Charles C wrote:
> Christoph Hormann <chr### [at] gmxde> wrote:
>> The central question this all leads to is if a rendered image is a
>> derived work of the scene (and all include files) it is generated from.
>>     I think (but IANAL) that for this it would be necessary that some
>> aspect of the scene/include files that is subject to copyright (usually
>> this requires a minimum level of originality and individuality) to be
>> still present in the rendered image.  How exactly this is defined
>> differs between Copyright laws - see
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshold_of_originality
> 
> I hope this isn't too off topic... But speaking about copyright law, there's
> another angle which'll affect this library and it's licensing, and that's
> whether a contributer has the right to distribute models which are derived
> from real-world objects which in turn may or may not have applicable
> copyrights.  E.g. furniture, cars, buildings, houses, just about anything
> real that's man-made in the last century or whatever.   Can somebody please
> tell me it's ok to make a 3d model of a real table and then share it? :-)
> 
> Charles
> 
> 
> 

My understanding is you can, as long as the item you are copying does
not have it's image trademarked, copyrighted, or patented. I doubt you
will find that your dining room table is a trademarked design, but a
piece of designer art furniture might be. In that case, change an angle
or leave off a leg or a screw. Just remember that nearly everything can
be trademarked now days. Harley Davidson (motorcycle company) tried to
trademark the sound their engines make.

For anything else, photography law might help. You don't need[1] a model
release for anything that an average person would not be able to connect
to the thing you are photographing.

[1] Legal values of 'need' only. For the price of a sheet of paper and a
pen it's easy enough to get one.

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