"No Transfer" textures

I recently bought some textures that were "No Transfer." To me, that meant that I could not transfer the textures as a texture to someone else for them to use. Does this also mean that I cannot make clothing with this texture and sell the clothing? That is what the owner of the textures told me when he saw my ad for the clothing.

Well the permissions system doesn't necessarily indicate the intentions of the creator of any content. You CAN of course transfer 'no transfer' textures via the modify perm, but what you can and what you should do are two different things. If the seller has included terms and conditions of use before purchase, and he/she is the creator of that texture, then you should really abide by those terms and conditions.

if she cant use the textures in clothes or items she makes then what are the textures for? she is not selling the textures she is selling items she made

It's perfectly reasonable for someone to sell a texture on the condition it is only for personal use, and not part of a commercial venture. However, it is up to the creator to make clear terms and conditions available to potential buyers before purchase.

IMO any one selling 'no transfer' textures is shooting themselves in the foot - most business must surely come from those who use textures as part of a larger creation to be sold or given away.

I agree that any a priori terms and conditions should be followed, but I'm not entirely clear if this is a licensing issue, or a practical one: That is, can anybody actually successfully buy the items made with the texture? (Are these prim clothes or "clothing layer" clothes?)

If there were no a priori terms and conditions specified, then whatever you can get to work is fair game. It's not the buyer's responsibility to make the permissions system work as the seller intended.

I am 99.9% sure that having a no-trans texture means you won't be able to sell anything using it. The 0.1% comes from the fact that, well, I never buy no-trans textures and never use them so I don't really have practical experience.

There are reasons that one might be okay with no-trans textures, say for decoration or for one's own builds, but most of the time they're just annoying.

Yet modify permissions are granted, and so the buyer can download the texture to their PC, make modifications (or not), and then upload to SL as a full perms texture. So it's not so clear.

I agree Ordinal, I wouldn't buy a texture unless it is full perms, and I always check with the creator on terms and conditions if they're not clear.

edit to add: Just realised that I am wrong, at least technically. You can't download 'no trans' textures even when they are 'mod'. But still, if the 'no transfer' perms are meant as an indication of intent, shouldn't permitting 'mod' also be?

If they are set to "no transfer" in the permissions system, you will not be able to transfer any item that you have used them on.

Most of the big texture stores sell them with full permissions, but include a "terms of use" that you are agreeing to by purchasing them that states you may not resell them as textures. That is, they are for use in creating other works.

As a builder, I would find no value whatsoever in a "no transfer" texture unless it was something really cool that I wanted to use to decorate my own home.

Doesn't work with clothing but no transfer textues are easy to circumvent using LSL using the following steps.

Create an object, can just be a cube or whatever, put the no transfer texture (texture has to have modify permissions at least I believe) as the object texture.

Create a script in the object, in the state entry portion insert the line:

llSay(0, llGetTexture(ALL_SIDES));

The line it spits out should be Object: then a long string, the string past the "Object:" portion is the texture UUID.

If you want to transfer it to another object you've created you can create a new script like before and put into the state entry portion llSetTexture(<texture uuid>,ALL_SIDES); where <texture uuid> is the string previously mentioned. There are a lot more complex ways to do it but that's the easy way.

Using the method I described above actually I believe it treats the texture as the native texture for your object and doesn't treat it as part of the permission.




Some of them are actually an interesting read however they aren't worth the kilobyte or so of space that they take up in actuality unless the person actually decides to push it to real life court and even then since there hasn't been a case yet of this type of thing going to court there are a thousand issues surrounding whether such a contract would even be valid.

Well since the safe is not sufficiently secure and no one is looking, it must be ok to run off with the contents.

I don't make moral judgments on such things so I don't have a reply to that analogy.

FWIW, I still believe that if one agreed to restrictions on the use of something, one should honor that agreement, even if "it's just a game" and there's been no court test of the agreement. (I wouldn't be so sure that such agreements haven't been upheld, however, at least enough to get a DMCA take-down order.)

That said, though, if there were no such agreement, then anything allowed by the permissions system--including using the inventoried texture's UUID in a script--is valid. Merely stamping a texture "no transfer" in the permissions system means exactly what it says: the texture *itself* can't be transfered; that is, after all, how sounds are typically sold, with every intent that their UUIDs be used in transferable scripts.

Whilst I agree that the rights of the creator should be honoured. What the bloody hell is the point of a no transfer texture? I fully agree that reselling the texture as is should be disallowed and it's a shame that the permissions system can't deal with this but part of the point of buying a texture is to use it in other items.

llGetTexture should return a null key on textures which do not have full permissions.

You have a point about the practical matter of someone enforcing such a contract.

However, since the rights you'd get under copyright law are almost certainly more restrictive than the rights granted by such a contract, the validity of the contract isn't all that relevant to the buyer. In the absence of such a contract, you have no right to redistribute the texture (including references to the UUID).

I use to share no transfer textures I made because I didn't want them given away until I knew better..
The few I accidentally bought if they are no transfer I can't even seem to use them in slider or put them on prim.

Back when I first started playing there were quite a few texture shops that sold textures as no transfer. If you wanted to use them on objects for sale you could contact the shop owner and buy full perms versions at obscene prices. It was a nice racket.

I am actually totally shocked anyone is still selling them that way.

This entire 'no transfer' system is stupid. This is the only place that you can't transfer, can't modify items.

And whats the reasoning behind it? So you can't sell or give away items? Why? The simple answer to this is GREED! People are so greedy they don't want you giving or selling away stuff they've made like if they have a stupid patent on it.

This the only place you find this system on it.

With as greedy as the people are in sl, you must be kidding, they'll catch a heart attack if you did.

Ok...lot's off deduction and guesses, few facts.

No transfer textures USED to end up in the content of the items they were used on. Making the total item no-transfer.

Since a while this has changed. No-transfer texture permission handling is quite moronic nowadays (sorry LL):

1. You're not able to use no-transfer textures through the texture picker. The only way to apply them is by dragging them from inventory window onto the side of the prim you want to texture. (or in the texture box in the edit window texture tab)
2. When you do so, SL will shout (yes it will actually shout it in chat, as some kind of deterrent by making people feel ashamed or something): "Can't apply this item" (or something like it, don't recall the literal text).
3. The texture IS applied though, doesn't end up in the prim's contents and the object retains it's permissions. (eg can be transfered, copied, sold etc.)
3a. Very recently, i have gotten reports the textures aren't applied anymore, although this seems to differ from situation to situation (probably sl client related)


In the old day, it made sense to have no-transfer textures. They did exactly what they were meant to do: Allow people to create items for personal use.

Nowadays no-transfer lost their main function (disallowing transfer of item they were used on), and made the whole system to apply them difficult and illogical.

I assume the main reason LL changed the permissions behaviour is technical and has to do with the garbage collector scanning for which textures are used (links in item contents causes a lot more work to scan for texture usage)

Fine. We will make everthing "no copy" and when you botch it or SL eats it, you can buy another

I actually used/use no-transfer textures to allow people who buy one of my prefabs to be able to retexture/change or fix errors, without completely rezzing the item anew.
This is why i include a complete set of textures *for free* with every prefab.

I spent many many hours designing/creating these textures, and I wouldn't be comfortable just giving them away for free full-perms. As they were not MEANT to be used/sold as a business model. Just as an extra gesture to help people.

If no-transfer textures weren't possible. My only alternatives (and it seems we're at this point nowadays), is either giving my hard work away for free, or only offer them for a pretty high extra fee. Both options i like a lot less.

And this is the reason they're made no transfer? You and I both know it's not, it's all about greed and the need to stop anyone else from making money.

Make it no copy I don't think anyone cares at least not in clothes anyway. Who meeds more then one pair of the same pants or tops or shoes? Even if mod you still cant change the color as whatever design is on there wont be seen with the new color.

Ok, you include a free set but thats you not everyone else. Besides, this "hard work" you and each one of them speaks about is nothing. It's how its done if you wish to sell you can't and you won't get it without working so its nothing new.

I had a business in another game where I made millions. Starwars Galaxies. I sold my items at very low prices and many people would scoop items up to resell in their own shops. Did I care? NO! I wasn't greedy, as long as I got the price I asked for I didn't care what anyone does with it after they buy it from me unlike in here. And if you know anything about Galaxies, you'd know how much of a grind it was to master professions to be able to sell items.

Thats the giant difference between people who are greedy and use excuses as 'my hard work" or "I worked hard to make that" and people who only care about what they make and not what others make. After u sell what u make its not yours anymore, so why worry about it? Why should you care what happens to it? You got what you wanted in the price you sold it for.

Same thing with non-mod clothes, why do you care what people do with the clothes you make? You shouldn't.

I'm speaking in general to all vendors not just you.