An individual asked if I could provide the textures and figures  that I used in a picture.   I created them in Poser, but the outfits that were on them were purchased.  The person wanted me to convert them to a .3ds format.   Now I know the texture can't be given to someone else, but what if the figures are in a different format from the original purchase?   I've seen a lot of "conversions" that were given out as freebies, but have always felt uncomfortable about that activity.  I certainly don't want to violate any copyrights or property rights of people trying to earn money off their labor.  I'm pretty sure the outfits would also be off-limits  as well as the textures, but what about Poser figures that I have created by tweaking the dials?

I'd appreciate any advice in this regard.  I'd like to be able to give them to this individual, but I am pretty sure it would it would not be legal or morally correct.

Thanks!

J.

I think that there would be an issue with this. General rule of thumb, unless you built it from scratch or it came from a merchant resource and you modfied it enough to satisfy the EULA then keep it for your self.

If he has poser and the original character I think you may be able to export it as a morph target and then he can use it on his copy of the character (including exporting it to 3ds) but unless he owns a copy of the original obj I'd stay clear.

You'd probably get the best advice if you posted this in the copyright forum [no offence intended thixen]!!

if the "conversion" requires the user to possess the original, it may be o.k. if not, it's probably an illegal file transfer. ask in copyright forum for more info (I ain't a lawyer).

none taken Fixer. I'd be offended if you were wrong or I was a copywrite lawyer but I'm not, your not. (wrong that is) 

Giving out the figures (either as a PZ3 or CR2 file) would definitely be a copyright infringement. Essentially, what the creator of the product owns is the arrangement of points that make up the triangles and squares (collectively, the "mesh") that define the figure, and any derived meshes (what you get when you change the morph dials). The only way that you could legally pass along an entire figure would be if you either owned the copyright (that is, you made it yourself), or the copyright holder has licensed you to do that.

For example, if you get a figure from DAZ, even a free one, you are only licensed to make pictures with it; you can't give the figure data to another person. Changing the file format that the data is stored in (such as from OBJ to 3DS) doesn't change the actual mesh and so the original copyright holder still owns it. Modifying the mesh (either by applying the parameter dials in Poser or by editing it directly in a mesh editor) constitutes creating a "derived" mesh, and the copyright holder still owns it.

As mentioned, you can create morph targets, which is a list of changes to be made to a mesh but doesn't contain the mesh itself, and pass those along. Of course, they don't do much good without the original figure.

As for textures, much the same logic applies; if you created it or it was created from an image that the original holder allows to be passed along, your hunky and dory. In other cases, you can't do it.

You have to be especially careful with sharing free stuff, too; some model makers only want people to download the original from their site, so you can use a model for free, but you can only pass a link on to someone else. The same is true with textures. For example, I use a lot of free images from the Image After site in my artwork. However, I wouldn't be allowed to pass along a texture I made from one of their images for someone to use in another image, even if it was only a small part of a texture painting I hade made.

Although everyone will have a slightly different license agreement for their products (and sometimes you have to hunt mighty hard at a web site to find the license agreement) the best rule of thumb is, if you didn't model it or paint it, you probably can't give it to someone else.

Captain Jack

" but what about Poser figures that I have created by tweaking the dials?"

That would be OK - as long as ALL you passed along were the dial settings (either via screen-shots or via a text file explaining the individual settings)..

Cheers,
Diolma

Thanks, everybody, for your input.  You have confirmed me in my resolve not to pass any of it on.   That's pretty much my understanding, but wanted to be absolutely sure.  I wanted to pass the stuff on to my friend, if legal to do so.  It obviously (as I suspected) is not; so it ain't gonna happen.  My friend will just have to be disappointed.

Jeremy

PS.  I somehow missed the copyright forum when I looked or I would have posted there.