Help Interpreting Copyright/Licensing

Filter Forge is a Photoshop plugin that you can use to create your own texture filters. It is also a standalone filter creator.

http://www.filterforge.com/

The Intellectual Property Statement on the site itself says:
http://www.filterforge.com/termsofuse.html

Intellectual Property

Copyright, trademark and all other proprietary rights in the Content (including but not limited to software, services, audio, video, text and photographs) rest with Filter Forge and/or its licensors. Unless otherwise specifically provided herein or authorized by Filter Forge in writing, all rights in the Content not expressly granted herein are reserved. You agree not to copy, republish, frame, make available for download, transmit, modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, assign, distribute, license, sublicense, reverse engineer, or create derivative works based on the Website, its Products or its Services. Except as otherwise provided, the Content published on this Website may be reproduced or distributed in unmodified form for personal non-commercial use only. Any other use of the Content, including without limitation distribution, reproduction, modification, display or transmission without the prior written consent of Filter Forge is strictly prohibited. All copyright and other proprietary notices shall be retained on all reproductions.

Filter Forge hereby disclaims any rights to trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, copyright, patents, domain names or other intellectual property interests of third parties. All intellectual property interests of third parties referenced herein or otherwise provided on this Website are the properties of their respective owners. Filter Forge disclaims any proprietary interests in the intellectual property rights other than their own.

The FAQ on the Filter Forge Wiki states:
http://www.filterforge.com/wiki/index.php/10q

You can use the Filter Library filters for commercial or non-commercial purposes as long as you don't violate the law or someone else's rights.

It is ok to modify other filters to your convenience. If someone's snippet or filter inspired you to create your own filter, it is considered polite to mention the author of the original idea in your filter info.

And finally, someone who uses Filter Forge to create and sell textures in SL offered this:

If you are talking about textures produced by filters which you create yourself -- no, there are no limitations and there won't be. You are the copyright holder for the filters you create. If you are talking about textures produced by filters created by other authors -- under the current Filter Forge EULA, there are no restrictions for using the textures for commercial or non-commercial purposes, including selling the textures. However, the next version of Filter Forge EULA will most probably introduce such restrictions. For more information on copyrights and the new EULA, please see http://www.filterforge.com/forum/read.php?FID=5&TID=4542 Best regards, Bella Beygelman, Filter Forge Support, [email]support@filterforge.com[/email]

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According to the Filter Forge forum post, it is legal to sell textures you find on the Filter Forge site, even though to me the current EULA states that it isn't.

Am I missing something here? If this is true it's definitely a buyer beware issue, since these textures can be purchased in world yet are free on the web.

I took a look at that discussion. I don't want to get involved in yet another forum by commenting on it there, but my impression is that it's being written by people who are not copyright attorneys, and as a result, it's incredibly confused and incomplete. The confusion carries over to your post.

The forum post that you quoted doesn't say anything at all about textures (i.e. images) you find on the Filter Forge site. I didn't see anything on the Filter Forge site giving you permission to download and reuse any of their textures. They provide filters for download, not textures. The images you see are just examples produced using those filters.

What the post is talking about are textures produced using filters produced by other authors, presumably using a starting image that you own. This would depend upon the license associated with that filter. The Filter Forge people don't seem to have an explicit license for the filters that they have in their library (part of their confusion), they seem to be trying to close a loophole in the EULA for their product (more confusion, as that's the wrong place), and their current Terms of Service seem to contradict their own Wiki post. I can't be sure, because I can't locate a complete copy of the current EULA. If you obtained a filter from some other source (if that's even technically possible), then it would be covered by the license associated with that filter; I can't imagine Filter Forge having any claim to filters that have never been posted to their site.

I'm guessing (and I emphasize, this is only a guess) that current practice is to allow you to resell a texture you create by applying a filter from their library to an image you create. Being current practice, it may help you avoid having to pay damages, and may be morally justified, but I'd hate to be either the attorney or judge who would have to sort out the legal reality from the participants perceptions.

Yes, thank you Kidd.

My particular issue is the legal use of the actual textures on the site, not textures created by using the filter on my own photos or textures.

I read through their rules a while ago, my take on it was that the original creator had copyright and that you *couldn't assume* because the creator had put it on the site that you had any rights to do anything you liked with it.

That's what I gathered from the EULA, but the statement in the forum seems to contradict that.

That is a messy EULA. Usually with things like textures, you can use those in your work as a component, but you cannot repackage and sell as textures. It might be best to contact Filter Forge directly and get an answer from them in writing.