Sharing Textures with A Class

I'm running a little class for a small group. I want to allow the class to use some textures I have created but without the ability for them to give the textures away. In other words, I want to give them textures for their own personal use.

Setting the texture perms to "no transfer" does not seem to work - they can not use the textures with any prims they assemble.

So, is there a way to give textures for building that does not involve setting them to full perms?

gryff

If you set it to no transfer, they will be able to apply the texture and a copy of it will go into the inventory of that object. At that point, the object itself will be rendered no transfer.

At least that's how it worked in the past.

Just a quick *off the top of my head* but you could put the textures in a prim and set the contents for sale at $0L. Just ensure that each texture has mod/copy/no trans set in properties. I think the new viewer does batch properties from the object tab in edit mode but am using an older Linux viewer so I can't say for sure.

There's no technical means to do what you're asking. You do have legal protections, though. Have every member of the class enter into a license agreement, specifying what they can and can't do with your textures. It's a risk, of course, since chances are at least one student won't care about the agreement, and will release the textures into the wild. But it's about all you can do.

Further, if you want to, you can embed an invisible watermark into your textures, so you can more easily prove they're yours, if you ever need to do so. It won't stop anyone from distributing them, of course, but it will help your case if you want to have unauthorized copies removed from the system, and/or if you want to take unauthorized distributors to court.

Really though, what I'd suggest is that you let go of your copyright concerns, and pour all your effort into the being the best instructor you can be. Make a set of full-perm textures specifically for the class, and change them up from time to time, so that as you repeat the course, it doesn't get stale. Just don't use any textures that you can't afford to have copied, such as any that are unique to your own builds.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but if the textures are what you feel makes the class worthwhile, then I would submit that the class is not worthwhile at all. For any class to be worth taking, the instructional experience is what should be important, not the materials used. If your class is well put together, it should be just as teachable with Texture Set A as with Texture Set B. As long the instruction is what's valuable about the class, then it shouldn't matter if the textures get out.




By the way, just in case you didn't realize this, the ONLY way truly to protect an image is never to put it online in the first place. As soon as it's out there, it's copyable. Even if you restrict all perms in SL, anyone with any technical know-how can still copy it very easily. Anything that can be displayed on a screen can be captured and copied, anything.

That doesn't make it right, of course, so don't get me wrong. I'm certainly not trying to say that anything that CAN be done SHOULD be done. I'm simply acknowledging that anything that can be done WILL be done by SOMEONE, and once it's done, it's done.

Bottom line, copyright is a social issue, not a technical issue. We could talk all day about possible social solutions if you want to (and I really wish more people would), but there's really no point in thinking about technical solutions. Trying to apply technical restrictions or technical solutions to social behaviors and social problems can never work. That's just reality.

TY for the replies. This is what I have tried

Textures (set to mod/copy/no transfer) are passed to the class. They have them in inventory and can in fact visualise them by clicking "open".

However, on creating a prim, attempting to apply the texture by dragging to the texture box gives the little circle with a bar across it.

Attempting to find the texture by clicking on the prom texture box and bringing up the selection window ... texture is not visible for selection.

No transfer seems to be blocking use - at least with the viewers they are using.

More thoughts and similar experiences welcome .

gryff

Ty Chosen.

"There's no technical means to do what you're asking"

After some experimentation this morning was rapidly coming to that conclusion.

gryff

you CAN apply no mod textures... drag the texture directly from inventory to the prim face you want to apply it to. (don't use the texture picker window)... you have to do it a single face at a time, but it does work

yes. Sorry - I should have said that in mine. Can't use the texture picker - they need to drag it from inventory onto the face they want to texture, as Void describes above.

Ty Void and Rygel - I can confirm that dragging to a face does work - although it can soon become tedious!

As for the prim itself - it does become no transfer too.

Amazing what quirky things lie hidden.

gryff

Yep. Very tedius and annoying.

To me it really come down to what is so special about the textures that you don't want them to be full perm?

And, with all the full perm textures out there - if you want yours to be protected - why not just use ones that are out there for the class?

I'm all for learning about this, that, and permissions. Kudos.

But why not make some throw-away textures just for the class? I don't mean throw-away as in crappy, but throw-away as in full-perm that you don't mind being full-perm? As long as they serve the purpose of the class and all that.

Or even as Ry said. Find some already out there that serve.

And on that note, I highly recommend my free texture shop (details are in my in-world profile)