Legal Questions that have probably been asked before...
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Posts: 325
I am thinking of buying another Merchant Resource Kit. I have purchased these in the past, but use them just to give my renders a different look. I am recently dipping into the idea of content creation and I don't quite understand the legal ramifications in some of these items.
Most MRs state that I can use their material in my own creations to sell. Then they say I must change the maps first to make them my own. This sounds a bit contradictory, or at least confusing... Isn't this exactly the same as anything else (EDIT: any other MR or similar product) I buy?
I mean, from what I understand, I could legally take anything at all (EDIT: Any MR or similar product), make enough changes to the base product and sell the outcome as my own creation, right?
And what do they mean by changing the maps?
A little help please so I don't get in over my head.
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Greetings,
I'm fairly confident you understand incorrectly; there is no amount of transformations that you can do to (e.g.) a DAZ original skin texture that would render it saleable as your own creation.
I can't tell you all the transformation you should do, but it includes things like only using part of the map (more for things like object texture), using an irreversible tinting of some sort, and adding beauty/scar/wear/detail marks to the underlying maps. Also lowering the resolution, or deforming the image map in some way, so that the result is not something that someone can turn back into the original map.
Even then (and hopefully someone with more experience will chime in with other transformations necessary or usable), that's ONLY legit for items that are sold as Merchant Resources. Most of the items in the store can NOT be used like that, with any license at all. You can tweak the textures of a non-MR character for _personal_ use, and for rendering to 2D images (to which you have a great deal more leeway), but not for resale at all.
-- Morgan
Not the same at all. A merchants resource is made and sold just for the sole purpose of you having a base to work with in character creation. Basically the vendor is giving you the right to alter and sell what you create with it. Most MRs are sold with the expectation you will use it as a base for your "commercial" (not free) character, meaning you will make changes to it such as add makeups, add/remove moles, birthmarks, tanlines, etc, alter the base color, add tattoos, etc. Also that you will not use it to produce another, competing merchant resource
Technically you cannot alter or change any part of other addons not sold as merchant resources. legally you cannot take anything at all and change it to be your own (unless permission is granted), that is called a derivative work and not allowed. No one can take any part of a DAZ figure, alter it and sell or give it away, same for textures as these are all part of DAZs IP.
I'm sorry. Bad on me. I should have proof read my comment. What I meant was, isn't this the same for anything else I buy with permission to sell (MRs and such).
I guess, I am confused on why I have to change the maps, but that's all. Maybe I'm not understanding the term "maps". I thought that's basically what the MRs were. Are't maps just another term for textures? We have the right to alter texture images and sell them or give them away, do we not?
And you brought up another point...why can't I change things, make it "my own" and then give it away? Why do I "have to" sell it?
It's down to the license you get - some MR sellers don't want freebies made with their MR because it devalues the MR or something like that (or makes people less likely to buy the MR because they can get the same quality for free).
You must alter the texture in some way because otherwise people buying your product would get the original and/or there'd be a bunch of identical products on the market.
The idea of MRs is as a starting point. You take the brick-texture for example, reduce the size and tile it across your wall model, or you take your skin texture, add some details and make it your own character.
If it's a merchant resource, yes. If not, no. (But 'give them away' is only true if the license doesn't prohibit it - some do, some don't). If you make new textures from your own photos, you can do what you like.
You do not have the right to alter and sell textures unless they are merchant resources. This is exactly what defines a merchant resource. You can't just change a merchant resource and give it away because part of what makes a product a product is its exclusivity. I recall once someone who would travel across the US border to sell Trader Joes products in Canada before Trader joes had stores in Canada; he was prompyly sued because Trader joes retains the distribution rights to his products. Likewise, if I took your photo on the street with your permission and then used it as an illustration for a pornographic novel cover, you probably could sue since you don't really ever grant permission for every use unless you give it explicitly (pardon the pun).
You should go to 3D.sk or one of it's affilates 3DScanStore.com for example I thing) and buy a few photo sets and teach yourself how to make a texture set. Search on YouTube on how to create a head texture set from photo references for example.
Then you can mod it to you're heart's content and resale legally. Want more, you can buy more. You can learn to fake completely original sets of them from different sources because face it: any commercial photo references for editing and re-sale have probably been used multiple times already. I've see a couple of the photo references from 3D.sk in the DAZ Store.
Ok, I can see the point of not giving them away.
But what's the difference between changing a texture for a dress and changing the texture for a skin? Lot's of people make and sell textures for clothes but there are no MRs for that. At least none I've seen. I know I'm missing something here, but I don't know what it is.
I just don't want to cross any lines or step on any toes. What good is selling something if I'm going to lose it all in legal battles, right? I just want to make sure I do it right.
Let us say you decide to make a new texture for a dress: you decide it willl denim instead of polka dot cotton. You take the original texture and use it as a template for the shape and shading zones, erase those and place a new texture and bump...entirely legal. You decide to make a new shader for the original texture; all it does is tint the dressbut your products don't contain the original texture... again legal. You decide to make a product that contains tinted versions of someone else's textures... illeagl. There should be no skins here that uses unauthorized modifications of some artists textures in them as there should be no dress textures that have unauthorized modified textures. you might partner with a creator to do so but that is authorized by the artist and Daz3d. I am old enough to remember artist who used unauthorized or derivitive content from others and remember their products being pulled, endless forum articles where users when through the geometry and textures looking for plagarism etc... Every character skin you see here is the product of a merchant resource and hours of hard work. Someone asked in the forum very recently why the FW textures look so differeent from the FW merchant resource; the answer is very hard work and talen to decide what freckle remains and which hair gets moved or removed.
So basically, what your saying is that I am allowed to copy the framework or the "lines" of a coloringbook drawing, but everything within the lines must be done by me. Is that the right of it?
They make their own textures for the dress using photos / digital painting and matching it to the object's uvs (and I think there are some fabric MRs around). You can make a new texture and sell it, no problem. But you can't alter someone else's work and sell it without permission. MRs give permission in the license, other PAs selling texture sets for clothing do not.
This raises another question for me. What about the basic shaders that come with Daz Studio, like the Iray thin glass shader. Are they considered MRs? By definition, anyone who uses Daz to render already owns them. Can I include them as presets for a model I sell?
That is it.... granted, there are lovely merchant resources like Ron's brushes, ZeVo's morphs, which are often merchant resources, to help you... but yoes, your work should be original and not derivative.
OK! Thanks for the answers. Now to get to work... It'll probably take me a year or two to get something I'm happy with, though. Lol!
That's a good question? If we don't create the shader, how can they be used?
Especially true with something like glass. There's no texture maps. IOR is a well known and defined constant. Glossy roughness and reflectivity are pretty much defined.
Can I use those settings? I would assume so. It's just a combination of dial settings. But then again, poses are just a combination of dial settings also, and they are obviously intellectual property.
You used the magic words "create the shader"... the shaders such as ubershader or the iray shader can be used to create a character and you can include material sets using those shaders with your product but you can't includere the actual Daz iray shader withg your presets as a freebie without DAZ3d's permission. The preset for for thin glass alone is Daz3d; a preset for your character's cornea using the settings for thin wall. A more literal example are Macro Eyes and N.G.S. Anagenesis. Macro Eyes is a lovely product but is not a merchant resource so you can't create new characters, replace the textures, and sell them with the new character. Anagenesis is merchant resource so you could create a new character, apply the skin effect, and then sell it as is.
Since I don't know anything about shaders, that means I basically cannot create a character for any DAZ model that uses Iray, then?
I think including presets for a shader is fine, but not the shader itself.
I'm sorry, I'm confusing you.... you can and should, if you like, make characters for Daz models which people have done since the earliest Poser days. You can use every shader (note that I said said shader such as ubershader, iray shader, things like thin-wall glass, etc...) that come with Daz Studio, morphs for every character etc... You can make new skins from merchant resources, model new hair, make L.I.E. presets, make poses etc... which you can see the range of by looking at every product in store where DAZ3d isn't the author. What you can't do is take someone's prexisting skin, pose, prop, or morph that isn't a merchant resource, alter it and resell it. Think of it like writing a book, you can write about whatever you want generally but you can't write your own Harry Potter books or reorganize published books without being visited by a lot of lawyers; magician teenagers are fine but J. K. Rowling's characters are hers.
So if I understand you correctly, I can use the shader settings for "thin glass" as one of the surfaces in a model that I sell. What I can't do is sell the settings as a shader.itself.
Exactly!
I would change non-reducible to not derived from someone else's product. I should add there is an exception; You render a scene with Stonemason's futuristic cityscape, put the rendered image onto a retangular primitive and put it ouside of the window of the futuristic liiving room. You are allowed to sell the product in this situation just as you are allowed to sell any render. What you can not do is extract a texture, for example, from a product that isn't a merchant resource, and put it into your product. Thus you can not include a texture from Eddie (the generic genesis 3 male) even though everyone who has a current Daz Studio has the texture. The problem is that it isn't your texture to use. When you create the resources, you can claim it as your unique product and you are good to go.
missed a key-word there ;)
Fixed!
How is a shader "preset" different from selling pose "preset" if we ignore the textures and maps? Couldn't it be just possible to sell/distribute a bunch of preconfigured "dials" that refers to materials from the underlying base library (but are not packaged as part of the product itself)? Just like a G3F/M pose requires a base G3F/M base character.
I'm not sure I completely understand but if your product doesn't contain anyone else's product, you should be in the clear. What would be dodgy would be to "borrow" partial poses from someone else's product. People have made alternate textures and poses since this hobby started. Poses can be sold specifically for Genesis 3 Female for example... I hope I understood your question.
What I was referring to is a shader preset with a set of settings only without distributing any textures or maps but referring to those textures/maps from an underlying library that say, ships with the studio itself like the ubershaders. It could be called presets for the ubershaders just like light presets or pose presets. I am not entirely sure if anyone has done this before.