pamela Galli]

They could be the same person but looking at the other stuff, unlikely. If I was selling on both Turbosquid and SL I would mention that in my listing. I just doubt many 3D artists are doing that because they do not want to spend their valuable time running a SL business, but making and texturing models.  Certainly if they did have a SL store it would not look like that one.

 

 

[Madeliefste Oh]

It has also to do with royalties at Turbosquid.

When you sell your models exclusively at TurboSquid you can earn up to 80% royalties. When you sell on other places too, your royalties will be max. 55%.
So by opening an SL store for your TS stuff, you will loose 25% of your sales at TS.

[Pamela Galli]

I think User Generated Content is dead.  Those of us who do it just haven't figured it out yet.

[Rya Nitely]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

What is eerie is the silence shrouding it. Creators are keeping very quiet about it. Bloggers continue to blog the stores mentioned. The stores continue to sell.

 

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There is an eerie silence, especially among creators. I  would have imagined the outrage in these forums would be at least as strong as the one generated by the payments fiasco. Here is a real threat to merchants' income - not just a temporary glitch, and people aren't showing the strong concern that ....well, that I would have expected. I don't know, maybe it's easier to shout at LL when something goes wrong, or maybe the eerie silence means something else entirely. Could it possibly be a situation of 'if you can't beat them then join them'? I really hope not.

[Rya Nitely]

It's will be ok. I just had a customer tell me how much she loves my boats. I had a look at the boat she loves and I just realised that these stolen boats are nowhere near as nice as mine. And they weren't made or meant for use in SL. My low prim boats are much prettier, and they're driveable.

[Parrish Ashbourne]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

I think User Generated Content is dead.  Those of us who do it just haven't figured it out yet.

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It's far from dead, while the number of islands and concurrency have been declining for the last few years, one of the few things constantly growing in SL is user created content, there's around 20,000 new items listed on the marketplace each week. 

I think there's a critical mass of free items that has built up for 10 years, and some of the new trends with free items have had an even bigger impact, besides stolen mesh content form the web.  There are professional creators who are sell everything they make free and full perm, and make a full time living doing so, not sure how you compeat with that.

[Parrish Ashbourne]

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Rya Nitely wrote:

It's will be ok. I just had a customer tell me how much she loves my boats. I had a look at the boat she loves and I just realised that these stolen boats are nowhere near as nice as mine. And they weren't made or meant for use in SL. My low prim boats are much prettier, and they're driveable.

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Quality will all ways stand out, but only if the customer gets a chance to compare items, I have to wonder how many new residents get frustrated and leave SL after buying or even just trying free items that are stolen and are useless in SL.  I know There's a huge amount of first time new residents log ins each day but only a few that ever stay, would be interesting to see how many first time residents even shop inworld or on the marketplace before not returning, that might give some idea on how content, or the quality of content effects early retention.

[Deja Letov]

I actually had never been on SLUniverse until just the other day when I was googling some info on ripped mesh. I actually bought something from a full perm "creator" with plans to turn it into something but I just had this uneasy feeling that I had seen it somewhere before. So I started looking for ripped mesh resources and almost immediately came upon that thread on SL Universe. Wow is it cool! Everyone should go take a peak there. Honestly, I was scared to death I would find myself on there since I do buy from several other full perm creators. What if they sold me something they ripped? Luckily I  didn't find anything but who knows about tomorrow? Aside from trying to stick to buying from the same full perm creators that we know and trust or creating the mesh ourselves, we are at the mercy of the creator. That really sucks. I'd like to see a "name" list, compiled and easily searchable of creators that are 100% honest and trustworthy mesh creators. Ones you can buy from and know it is their original creation. That...or a nice searchable list of all the losers that rip mesh so we can avoid them.

[Pamela Galli]

Deja I see no way to verify which sellers are 100% honest. SOME of these huge "mesh stores" that have suddenly sprung up, you can pretty easily find the models they were ripped from. Many others cover their tracks better, by modding things a bit, or using bits from different models. And most of these sellers don't care about being outed anyway, so what if a few things get taken down. (But some of these sellers, like the ones in the Pinterest page, have been blogged extensively, featured in the Destination Guide, etc., and like their reputations as marvelous creators.)

Bottom line for me, and you, and everyone who creates their own stuff, is that unlike those who import other people's work, we are artist-craftsmen, and what artist-craftsmen do is make things.

 

They can stop us from making a fair income by flooding the market with ripped professionally made stuff, but they won't stop us from creating.

 

[Rya Nitely]

Deja, I thought you knew about it all since I've heard you mention the Skyrim rip offs more than once. Skyrim 3D model rips are one of the more popular in SL.

Lesson for any creator buying full perm - if it looks too good it's probably ripped - and do do your research before adding full perm mesh to any of your creations because the onus is on you to be sure you don't sell ripped content. 'I didn't know' should never be an excuse.

This is not meant for you, Deja. But I am betting that people hide behind the ignorance is bliss excuse.

[BlackMagi Darkwatch]

 

"Bottom line for me, and you, and everyone who creates their own stuff, is that unlike those who import other people's work, we are artist-craftsmen, and what artist-craftsmen do is make things.

They can stop us from making a fair income by flooding the market with ripped professionally made stuff, but they won't stop us from creating."

 

I wish there was a like button for this quote alone

Black

[Pamela Galli]

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Rya Nitely wrote:

Deja, I thought you knew about it all since I've heard you mention the Skyrim rip offs more than once. Skyrim 3D model rips are one of the more popular in SL.

Lesson for any creator buying full perm - if it looks too good it's probably ripped - and do do your research before adding full perm mesh to any of your creations because the onus is on you to be sure you don't sell ripped content. 'I didn't know' should never be an excuse.

This is not meant for you, Deja. But I am betting that people hide behind the ignorance is bliss excuse.

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Identifying game rips is not that difficult because people play those games and recognize the stuff instantly. Then you can notifiy the games.  But with stuff ripped from 3D sites, who is going to recognize them?  The ones in the Pinterest page got caught only because 1) they ripped from well known places, 2) did not modify at all and 3) somebody spent a lot of time finding the original sources of their stuff and 4) posting it somewhere people could see the proof. 

[ElwoodErikson]

I don't think selling in Turbosquid  is a good idea, that site is dying out. You can try 3DExport, 3Docean, Renderosity etc for reference.