LPR001 posted at 2:12AM Sat, 31 October 2015 - #4236072

and I fully expect that content to remain in my possession long after this all dies down

Until the deal is further altered.

If DAZ manages to impose this step, they can (and will) go further down the software-as-service road. The "logical" next step is everything-is-"free" but then you have to pay a small amount whenever you try to render or export a scene. It is not far fetched, it is like what happens in pay-per-view video services where you have to pay whenever you watch a movie, regardless of whether you have already watched in the past (contrast with buying a DVD and then being able to watch the movie without further costs, as many times as you like).

Perversely, there is a positive side in this story. Up to a couple of days ago, I considered Richard Stallman insistence on free-as-speech (w.r.t. to just free-as-beer) extremist, almost taliban-like. I have now realized that this stance is instead fundamental, because it means that, as long as you deal with free-as-speech tools and content, you are never at risk of waking up in the morning at the sound of a big, black-clad brute, wheezing that the "deal has been altered". The time and money I invest in e.g. Blender or GIMP won't go down the drain tomorrow at the wim of some PHB/marketdroid/bean counter and therefore... back to my project of a library of Cycles shaders for rendering Poser/Studio characters into Blender, the first step to kiss everybody (SM and DAZ) bye bye.