~Textures and Transferring~

I buy a texture...I make an object and put said texture on object...I want to give away said object to a friend...nope can't be done. Why are textures being sold that are no transfer? I bought the texture...I'm not trying to make any $ off of it, just want to give as a gift. Seems kind of pointless to sell textures that can't be used for anything other than personal use. If I were making and selling textures, I personally wouldn't care what is done with it after the sale. What is the reasoning on this? I can understand not wanting the actual texture to be able to be transferred but what about the object with the texture on it?

On a side note, I also don't understand why some things are set no transfer...such as clothing. If I want to buy a gift for someone, most things are no transfer. The item has been paid for...so what is the difference where it goes after that?

I have many textures now that I have found are no transfer...of course after I have bought them. So from now on I will not buy any textures that cannot be transferred.


Just a few questions if anyone could clarify for me. Thanks!

Most texture designers like thier textures to be fully modifyable and copyable so that they are more versatile to the end user (multi-prim usage, tintable, scalable). Making textures with full permissions in SL makes absolutely no sense from a business standpoint. Might as well just box them all up and set them for L$0 at the welcome area. So, the only other permission left (Transfer rights) needs to be locked.

Here are my own personal reasons why I sell my skin/tattoo textures No Mod, Copy, No Transfer.

1. If the texture is no Copy, then inevitably people come back to me with the complaint that they lost/deleted the texture, and need a replacement. I can not verify this, so I make my skin/tattoo textures copyable. Also people like to mix and match the body textures for head, upper, and lower, and create thier own skin files with those textures. That can't be done without Copy permission.

2. Allowing both Copy and Transfer rights for these valuable textures would be pointless (this ties directly in to the first point), unless I was giving them away for free.

3. The Modify permission is useless for a texture that can't be tinted, or is not supposed to be tinted. There is always transparency through an alpha channel to allow a certain degree of adjustability through tinting an underlying color. This is how I sell my skin textures for the pupose of adjusting skin pigmentation.

4. Lastly, for tracking puposes, I can't sell textures with transfer permissions because I need to be able to definitively verify who originally purchased the textures. I keep a sales record that dates back to 4/7/04. It's a 30mb Excel file now! I wish the Lindens kept that in thier database, but they don't, so I have to download that info if I want to have access to it.

It's hardly pointless. The minute you put full perms on something you sell is the minute you lose your ability to sell it. If I sell you a texture you can just give away, I wouldn't be able to sell any more of them. Who's gonna buy it when they could get it free?

There are plenty of things you can only buy personal use besides just SL textures. Software, music, paintings, photographs, etc. all are sold under the legal agreement that the consumer is buying it just for his or her own use. This is no different.

Don't forget RL copyright does exist in SL. Whether or not you're trying to make money with your copying is irrelevant. Copying is not allowed RL or in SL without the express permission of the creator, regardless of whether or not the copier is charging money for the copies. Just as in RL you're not allowed to buy a record and then make free copies for all your friends, in SL you're not allowed to buy a texture and give it away either unless the creator says it's okay.

Also the fact that you've put the texture onto an object is just as irrelevant. Just as in RL you're not allowed to take a video camera into a movie theater and then put screen caps from the video into a picture frame and give them away, in SL you can't put a texture into a frame and give it way either, unless the creator in either case says you can.

This is all just a hell of a lot easier to enforce in SL than it is in RL. That's all.


LL is looking into ways to impliment this. They are considering several options. For now though, if any part of an object is no-transfer, be it a texture, a script, a prim, whatever, the entire object is no-transfer, as it should be.


I have no problem making something transferrable as long as it's not copyable also. However, most customers want what they buy to be copyable, so making things transferrable is not usually appropriate. If something is copyable AND transferrable, the ability to sell it is gone. Anyone can give out unlimited free copies to anyone else.

Clothing items need to be copyable so the customer will be able to mix & match outfits. It's a real pain to have to make an outfit from scratch every time because you only have one copy of a shirt. Ojects need to be copyable so they won't get lost. If an object is not copiable, and then you delete it, it's gone. There's currently no way to allow customers that kind of freedom while allowing them to give things away at the same time. It has to be one or the other; unfortunately it can't be both.

If someone wants to buy a gift for someone else, all they have to do is IM me with the name of the person they are buying it for, and I send a copy to that person. It happens all the time.

Sorry to hear you say that. Absolutely nothing I sell is trasferrable, nor will it ever be, since copyability is infinitely more important than transferability for the customer. As I said though, if someone wants to buy a gift, it's not problem at all to arrange that.

If and when LL improves the permission system to give us better options, that policy might change, but for now it has to be this way or I'd be out of business. I speak from experience here, by the way. I was making several thousand $L a week off what used to be my best selling item before a bug in the permission system a while back produced a full perms copy inside one of my vending machines. The person that bought it gave away hundreds of free copies, each of which was also copyable. Now that item barely sells at all because everyone can get one for free. This was an item that took dozens of hours to create, and should have earned me thousands of dollars in real money, which it easily would have, considering the rate at which it was consistently selling before the bug hit. Now it's useless.

Anyway, to I think a good solution would be a check box for "Gift Wrap". Anything wrapped would be transferrable, but not usable. As soon as it's "unwrapped" for use, it would then gain whatever mod/copy/transfer permissions the creator intended.

As a Texture Store Owner... I can tell you MOST reputable Texture stores DO sell their textures with FULL RIGHTS.

I do...even the ones i TRUELY created ...in photoshop.

I dont believe ANYONE who simply uploads a texture they got from a website can declare them selves as the 'creator' no matter what the description says...if paying 10L$ to load it into SL makes you a 'creator' then its a poor creation!

Those type of textures are no more the seller's than the person who bought it from them the ONLY complaints they have are the uploading fee and the time it took to find it and catalogue it in their store..

Truth is most Texture stores...even the big ones...are selling textures got from websites were other RL people have created them and allowed people to use them for commercial and NONE commercial purposes..( note the last part)
Now I do it...I know the best Texture Store does it....and its a whole moral nightmare.

But you see i sell mine with full rights because as the lady says ' textures are pointless' without full rights.

Cant build or give a gift...cant create ANYTHING for your own business in SL with them..I too have fallen for the annoying trick of spending AGES on a build and used ONE texture that meant I couldnt give it or sell it.

And the REALLY annoying thing is..it was never THEIRs to start with...they got it from the REAL creator from some website....just as I do...and lots of others.

Only people who REALLY make original textures in paint programs have the right to demand copy right laws...I myself have started making my own textures...but even they I sell with full rights as i know my customers would buy from me If i didnt set them that way.

I cant stop people from buying my textures and reselling them...its a gltch in the SL system but one I have accepted and am at peace with...simply because they arent 'mine' to begin with...so how can I get all morally uptight about it?

All I lost is the time & 10L$ to upload them.

HOW EVER...if i find any-one selling my own CREATED textures just AS textures i WILL kick ass...cuz thats a whole new ball game.

If i saw them on some creation...that was being sold...id be flattered...

Also...just for the record..theres a problem with texture permissions...since V 1.6..when you click on the texture to check its permissions it will 'appear' to have NONE..but in fact al mine do..all of them...all the main texture stores have a sign up explaining this problem and assuring you that what you buy has full rights to modify, copy & transfer.

Please visit the best store for choice and mine for choice AND value LOL

I charge 200L$ for 10 - 70 textures in one bundle...have some really cool gothic builds in some custom made stained glass windows & custom made lace fabrics...some jewelrey textures on TGA format with a BLING script included so they are ready to be made into real jewelrey and also ive loaded some SERIOUS RETRO photo quality high resolution fabrics into the store...perfect for in world build & clothing design...can see the weave on the fabric when its applied to the clothing.

But my gothic build I have had some brilliant reviews and comments...took me about 2 mins to load each one into SL due to their high resolution.

Look under Textures R Us in the stores catagory and in future...if teh store doesnt have a sign saying FULL RIGHTS...dont buy cuz until this gltch is sorted out...you have no idea WHAT permissions are set at...

Mine are all set to full rights...always have

OK plug over

Agreed.



Be the one to set the example for the rest of SL. Sell only textures you have created yourself. Send customers to your source (give them the URL to that web site) for the rest of the textures. Most people like to keep their textures on their hard drives for preview purposes anyways. That's what I do. When I decide I want to use a texture in SL, only then will I upload it.



I don't think we should generalize and say all textures are "pointless" without full permissions. Textures that apply to avatars are still very useful without full permissions.



I would word this differently (ommiting the reference to paint programs), and say the original creator is the ONLY person that should grant rights in the use of thier intellectual property. Thus, the reason for the current permissions system in SL. However flawed it may be, it is still more secure than RL permissions systems if used properly.



Let me play devils advocate here, and bait you a little bit

If you spend 10 minutes creating a particular texture, and equal time creating 5 other similar textures, upload them, package them and set them for sale at L$200, how many texture pack sales do you consider adequate compensation for your hour of work? If you value your work at US$20/hour, then perhaps adequate compensation is the sale of 20 texture packs. Why should you care if others are profiting off your work after this? What’s the difference between someone selling your textures as simple full permissions textures, or as single prim tiles or rugs for more L$ than the original texture you sold them?

If we see the value of our texture only in terms wrapping paper, then we may be missing the additional value of first rights versus second rights, product identity, product enhancement, and many other values that our texture may have once it is applied in another context.

Just something to think about.

Well said Nam, I agree entirely.

It's even worse than that, Lillybeth. I've scoured most all of the freebie stores and grabbed an inventory-glut full of free (or $1L token charge) textures, houses, vehicles, animations and clothing. Guess what I discovered? Some of the expensive stuff, like houses and animations, that I see for sale in established stores are *exactly* like what I got for free. I don't know the paper trail on these items, but if those merchants are re-selling free stuff for higher prices, shame on them. This is only my 3rd week in SL, and I've already come across a number of unethical business practices.

That said, let's be clear on what we mean when we say "texture". I have folders full of metal, fabric, and misc. textures on my HD that I used during my Poser/Truespace/Gmax days. Every single one of these was obtained from a website somewhere that offers textures for free. Only the lazy would not know how to go out there and find them for themselves. The ONLY time I would consider purchasing things like this inside SL is if they're offering several packaged in a box that would save me $10L upload costs. And that's not a very big consideration.

On the other hand original avatar skins, hair and UV-mapped clothing textures are different levels of effort. I have no problem with merchants selling these as no copy/no mod. (Less certain on 'no trans' since I sometimes help new people out by giving them old skins I no longer want). They are the result of a great deal of expertise and work, in most cases.

I have a skin right now that I love. It's a Munchflower creation and almost perfect. I would dearly love to one day be able to buy a bunch of Temptie's makeup sets and be able to swap them out at will without altering my skin, but I would never expect Munch to make a special case for me. When the time (and money) comes, I will simply buy the makeup sets I want to use, take them to Munchflower and ask to have special skins custom made. I will pay extra for it and I'll be tickled fuchsia -- it's how business works

Cin