Internet Textures

Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Beginners Area/Internet Textures

Idaho Razor(Posted 2004) [#1]
Hello Everyone,

I'm not requesting any sort of internet textures because i "try" to make my own. Although i did have a question about internet textures... Lets say i was to go to www.images.google.com and look up AK47 or MP5 or some cool gun and i use it as a blue print to model a real one... Can use that same picture to texture my gun legally? or do i need to re-create a new AK47/MP5 texture?


Agamer(Posted 2004) [#2]
I would say you would need to make your own one but I ma not sure


WolRon(Posted 2004) [#3]
Depends on if the source of the image declares them as copyrighted or not. You should ASSUME that all images are copyrighted unless you know otherwise.


KovaSteel(Posted 2004) [#4]
Or you could try to ask permission from the author. If he agrees, then it`s legal.


sswift(Posted 2004) [#5]
There is such a thing as "fair use" in copyright law, and there are several measures which are used to judge whether something is fair use, including whether you charge for the work you create with the copyrighted work, how much of the copyrighted work you use, whether or not your use has any effect on the marketability of the copyrighted work, and how much the work is modified from the original.

There is no cut and dry answer for you.

But if it were me, I wouldn't be too concerned about it. Modifying an image of a gun to make a texture is likely to modify it so much that the orignal photographer is unlikely to ever notice that it is based on their photograph, even if they see it, which they are again, extremely unlikely to do.

I sold a CD of 60 textures to the company that produces courage the cowardly dog, and even though I know that they're using them, I have been unable to identify a single texture in the cartoon as being from my CD.

Now, what I would NEVER do, it take take gun textures from someone else's GAME. In that case if someone found out, and they would be much more likely to, and if you went to court over it, you would almost certainly lose as you are directly competing with them with their own mostly unmodifed work.

I have a freind who works at a game company who was making a mod for an Unreal engine based game and they found out one of their artists, who has since quit, had been stealing textures from Unreal and other games and modifying them slightly. Perhaps he didn't think there was anything wrong with that, but still they had to replace all the textures he did just in case, to avoid any potential legal troubles.


Idaho Razor(Posted 2004) [#6]
hmmm All right thanks for the comments guys! i think i'll stick to taking digital camera pictures outside/at gun shops, hehe... Glad to know this information! Thanks again!