This is a horribly litigious society, where you only have to look at someone to give them whiplash. I'm amazed that all the Spiderman renders and copyright-infringing renders are still up here. They're non-profit-making and do no harm, and I think they should be up, but it only takes one Cease And Desist from Uncle Walt or Time Warner to turn your favourite bookmarks into 404 errors. Fact is such depictions are only allowed in the context of satire, at least under US law as I understand it, and it would be a pretty stupid company- particularly one based in a country as lawyer-infested as the US- that didn't watch its a*** in this respect.

That doesn't really exxonerate Renderosity, since it seems to have followed the 'Withering Vine' model for community websites, where rules are lax and everything's free and easy in the early days and EVERYONE comes to join, and then the scr*w gradually gets tighter and tighter. I've seen this happen so many times on the Net, and I'm sure you have too.

Of course the scr*w doesn't start getting tightened until people have really integrated the site into their lives, made friendships, etc, and then it's with a bitter heart that they have to migrate and start over in some other site where the vine is a bit lusher (at the moment).

Power corrupts!

Message edited on: 09/17/2004 05:27