Actually, the pleasant thing is that so many people (all but one?) in this thread do understand that copyright, which is a bundle of rights including the right to alter and the right to distribute, rests with the creator from the moment of creation. The creator has the right to put the item into the Public Domain (irreversible!) or to transfer part or all of his rights, except certain moral rights, which are absolute under international law. Copyright expires over different time periods for different types of work. As Ernyoka1 points out, there are different protections in the various countries, but most adhere to the basic protections under Berne. About 20 years ago I created a set of 3 designs for cassette covers. That publisher had only the rights to make a certain size run of cassettes. 10 years later another publisher got the rights to make a run of CDs and a third publisher got the right to make a songbook with all of the lyrics from the 3 tapes. I have sold the rights to make carved wooden boxes, embroidery, business cards, trophys (really gorgeous in silver and black) from the original designs. I made hand-gilded limited-edition prints for sale. The original pen and ink pieces hang on my living room and ALL other rights reside with me. The publisher who did the CDs wanted to do a colorized version (his wife treated the designs like coloring-book art) and reissue the CDs and I refused. NOBODY else has the right to alter and/or redistribute my work unless they have negotiated that right with me in advance. This is a right which we all hold as creative people, and it is in our own interest to protect the rights of our fellow creative people. Whether it is a scriptwriter, a musician, an artist, game designer... anyone who is creative has made an investment which can't equitably be measured. Blasted lawyers are expensive. But losing the rights to control what happens to one's work is even more expensive. And, to go back to Sara, DarkWhisper controlled all rights until and unless he transferred them to DAZ. If DAZ has the right to control the distribution of that mesh, and Becco_UK circumvented that right, then I can understand DAZ making a temporary ban permanent. However, I have to wonder... why risk it? It isn't as though Sara was going to be only a limited-time offer. One could download her months later, and I believe that the second version of her is still available in the threads. As to problems with a contest... DAZ has had problems with other contests, both in the way things were administered and in the way problems were handled. It is their website, and their contests, however, and the only real solution is to not enter a contest if the conditions are intolerable. (This includes any contest where you forfeit your copyrights to a piece merely by entering.) Other websites have contests (Renderosity, Animotions, 3dcommune, RDNA, Ecletic Guild,....) so find a venue which is better and enter contests elsewhere. Sometimes one has to complain, and sometimes one has to move on. Carolly