I was thinking about entering a contest and was wanting to use some free stuff in it that is for non-commercial use only. Is a picture made for a contest considered a commercial use? It's not like you are selling it or anything. Thanks for any help on this, was kinda confused by the whole affair and decided to ask for help first because i would really like to win Vue.

May be you could contact the producer of the object/s, by sending him/her an instant message, and then ask. But I think that you should always tell the viewers, who have made the object/s.

There is no problem Bobba, you can use any free object in your contest submissions. A contest is not a commercial thing, because your image will never be sold. The only one who can sell your image is you and then you need the agreement of the creator of the object(s)! When you see in a contest something saying: "Artists grant permission to Renderosity for the use of submitted images for an undetermined period of time. This is strictly for posting the image on the front page and within the contest archives. The Artist will remain the intellectual property holder." This means that your image may be shown somewhere else than inside the contest, but this doesn't mean that Renderosity will sell your image or use it for a commercial promotion. The promotion will be for your image and for you as an artist. As already said, nobody else can legally sell your image or use it for a commercial issue without your agreement. Then it is up to you to get the agreement of the creators of the object(s) before you project to sell your image. Guitta

However, some contests (looking at Daz) mention that the images may be used for promotion of commercial product. I am not a copyright expert (this issue is getting so complicated these days that you need an army of lawyers to understand anything about copyrights) but one thing I picked up is very clear : There is no problem of using a non commercial object for commercial purposes as long as : 1- The object is not in the same representation as the original. For example, you can sell pictures of a 3d car as long as you don't sell the 3d model itself. The picture of the car is a group of pixels, whereas the car itself is a bunch of coordinates in a 3d format. 2- It does not violate a trademark. For example, reusing the Camel logo for a pack of cigarette, or a Pepsi logo on the T-shirt of your character. That being said, it is always good practice to notify the creators of objects you use when they are proeminent in your image. Even if it is just out of politeness.

Also, on the Renderosity Card Contest, the cards are being sold. So you can't use them for that one.

I asked E-on if I could use one of there meshes once in a contest that ended up being commercial. They said sure. Key is to ask. People ask me all the time. My stuff has already made it on one of the cards. That's cool. What people are trying to prevent is that companies minning the vast public domain for material they can use for free. That puts the stop to that. What's even more funny is when a company discovers that they are using your material in there product and have to find you to get your permission.

If I enter a contest that has prizes, I class that as commercial as I hope to gain from it, and so try to keep freestuff to a minimium unless it states fine for commercial use. If not, I have emailed people before and normally get a 'go for it, thanks' reply.