Regarding the backgrounds in Shrek: the credits list a team of matte painters, which suggests some of the backgrounds were 2D, but not taken from photography.

Two different styles for differnt projects, not a question of where the bar is. The team that worked on Shrek intentionally dialed back on the realism, because the initial tests they did with Princess Fiona were so real that she would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

Also, Handspan Studios rescaled the Kyoko Hair mkII, though I don't know if it's still available for free. If not, the original Kyoko Hair mkII is not difficult to rescale yourself.

And as though I didn't already go on too long, I would add that another reason folks refer to Posette, Vicki etc. in terms of the morphed characters you find in the Free Stuff is because no one wants to waste time DLing a Vicki morph if they don't own Vicki ;)

In general, the above advice is pretty good. In terms of trying to get a handle on all of it, I would suggest breaking the large question into 2 parts. The first part is copyright law. Kevin largely sums it up, and from some of the terms he uses, I suspect he is a lawyer or plays one on TV. If you want to understand in detail what rights the creator of a work has, a good place to start is the U.S. Copyright Act. You can find it, as well as explanations of it, linking from www.findlaw.com The second part deals with the fact that the copyrighted works Poser folk are most concerned with are considered software (for example, an .obj file). Most software is licensed to users, which means the user's rights are governed by the terms of the license. For example, if you bought MS Word, you would have the right to make a backup copy, but not to distribute copies to everyone you know. And you could develop software that works with Word (assuming MS folk haven't designed incompatibilities into their program...). In the case of DAZ product, it would appear that if you make a "derivative work" by morphing Posette, Vicki, etc., they grant licensees (you) the right to distribute the changes, so long as you do not distribute copies of their original work. DAZ3D does not seem to have raised a problem with the distibution of morph targets for individual parts, but PhilC is right that you would need to use Mover to encode items that embody more of the original work. Jim Burton is also correct in his hypothetical example, and in explaining why it almost purely hypothetical. Someone could make a morph target from other morphs that are freely available for any use (such as Trav's at MorphWorld, if I read his readme file correctly). But someone doing so is likely to do so by spawning the combined morph, which makes reverse engineering of the sort hypothesized by Jim difficult. And as long as I have mentioned Trav's readme file, I would note that, as Jim and Mehndi suggest, that the creator usually includes a readme file in their DL file that explains the terms of use. Usually, the free stuff specifies that personal use is okay, but commercial use requires at least permission of the creator. An example of this is the readme that accompanies stuff DLed from Kozaburo and Yamato. But Trav and Darth Logice seem to be okay with commercial use; some of Angielyn's free stuff can be used commercially, but the textures generally cannot be made available for resale, DL, etc. As you can see, it varies, so check those readmes. And giving credit where credit is due, even if you have permission for use, isn't necessarily legally required, but is always always a good rule of thumb.

I bought Vicky a few months ago, but haven't bought Mike as of yet. And while folks who sell in the Marketplace (or at other sites) aren't shy about touting their products, I've never felt pressured to buy. I will say that the fine work some of the people here have done with Vicky helped me decide that she would be worth the cost, as the default Vicky look doesn't do much for me. I would add that for me, it was not entirely an issue of Vicky having a higher poly-count either. Posette, Eve, Vicky, etc. all have a different default look that tends to show up to some extent, even after morphing them. I'm a "variety is the spice of life" kinda guy. So Vicky brings a different basic look that makes some types of results easier to achieve. I think that the free stuff and the pay stuff can co-exist quite nicely. The free stuff usually cannot be used commercially, and some people need stuff for commercial use. For purely personal work, its a purely personal choice as to how much money you may or may not want to spend on a hobby, or how much time you want to put into getting as much out of what you already have (making your own textures, morphs, etc.) I would note that the free sites are dwindling in number, in large part because people with accelerated FTP programs are causing the folks who ran them to get socked with large bandwidth charges from their ISPs. Indeed, as a matter of historical fact, this site's store and the advertising here were implemented to offset the bandwidth costs associated with all of us downloading stuff, including the gallery images. Conversely, DAZ3D recently opened a "free stuff" section on its own site, which benefits Poser users because DAZ3D is covering the storage and bandwidth, and benefits them because it attracts traffic to their site and their pay goods. Once again, peaceful co-existence. PS: I AM Spartacus...I just said I was Zorro to throw people off, because, really, no one WANTS to be crucified.

I will! Though others are starting to produce good hair, Kozaburo and Yamato remain the champs! Amazing.

I AM ZORRO!

BTW, off-topic, as a toybox visitor, thanks for the morphs, Duane!

I would also agree. It's speculation on my part, but my theory is that Kubrick really believed the message of the movie. But the message would have been much more powerful had the sex really been prurient. Unfortunately, I think the more you believe in the moral of the story, the less able you may be to make the sex really prurient. A Catch-22, really.

Just my 2 cents: Locating the warez sites should be the most difficult part of the job. As Anton has retained an attorney, it should be pretty simple to generate a form cease-and-desist letter to the ISPs at issue. Once an ISP knows about warez activity on their servers, it behooves them to boot the offenders, from a legal standpoint. Of course, the bandits can always move to another server. Anton might ask his counsel whether, if the bandits are domestic, as these seem to be, whether it might be appropriate to get an ex parte seizure warrant. It is not unheard of for intellectual property firms to get such a warrant (ex parte meaning without notice to the target), and simply seize the offending machinery. Wouldn't you like to see the faces of some of these folk when you turn up on their door step and take their computer? A warez bandit without a computer is a chastened warez bandit, I'll wager. And I would also bet that word would get around not to F with Anton or his lawyer. As for the Napster issue, that case has not taken a long time because the artists have had to show that they own the copyrights. In fact, that probably took almost none of the time, as I would bet that the songs are all registered in the Copyright Office, and the ownership of all, or almost all, of the recordings themselves is probably documented either in the Copyright Office or in contracts retained by the record labels. Rather, the Napster litigation has been lengthy because: (1) most litigation is lengthy; and (2) the copyright issues in the case are profound. The federal appellate court that recently ruled in the case also held that VCRs violated copyright law. The US Supreme Court disagreed. The US Supreme Court may well take an appeal in the Napster case, though they may not disagree with the lower courts in this case, as Napster is not quite the same as home taping on a VCR.

Well, I couldn't help myself. It was like an elephant standing in the room that no one was mentioning. I'm not quite that attracted to Leelee myself (or Helen Hunt, for that matter), though I certainly understand it. It was just something that needed to be said. BTW, as my mind is an endless morass of trivia, I would note that Leelee recently guest edited an issue of Premiere magazine, or Premiere for Teens, something like that, if you would like to read her writing or her interviewing other actors and actresses.

What...you're going to have a Leelee Sobiesky thread and no one is going to mention Eyes Wide Shut? Oh, Please!

So far, so good...but I would agree with Gawain...a bit more on the x scale, a bit less on the y scale. The collar bones seem like they travel pretty far up. And maybe a bit slower in the final mix (unless she's getting worked up over something). But overall, a good first attempt.

The unbuttonable blouse for the P4 fem by Gabe can be found at http://agnes26.free.fr/ among others, I believe. BTW, the above site seems to have an "adult" orientation.