The License for cgtextures is a bit funky, add that with blenders license and you get Crazy!
CGtextures says that it doesn’t allow open source, and since Blender is open source, one would think thats out of the question, but here on blender.org, it says “Any output of such material is copyright the person who produced the output, in this case, the artist.” Does that mean the GPL license is void?
Question - can I distribute my .blends that use cgtextures for free?
Where does is say that CGTextures doesn’t allow open source?
The only thing I saw that would suggest you can’t include one of their textures in a .blend is the restriction against distribution of unmodified textures – so basically you can’t pack a bunch up in a .blend and distribute them but you are allowed to include one that is uv mapped to a model.
Does that mean the open source license is void?
I’m afraid to ask…
I’m quoting from the CGTextures site.
Can I use these textures in my Open Source (Creative Commons, GPL, etc) project?
No, unfortunately the textures cannot be used in Open Source projects because the licenses are not compatible. Allmost all Open Source licenses allow redistribution of the materials, which is not allowed for these textures.
I think that is a little bit different…
Their textures are copyright material and you cannot distribute copyright material under a GPL licence. They state that you can use them in personal or commercial work as long as you do not distribute them - with the exceptions stated for games, models etc.
Essentially they do not want you downloading and selling or giving away texture bundles as this would remove traffic from their site. Using them in Blender is fine, go ahead…
“here on blender.org, it says “Any output of such material is copyright the person who produced the output, in this case, the artist.” Does that mean the GPL license is void?”
That means you own the copyright on work you produce with Blender, the GPL licence applies to Blender’s source code.
Thanks for clearing that up.
with the exceptions stated for games, models etc.
Meaning that I cannot distribute a game with those textures on them?
Meaning that you can, as long as you do not intend releasing the game as open source:-
"Can I use your textures to make a (commercial) computer game?
Yes (with the exception of Open Source projects).
I’ve used some of the textures to create a map for a computer game. Can I distribute this map?
Yes, if the textures are used in the map you are allowed bundle them and distribute it as a package.
Please add the following text in the documentation of the map:
“One or more textures on this map have been created with images from CGTextures.com. These images may not be redistributed by default, please visit www.cgtextures.com for more information.”"
I think you can even use them in an open source game, as long as they aren’t the original texture. If you’ve edited the texture, as you most likely will do in any usage, then it should be fine. Like it was mentioned, they simply don’t want their original unmodified texture images being redistributed as that would rob them of potential traffic to their site.
Heh, maybe they are anti-open source…
Kind of sounds to me that they don’t understand that it is possible to distribute non-free art and stuff with open source programs without losing the copyright to them because of the ‘viral’ nature of open source licenses.
And, as always, what the copyright holder claims and what is legal are usually two different and conflicting things…they don’t even seem to be able to understand their own license which has no anti-open source usage clause.