Important Question on Legalities

I had a pretty unpleasant SL experience this weekend. A customer messaged me to tell me that she was getting accused of stealing a texture from another player. She said that the other player was threatening to press charges, complaining to the Lindens, etc. She bought this texture originally from me and asked if I had "stolen" it or could in any way assist her in this. I explained to her, first of all, I have never "stolen" or resold any in-game texture. Anything I have for sale, I have either: 1) uploaded myself from texture packs 2) created in photo editor from scratch 3) edited RL photos in editor and added by-hand details. I said of course I would assist if needed.

I then sent the accuser a polite note stating I was aware of the situation and explained that the textures in question were available online for purchase, I had bought them, and that I had never stolen anyone's work. What I received in response was first of all, very hostile, and secondly, full of some information that I want to question. What exactly are the legal issues regarding textures in SL? She stated basically that just by redistributing this texture I was breaking the law. She was also quite upset because she was apparently under the impression that I had modified it (I had not) and said this was illegal as well, and that I was breaking the law by "selling it as my own" (I did not claim that).

My main area of concern about this is that almost all of the textures I see available in-game for purchase, anywhere, are ones I have seen time and time again online, in texture packs, modified versions of ones available from texture clubs, etc etc the list goes on and on. Is it truly illegal to sell any texture in game other than something you have created entirely from scratch? This sure seemed to be the implication. If it truly is illegal to sell, in game, uploaded textures, then I think a lot of us need to know the correct answer on this right away. I totally understand and appreciate the premise that it is indeed wrong to re-sell in game another person's textures you got there. For instance, I like the 3-D textures sold by LilyBeth Filfth who does excellent work. I buy them, and keep them for myself and for my builds, and would not dream of reselling them as texture packs in the game. If it's illegal to resell, then is everything anyone makes using textures they did not create by hand also illegal?

I have put that avatar on mute, due to the hostility, frankly I'm not here to deal with people like that. I would like to hear from someone calm out there on the legalities and such regarding this issue. Thank you.

Firstly, is the accuser a legal representative of, or is himself/herself, the copyright owner of the texure ? If not, you can safely keep him/her muted.

Secondly, "selling ingame" does not necessarily constitute a commercial use of the texture, as surprising as it may seem, this is debatable and would have to be established before accusing you of copyright infrigement. There are countries where copyright has exceptions especially with non-commercial use (fair-use). You have the right to modify the texture and use it in your creations for all those exception uses.

Thirdly, you may have the right to copy and redistribute the texture, if that right was included (in the form of a license, like Creative Commons or the GPL, for example) with it when you bought the package. This applies to textures you got out of SL as well.

Overall, I think this is not worth losing sleep over.

Yes. Remember, the ToS still has a line about the L$ being valueless in reality. Of course, with the LindeX this may not hold up in a court of law, but it would be for that court to decide.

Just to be safe, only use textures / sounds that are public domain, royalty-less or made by self

No, she apparently had purchased and uploaded the same textures and is not associated with the company that produced the texture pack. Yes, I think the mute is appealing and sleep-friendly thank you for the interesting information.