I was falsey accused of "stealing" two poser meshes for MW once....it's actually why I quit modding for MW.   One of the meshes was not even close (a blind drunk monkey could tell that much), but I still got reported supposidly.  Another mesh was just a simple re-construction from scratch using a program that modelled it based off an image....and it was never distributed, nor would I have without contacting the person that made the inspiration and walking them through the process and asking what their feelings are on the accusation.  All I did was post a screenshot.

In the past for MW, I've seen daz hairs stolen, buildings stolen, and even complete mesh sets stolen.   For oblivion, I literally found 4 that I believe have been used off this site just yesterday, and when I pointed this out on the eye candy forum the topic was locked and it seemed to have been brushed off.

I think it's honorable that muf asked if it's alright, and is asking for the original author's involvement...because there really are some wonderful creations made for poser.

However, I agree with the funkyone  (whom I have not talked with online in forever....do you remember your dear Korana oh tower of power?) in regards to the fact that it is being done RAMPANTLY.  I've found a few recently, and I'm debating about what the best course of action is.

One one hand, it's quite obviously they are being redistributed freely, and only slightly modfied.  On the other hand, I do not have poser and cannot check the files to actually compare them so I cannot say that 100% that they are not just re-creations.  Most of these have been by one author. 

It's easy enough for vendors to check and see if their creations have been stolen, go to:

http://www.tesnexus.com/

and search the oblivion mods.  If something looks suspicious you can download nifskope, which will open up the actual meshes:

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/NifSkope

(7zip may be needed to extract the files)

and then you can check the textures by downloading a dds program, such as irfanview:

http://www.irfanview.com/

On one hand, I do believe that the modding communities should watch out for one another and try to avoid piracy issues....but on the other hand things get out of control and false accusations and reportings occur it's very stressful and upsetting....this I know first hand.  I literally had to hire a lawyer!

I go back to point this girl rambles alot

While it's a fantastic idea to ask for permission, and with some it might actually get the ball rolling to even THINK to ask instead of just use....I can see the bad side too.  People often do not read read-mes or adhere to usage restrictions.  They might recognize the poser content, and instead of reading to see if you asked for permission, they might assume they too can download content from other sites and freely distribute them as well.

AND I should point out that I have seen some original Morrowind meshes turned into poser meshes and sold, years after their original MW creation date.   Things go both ways I suppose.