pokeydots opened this issue on Jun 30, 2002 ยท 38 posts
thip posted Mon, 01 July 2002 at 3:34 AM
Hi, Diane - always a pleasure to hear your voice of reason again. We need all the calm reason we can get in this matter. I agree there's too much tension in this matter, but I am afraid it is not a trivial one. It may have started as a discussion about Tailor do's and don't's, but the underlying problem is far more general. What several people ask (myself included) is for clarification of the EULA : just how far DAZ will accept that DAZ stuff is used as input or reference for new Poser stuff. Reading the EULA literally, the answer is that if your stuff fits DAZ stuff at all, you're violate DAZ' copyrights. That this is the core concern is clear from the EULA - as it says, it is impossible to know, or foresee, all the tools that can be used to derive "your own" meshes from DAZ stuff. AND (although the EULA claims the opposite), it is impossible to tell from the finished new mesh whether or not it "started life" as a DAZ mesh. All too often, you just can't tell the difference...! The EULA therefore ends up banning any and all meshes fitted to DAZ meshes, WHETHER OR NOT THEY HAVE ANY VERTEXES IN COMMON WITH THE DAZ MESH THAT THE NEW MESH IS FITTED TO. This is not exactly good news to 3rd party Poser stuff creators! I don't care if it's legally unenforcible or not. It's the general spirit of informed consent and cooperation that made Poser great, IMHO. I sympathize with DAZ - they're caught between a rock and a hard place, Chad states it clearly. They have to both accept and encourage 3rd partyers, for the good of the entire Poser market, AND they have to guard against their own work being used as raw material for competing products. It is in the best interests of the entire Poser community to figure out the answer to this problem. But the present EULA is, IMHO, not the answer. Or at least my INTERPRETATION of it is not. That is why I humbly ask DAZ to state, specifically and unequivocally, that my interpretation is totally wrong ;o)