Attached Link: http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat072706.html

> Quote - I have seen so many secondlife models that are from or based off poser models, textures, etc.

I've seen a lot of Poser models based on movies and TV shows and fashion designs. Those kinds of things are going to happen. Fashion design is not yet covered by copyright law in the US, but it has been considered. A few countries have already expanded their copyright protection to such designs, though I don't know if the language is worded such that it would preclude 3D models that don't compete against their real world products.

If a model is similar to a Poser item, somebody in SL built it from scratch with that program's primitives. I suppose that a texture, from a Poser product, could be remapped into SL, but that would take a fair amount of effort. That's more effort than the average SL thief wants to do--or is even capable of doing. That doesn't mean it can't happen, but it'll represent a smaller percentage of copyright violations.

DAZ has an island in SL, but I don't know if they've marketed any products there. SL does represent an additional outlet for talented modelers and texture artists. Businesses that thumb their noses at new technologies and new marketing outlets tend to fare less well than those that seize new opportunities.

My visual indexes of Poser content are at http://www.sharecg.com/pf/rgagnon