Err, gents? I'm the absolute last guy that anyone in this here forum can credibly accuse of being against Open Source. I've been a rather fervent little Linux and OSS partisan since long before most of the fine folks in here had even rendered their very first Vicky... Trust me on this. "Simply put - what is WRONG with open-sourcing figures?" Because code as a whole are a series of machine-readable processes, whereas "figures" are nothing more than datapoints to be read - there is no actual source there to be made open. Even the likes of Richard Stallman Hisself can't clearly define how one can make end-product data open yet protected at the same time. Hit up the GNU Free Documentation License sometime, but take some Tylenol before you try to delve into it. The concept I have no problems with, so long as it doesn't violate anything previously agreed on between Zygote and DAZ when the former spun off five+ years ago. The execution of it is going to be a beast, to be charitable about it: because of the unique and subtle differences between data (a .cr2 file) and a given process (source code), topped with the "I wanna be a merchant too!" attitude that this lovely community seems afflicted with, I just don't see any future in it. I've seen a whole lot of snarls that come from poor planning, and both Zygote and prospective merchants are going to be stuck with a quandry - how to get an OSS like solution that protects the original copyright upon which the mechanism depends, how to protect prospective merchants from having their morphs/characters/modifications from being P2P'd all over Hell legally at first opportunity, and at the same time remain viable. To top it off, unless anything has changed since 2002, Renderosity won't allow any open-sourced stuff to be sold in their stores, because it conflicts with their own EULA (trust me - I tried once.) Kinda hoses it all up right there, no? So why the focus on sales? Because the merchantile angle seems to be the one and only way left to get a decent variety of stuff for it, and continuous support for the base figure beyond the next "ooh, shiny!" release of some new mesh... and even that's no guarantee, though certainly better than nothing, I suppose. Now, as for why? Well, there's lots of room for speculation, but a solid enough guess can be had just by looking at it from the business angle, and it don't look as rosy and sunny as it seems made out to be. Not saying it's sinister, either - it's just business, which means the ultimate goal of maximizing the amount of cash the companies get out of you. Once you realize that, then you have to look at how they intend to go about it (after all, Zygote isn't a non-profit charity, so please, enough with the "caring about OSS" bit.. they're in it for the marketshare and profit, just like DAZ, Rendo, RDNA, PPros, and everyone else is.) /P