I have a question about copyrights.
I know the author of a book or file holds copyrights on it.
If for example DAZ design the elephant, they hold the copyright on the files and I must buy the rights to use the file. However they did not make the elephant as it was always there. Nothing forbids me to design an elephant as well and upload it. My elephant will be for example the X elephant where Daz's one will be the DAZ elephant. If broken down it will be found that the two designs is not the same. I can not make my textures work on DAZ's model.
If someone make a model, or start a character for a film for example the mouse Stuart Little and the character is used in the movie, am I allowed to design the same figure for Poser or DAZ Studio? I know my figure will differ drastically with the original figure, specifically if the two models are compared with each other, but they may appear the same. My one for example may have another name like Steven Mouse.
The author of the original character have invented the character as there were never a mouse like him (story based).
I can think of several examples:
Shrek, Scooby doo, Mickey Mouse, Casper the ghost, Darth Vader, Crazy Frog, Indiana Jones, etc.
I am refering to models made as freeware or open source, not intended to make money with.

Regards
Johan