Here's a question for everyone, so feel free to post your opinion: How many of you download a copyrighted item, but are frustrated by the fact that you can't use it in any of your commercial projects. For example, I like to make Star Wars vehicles and I think people like to download them. Even though I may give permission for people to use the models in their images, permission is needed from LucasFilm to use the vehicles in a commercial project. There were similar issues with the "Anna Marie" character from DAZ: although DAZ gave full permission to use the character for projects, the enclosed license was very restrictive due to the fact that the character was based on a real person. On the one hand, the product was promoted as "official licensed", so buyers got the actual product endorsed by the original. On the other hand, that same license restricted its use. Another example would be if I got a license to make and sell digital models of Ferrari cars. The license would allow me to sell the models (with all of the Ferrari logos and graphics) and it would allow people to use my product in their projects. But, would the artist have to contact Ferrari if he wanted to use my official digital model in his commercial projects? Or is it better to make a "Ferrari-like" car? The model wouldn't have the official logos, but it wouldn't have the possibly-restrictive license either. So, the issue is this: is it worth the effort to make free items (or try to obtain licenses to sell products) of real-world objects if people can't use them for commercial projects. Or is this even an issue? Do the majority of Poser users use products for their own "hobby" artwork or in their commercial projects? Is there even a market for officially licensed products (scale models, textures with logos, etc)? Or is this issue the real reason why we're not seeing more "officially licensed" products in the Poser world? After all, if we think of Poser as a "virtual action figure", the possibilities for "product placement" are almost limitless. --John

VanishingPoint... Advanced 3D Modeling Solutions