Buyer Beware: Filter Forge Textures

I recently purchased some textures in world only to later find them, for free, at Filter Forge.

I contacted the creator of the textures to inquire if they had a presence in SL and were selling these textures. Here is the reply:

"Hi Atashi!

To answer you question, I'm not selling any of my textures on SL, or anywhere else for that matter. They come free for anyone that uses FF.

Since you know about Filter Forge as the source of the textures, I'd ask you to spread word about this fine tool in the SL community so that we might put an end to the blatant texture reselling practice."

Here are the textures in question:
http://www.filterforge.com/filters/1957.html

So, go use Filter Forge, it rocks....and don't pay for these or any other FF textures in world (unless you're sure the original creator of the filter/texture is the seller).

There some that even use this program some look like its been taken right out of the gallery without the program...
http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/gallery.htm
This program is similar to Filter Forge too.

Yes, but in my case they were exactly the same as those on the site.

Yumi mentioned Spiralgraphics in another thread, looks great too!

Thanx Ats for info... I do use Genetica Pro, have done so a couple years now. but any textures I create are free anyways hehe

OMG FD!!!!!
Ive bought some of these textures in SL from a shop that claims all textures are hand made.....they dont even look like theyve been changed.
Looks like Ive wasted a load of dosh for something I could have uploaded myself for free

Yea I know because I recognized some of them too.
I now it is hard work to hand make textures because I make my own but it feels so much better then buying questionable textures,etc.
Most hand made textures unless they use photos or really good at drawing, modeling and colorized don't turn out exactly like that...or at least mine don't.
True hand drawn textures have small things you don't see in CGI or computer generated programs from my experience.
Usually it has some type of imperfection because it's human made not generated..

That app looks awesome too Toy...but expensive!

Rawr!

Beautiful textures though. I think I'll plug it in!

I downloaded Filter Forge after seeing a thread about it here and it's fantastic fun - it seems a bit more flexible than Genetica, too. Oh, and if you produce 3 high-rated textures with it, they give you the registered version for free!

But.. yes.. textures taken from the Genetica and FF sample sets routinely show up in boxes on sale.

Well not for free. 10L.

To play the devils advocate here....

Given the anonyity of SL we have no to know way if the person selling the FF texture IS the creator of the filter. IF he or she is the creator then I would say they have everyright to upload it and sell it regardless if they added thier filter to the FF website or not.

What are the odds they are the actual filter creator? I can't even guess.

I do have some other issues related to the business practices of the shop in question but on this one I have to at least entertain the idea that it is possible the textures are legit.

That's why I emailed them - in this particular case the seller isn't the creator.

What about using the filters and then modifying the results to have more depth, detail, dirt etc than can be produced with the filter alone with photoshopping techniques?


Char

What you have then is typically a derived work, which still requires permission of the original copyright holder. I say 'typically' because it's really more complicated than that.

At this time, you can do what you please with the textures (from what I gather). Since these are free to use I think this would be perfectly fine to do, but not to resell as textures.

Was buying them inworld more expensive than it would have been to upload them yorself?

If the answer is no then surely the guy selling them is providing a service?

It was more expensive, by far.

Ive been wondering Ats..... what if someone sold those type of textures for say half of what upload would cost? They would be doing a service?

I wonder how the demo and getting a free Filter Forge would work. I tried to read the
site and got bit stumped though so I haven't downloaded it.
I figure its got limited abilities with demo.
I am not skilled with lot of those fancy programs but I am artist. I spend now about 20, sometimes 40 hours or more week drawing,etc. and sometimes it would be nice to have way to figure out how to do more then copy and paste my preset hand drawn shapes.
I have reluctant though to download it because of price.
Friend uses Genetica even bought it, but she says it most likely isn't FD Spark friendly.

What if they sold 1000 of them?

Because the EULA and TOS at Filger Forge is a bit....vague, it boils down to ethics. These textures are free to use, and should not be being sold in SL for $L500 per 10 (or whatever it was, I can't recall exactly now).

It's full featured FD, just with a time limit of 30 days.
It wasn't my cup of tea.

I know I was bein silly LOL

The demo is free but with a 30 day limit. Basically it is a bit strange, you create textures by using computer generated source images and combining them together. You can get some spectacular results this way (look at http://www.theprodukkt.com/kkrieger and its screenshots page, that is a 3D game which uses only procedural graphics to fit a whole game in 96k! ) but it is a bit of a strange way of doing it.. it's a good cheat for people like me who can't draw though!

Wow, that looks really cool too Yumi. I've registered so I can download it.