Sharing shaping/morph presets
Taoz
Posts: 9,743
If you have a commercial character based on DAZ morph packages and you make some changes to some of these morphs and maybe change some unused morphs as well, while leaving the rest as they are (i.e. some of the original morphs made by the artist are retained), is it then illegal to share the preset?
Post edited by Taoz on
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To make this more specific, you have made a character from DAZ basic figures you want to use commercially or you want to alter a character that is commercially sold by somebody else ?
No, the question is about sharing morphs you have made to commercial characters using general DAZ figure morphs (e.g. V4++), if the presets being shared also contain original morphs from these characters. E.g. the artist have used e.g. V4++ morphs to shape the character, you add some more V4++ morphs or change some of those the artist has made, and then want to share the whole thing as a preset. The presets are intended only for people owning the same characters and morphs, but they will of course also work on other characters, if the used DAZ morph package(s) are installed.
As long as you don't sell or distribute something that has been made by someone else, even altered (except if you got merchant resources, they got their own rules) but make those things prerequirements for your changes to work you should be on the safe side. But I'm not the expert here.
That shouldn't be a problem, IMO. You are selling presets, and the buyer needs to own Morphx to use them.
IMO, its not ok.
Technically, preset (saved file itself) does not contain morphs, textures etc. They are just information about what to load or dial (use) from where. Thus, whomever uses them must already have morphs or textures etc. since presets do not have them. And thus, they (information) are yours and you can do whatever you want with them since files do not contain anything that is not yours.
But in this case, if I understood correctly, you are talking about modification to the preset (information) that is not yours, so saved modified preset would partially contain information that is not "made by you" or not yours. Which usually means "no-no" to distribution.
Perhaps you could contact the PA and ask him/her. If its fine with them...
That's also what I was thinking, and why I asked. But it's a grey area I think, for how far can you go in copyrighting DAZ Morph settings? If I, instead of making a preset, write down the settings of the dials and give the numbers to someone else, is that then a copyright breach?
Another scenario: I use the "remove morphs" button that comes with the character so the artist's morphs won't be included in the preset, but before that I write down the settings for those morphs the artist have used and which I have changed. Then I dial them back to the settings I have made. Who have actually created those morphs, me or the artist?
Well, IMO, yes its a copyright breach, in both scenarios, because you are copying stuff you are not allowed to copy for the sole purpose of distributing the copy. Doesnt matter how you copy it. So whomever you have given the settings would not have to buy original preset (which is still part of the copy).
Both of you created the settings for the morphs, original artist created "first" settings and you created modifications. You are allowed to do that for your own use (you paid for original preset or to be more precise, you paid for the right to use original preset in such manner) but distributing it is additional thing on top of modifications.
You can distribute a preset which has only your changes, which other people who have the vendor's product can apply to that product.
Well in scenario 2 I'm not actually distributing the artists morphs as I remove them with the remove icon before creating the preset. That will zero the morphs which the artist have used and which I have changed which is why I have to write the settings down to reapply my own settings. In this case I'm actually not distributing the artists morphs as none of their original morph settings are incluced. If I change a morph the artist also have used it's no longer theirs but mine, as my change is not dependent on their original setting of that morph. I'm only talking about DAZ Morph settings here of course, not morphs created by the artist (they'd probably not have dials anyway).
Yes, that's also what I'd achieve in scenario 2, as far as I can see.
Well, I see it differently than you. :) When you write settings down, you are making a copy of their settings and your modification. Doesnt matter that you didnt write it in a form "50% of theirs plus 10% more of mine" but used "60%". You still didnt come to 60% on your own, even if you dial it to 0% and straight back to 60% again and thus just you did the dialing without using the their preset. IMO, you are using their preset when you are reading written down settings which were created as a modification on top of theirs preset.
It's actually the case that the your personal morph is saved in a seperate file and applied to the base character the morph is for - that you may legally redistribute along with the icon created for it. If you go through and apply a bunch of morphs created by other artists that don't belong to you you make save those presents you apply as a (character) morph present but again not the 3rd party morphs or presets. You may legally distribute or sale that present file along with the associated icon created for it.
So you may also combine those two files and create a unique character and legally sale and redistribute that character. Create your own texture set for that character, and their are vendor resources in the DAZ Store and at other sites to assist you with that, and you have what? I don't know, 75% of the products that are in the DAZ Store are created that way.
But if the artist hadn't changed that morph at all I'd have dialed it to 60% anyway to get the result I want so in that sense my morph is independent of the artists morph and that's the point to me. I have to load the artists morphs though to be able to see the result of theirs and my morphs combined as it is an addon morph set, if that causes my morph to be partially dialed so I'll just have to add an extra 10% I can't see any problem with that. It's only because my morph is being zeroed when I remove the artist's morphs that I'll have to write the setting down to reapply it.
So as I understand you, as long as my preset is different to the one created by the artist in all respects (i.e. no identical settings of any particular morphs (which would be pointless anyway since it's an addon to the artists morphs)), it's OK?
Sure, if the artist hadnt changed that morph at all and you dialed it to 60% there wouldnt be any problem. But it didnt happen that way first time, regardless how you do it second time.
I mean, if that ware the case, we wouldnt have a use for merchant resource license at all. I could just buy the texture pack, modify the textures and than make a render or phone picture of modified one and when I use it as a texture I say its my texture now, because just me made the second image file im using. Sure, just me made the second image, but that doesnt erase the fact that second one is a copy of the first one which was made by modifying original texture which was not mine.
There is a difference here because I don't copy or even need the artist's morph setting to make my own. Whether the artist's morph setting is 0 or 1.34 doesn't make any difference, I'll choose the same setting for that morph in any case to get the look I want.
To use your analogy, it would be the same as creating a texture addon for another artist's character which involves changing the looks of the original texture when applied, but without copying and including any part of the original texture in the addon. That's completely legal, there are many packages like that in the stores.
Sure, you could have loaded the figure and played with the morphs and made you own combination of morph settings and a character and saved a shaping preset which you can distribute. How does that help you, since you didnt do it that way?
I'm finding it hard to track what is being discussed here. In general you may:
Well in this case I load a character with morphs based on the DAZ G2 morphs, then I alter the settings for some of the morphs the artist has used plus some the artist hasn't used. I then save this as a shaping preset (intended to be used for the same character by others). That should fall under 1. above, right?
No, that would be a derivative work (since it's a modified version of another's preset).
So a shaping preset also include the original preset the artists has made, not just the settings I've changed/added? I guess what I'm trying to make then is 4. - which as I understand it is creating a preset that only include my changes and none of the original preset in unaltered form. I.e. a totally unique preset which has no morphs that are identical to those in the original preset but which alters it partly when applied on top of it.
There might be some morphs you use which were in the original preset, for which you've changed the strength. But you need to make sure that anything you haven't changed doesn't appear in your preset (and, to be thorough, assuming the tweaks you made are substantial -- you couldn't just add .01 to every dial the other artist used and claim that the preset was now 'your work'.)
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OK, there shouldn't be any legal problems with what I intend to do then. Are there any tutorials out there for how to do this?