- Freeware and shareware are NOT the same as public domain. That applies to the actual item - the model, texture, whatever - it belongs to the maker unless they specifically say it's public domain, and it can't be sold or redistributed without their permission. 2) In the case of digital media, the Renders/Images done with that item are a different story. That's a bit grey, but for me, at least on my things.... the render you do it it is yours. You designed the scene, you setup the render and created the image, the image is yours. No problem. Jaqui is correct that copyright law might not hold up the no commercial renders caluses. That would though fall under contractual law, and contractual law might. It's kinda beside the point though: the creator has the right to put whatever contractual strictures they wish on the use of their creations. If I disagree with the contract, I'm free to not use the items. No probs... But man! Put yourself in the shoes of the freestuff creators on that one... as an artist, would YOU want Me to try and tell you what terms you could put on your work? I kind of doubt it... It doesn't seem that hard to me. I keep the origional zips so I can check readme's and lisences. A lot of times they get seperated as they're burned to CD into "Commercial use"/"non-commercial". If I'm going to download things, and I'm in the business of being a freelance artist..- it's my responsibility to keep track of lisencing on what I use - NOT the responsibility of the freestuff provider. That's just simple proffessionalism, and if I'm going to be a professional, I had damned well better learn proffessionalism. And I had best learn to act like a pro if I expect other professionals to treat me like. Period. That may sound hard, but that's something I learned long ago as a freelancer: if I want to play the game with the other pros, I learn the rules and pays the dues.
"I am a good person now and it feels... well, pretty much the
same as I felt before (except that the headaches have gone away now
that I'm not wearing control top pantyhose on my head anymore)"
