Snow, I've seen two cases were steffy was wrong after examination of the textures. About a years ago and also two years ago. Both times, things were settled quietly outside of the public's view. oh well.

Gee why does it look like Anton's presenting himself as both an official DAZ spokesman and Renderosity policy maker? You might want to think about that. The more Anton jumps into this type of thread, the more I wonder if I really want to do business with DAZ any more. Hey, of course, I don't agree with piracy. But I don't like bullies either. Heck, you guys talk like you still host the freebies. You don't. But right now you're making a lot of honest and generous people mad. Maybe you ought to think more before you adopt a policy. Or at least you should think more about what words you use. And please, Renderosity mods, do something to help enforce the distinction between yourself and DAZ. You don't want us to think Anton runs the show?

Renderosity in general, wonderful job. Keep at it. Excellent work. Excellent. Caleb, I'm sure you'll be completely unbiased. You've indicated completely unbiased tendencies at all times in the past. Everyone else, just relax. Everything will be just fine. Trust me. -- Dodger XFX

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I really don't agree that there is any sort of implicit guarantee in the new system. That would be asking too much. As far as I'm concerned, checking things over is a service. It's also a free service. It doesn't have to be perfect, and one shouldn't expect it to be perfect by some sort of right. If it catches MOST abuses, that's better than not catching any at all. If a few non-obvious copyright violations slip through the first checking procedure, I can live with that. Particularly if one gets the benefit of no more dud links. Incidentally, this business of people trying to get instant credit by passing off the work of others - yes, I know people do it. But when will they learn? They always get spotted in the end. And being branded as a thief is not the way to get respect in the community.

I should state more clearly that I am all for checking links for abuse and being dead. My concern is the copyright aspect of it - that opens a can of worms. I know and most people know who read the forums that there is no guarantee that the items are copyright free. But how many members don't read the forums and will only read that the items are approved beforehand? As for creating things for others and having to wait - why?? If you make it for someone send them the direct link to it - or to your site. Or as stated simply post that it's available here. While it may be polite to state that the texture used is a base from someone else that could be seen as infringement if the person viewing the file doesn't realize it's licensed. Also Dmentia has never required or asked for credit. Generally licensed items aren't credited. Example how many web designers use royalty free stock photos? They don't give credit to the photographer either. So I am all for the checks for link abuse - I would love to see less copyright infringement in the freebies - but I don't think this will accomplish it. Except perhaps for DAZ items or top selling merchants. Not due to favortism but because their items are recognized more easily. As for DAZ items Anton already stated "over the past few months we have already gone through most of the Freestuff section" so that apparantly means that DAZ is watching out for itself - which is correct, it is a copyright holder's (or their legal representative) responsibility to validate and inform of copyright infringement.

A thing I just thought of concerning the DAZ arguement. With in the two years that I've been into Poser, I've seen a shitload of times where right after a popular product is released to the store or freeplace of one of the big three (renderosity, rnda, and 3d commune), DAZ will show up with their own version shortly there after, sometimes with in a week. My question, is will they try to do something underhanded and claim copyright infringement on the item that they appeared to have copied? I've seen it before, when r'osity and the others will side with the bigger money maker, and DAZ has done alot with r'osity in the past.

Copyright would apply to the mesh, morph deltas and textures, not to the general "look and feel". so that's a pretty unlikely scenario, even if DAZ did rush out a knock off. More likely such things happen when ideas are just "in the air" and several people are working in parallel.

I say screw the Renderosity Free Stuff. Anyone who has free stuff to give away could just put it on a web site where people can go to see it. Then just tell folks where to find the site. I still can't get past the notion of Anton appointing himself DAZ spokesman, and also taking upon himself the role of Renderosity staff member.... He goes through Renderosity Free Stuff and dictates policy as well. Look for another round of honest free stuff providers dropping out.

Wait, all the mod is doing will be checking to make sure the link works? He's not going to open every file and check it against known files for copyright violation after all? And how will he know if the person has a license to use the "copyright violation" item? Is he going to hold the item indefinitely because of the "copyright violation" (and, as usual for this site, not tell the person)? Like someone else said, does Renderosity have the right to say something is a violation of copyrights, or can only the copyright holder make that claim? Like someone else mentioned, will the mod also be checking for items that are reposted every week (such as the never-ending "Red Texture for Koz Hair" thing)?

Legally no one has the right to make a "copyright infringement" claim other than the original copyright holder. Technically they are supposed to "assume" (yeah yeah I know what they say about assuming) the files are legitimate unless contacted by the holder of the right to copy. They only become liable for infringement actions if they have been contacted and ignored the complaint and allowed the file to remain. Prior to notification they are not responsible for infringements. However it would seem good practice to also do a 2 strike thing or something similar - if a member has been known to violate copyrights 2x's or whatever they decide then the person should not be allowed to post or sell items for at least a set amount of time - if ever. That protects 'rosty and saves them the time of always checking that person's files. Just a thought.

If you want to check for dead links, offsite porn links or verify that the file listed actually exists, I would think that there are automated ways to accomplish that a lot faster with very little human intervention. As for the copyright issue, it's obvious that no one is going to be able to detect altered versions of all the available models, textures etc. Given that fact, it seems clear that in practice, that infringements on items by DAZ and a few other popular creators will be the ones caught. The smaller, more obscure creators will continue to have to rely on the vigilance of the rest of us as always. Basically, it seems like a way of protecting DAZ. There's nothing wrong with that, though perhaps they should be doing the monitoring themselves.

The screen may have a coarse mesh, but is that any reason not to put it in place? Even if midges get through, at least we won't be bothered by horseflies. As for claims of conpyright infringement, all R. has to say is that they won't provide a link to item x because they are "concerned about possible copyright issues" - as a private site they aren't obliged to carry anything anyone puts up. They could also pass the link on to the putative owner, and no doubt be called stoolies.

"Copyright would apply to the mesh, morph deltas and textures, not to the general "look and feel". so that's a pretty unlikely scenario, even if DAZ did rush out a knock off. More likely such things happen when ideas are just "in the air" and several people are working in parallel." Well, in the past, people here have claimed copyright infringement when it only looked the same. Also, its really easy to change a mesh. If I wanted to, in 5 minutes, I can take Vicky and run some modifiers to have the mesh being totally different and be able to trace back really. If people can do that, and distribute the model as their own, different companies and people such as DAZ would be more likely to go by just appearance.

We are NOT checking for copyright infringements. If we see something that is an obvious violation we will contact the poster. Checking every file would be next to impossible, and would cause a serious lag. Frankly ... adding that kind of workload would make all us mods hide in our caves and not come out again. Anton works for DAZ ... BUT unless he specifically states that he is speaking for DAZ ... presume that he is just a regular member here. Official DAZ announcmenets here are usually made by DanFarr. I would be deeply surprised if DAZ didn't check the freestuff, it is their right to do so and a good idea IMHO. Okay? we all sorted out? now ...go make something grin Lyrra the Tired

Anton, I'm curious, where are your freestuff contributions? Personally, I've removed mine. I assume because they were still there they either hadn't been checked or were about to be removed because they're hosted on an adult site's server. So, it's the community's loss.

We are not checking all the existing links in freestuff unless there is a complaint. If you have existing stuff in freestuff, don't you worry about it - we sure aren't.