Hi everyone. I am trying to get my employer to buy Poser for my department. My office has very strict policies about what they consider to be inappropriate in the workplace, sexually explicit material being one of them.

My question is, has anyone here ever gotten into trouble with their employer, or a co-worker, because of the anatomical correctness of the Poser figures? Not because they deliberately made a risque picture, but simply because the figures are nude by default? Like if someone who doesn't know the program walks by your desk, sees a figure on your screen, and complains about it. If so, how did you handle the situation?

Does anyone have a disclaimer or release statement they use to protect themselves? Does anyone know of any case where someone got sued because of the alleged inappropriateness of Poser content at work? If so, what was the outcome?

Sorry if all this sounds a bit uptight, but my workplace is a very conservative office in Washington, D.C., and I really have to be prepared for this possibility.

Many thanks.

Poser 6, the latest version is due out this spring, so you may want to wait before you may the investment. As far as your work situation, first off I think you need to make it clear to your co-workers exactly what they will be exposed to... naked 3d people. Make sure they know you are buying the program before you actually start working on nudes in the workplace if your work environment is that conservative. Second, I'm assuming that you are working under some form of contract. If so, you may wish to have access to your work area limited. Really I don't think its that big a deal. But since some people overreact about any kind of nudity I think it would be wise to take some precautions. I seriously doubt you would be charged with sexual harrassment if someone was offended a naked Vicki. So my advice would be to think over the various personalities in your office and determine whether any harrassment or politics would ensue.

if a nipple causes someone horror......they need a shrink not a lawyer

Then again you could simply delete all the nude characters and only use the basic clothed ones and the lo res abstract characters.

Does your computer have a lock? That way you can close it down so that even cleaning people or curious night watchmen can't pry and then be offended. I am reminded of some folks who sued their neighbors for sunbathing naked in their own backyard. Turned out that the neighbors had to climb a tall tree and crawl out on the branches before they could see anything. IIRC, the judge wasn't as amused as the audience. Your own attitude and comportment will be important. If the figures on your monitor are not treated as sextoys but as artist mannikins with a bit more detail, and if you aren't shameful over them, it ought to minimize the jokes and ribaldry. If the women (and these days sometimes even men) in your department have been treated as sex objects by their coworkers, they will be extra sensitive to anything which might seem demeaning. A quiet conversation with lots of respect on both sides ought to mitigate that. You might also need to have arguments at hand for why the figures are necessary. As an example, if you work for a museum making displays and dioramas, you could discuss how much easier and cheaper it would be to set up the scene, the props, and the probable clothing and test under various lights before actually buying fabrics and plywood and glass. Or maybe you need to have models of people in airplanes or office buildings to visualize traffic flows and/or escape routes. Instead of just drawing on paper, you can add people and move the camera down to eye level. whatever... present a good reason and make it logical and fiscally prudent. I've worked mostly in the game industry, and as a professional artist, so for us, naked models are no big deal, and neither is the software which creates them. Companies expect to buy it. However, we're hardly corporate conservatives. Even ultra-conservative companies such as SSI with their military sims wouldn't blink. Carolly

Use the flexability arguement. Say things like 'you wouldn't try to put a shirt on over your jacket' the same applies to 3d characters.

is'nt there an install option to install poser with no nude base characters???

To clarify, the figures would start out nude, and then I would add conforming clothing. I'm not conerned about nude renderings, just accidental glimpses of work in progress where the figure is nude at the beginning from people who don't know the difference between a rendering program and a naughty website.

You could set your display settings to 'wireframe' or 'outline' before you load the characters into the scene. This would make it clear you're working with 3d meshes to anyone who may glance over your shoulder while working. It also may be useful to redo any nude thumbnails in your library pallette (again if accidental glances by fellow workers are the main concern)

Doesn't matter how you rationalize it, if you take the risk, someone WILL complain. Doesn't matter who's in the right or wrong, if anyone else will ever be able to see your screen while you work it's just not worth the aggravation and hassle. Even if you were to ask each and every fellow employee individually, and they said it was okay with them, they can still complain later, or a new employee will wander by. My suggestions would be; Install with no-one else in the office, or your door is locked. On install, 1 Delete all the nude default figures and only use the clothed ones, and only install clothed aftermarket characters. or 2 Take all the nude figures immediately and make the "naughty bits" invisible and save them back over the default ones with new thumbnails. or 3 Edit any and all textures you use to include bikinis and shorts, then change the thumbnails to match. or 4 Apply Second Skin MATs or Partial pose MATS to each nude character and re-save over the defaults. Before I became a professional leather-carver, way back when I worked in an office. I was shopping for a leather jacket once, and I had a catalog from a specialty company in my briefcase to browse on my lunch hour. It happened to have a page with leather lingerie in the back. No nudity, all the models were covered more than a bikini would cover. A female co-worker decided to snoop and found it in my closed and latched briefcase when I left it unattended while in a meeting. She lodged a complaint that she was subjected to "pornographic S & M materials" in the workplace. I had to make a deposition and testify. I brought in the catalog and the whole thing was dismissed as without merit, but I got a note in my personell file, and a ton of aggravation. The co-worker got to feel important and aggrieved, told everyone in her section I was a pervert, and wasn't even censured for having entered my office and opened my briefcase in my absence. Believe me, It's not worth the risk.