OpenUru.org

I see some discussion of a Riven for iPhone and where and who has the sources files for the Riven models. As well as their formate and what is needed to convert them.

That brings up a question. As far as I know, which is not that far in this case, how are fan crated ages handling the source files? I mean the Blender, Photoshop, Gimp and similar files.

Are those archived?
Are the rights to them defined?
Are the uses they can be put to defined?

Consider. Those models can be used in Blue Mars and RealXtend now. Plus mesh handling is coming to the OS and SL grids, probably in early 2010.

In SL we are expecting a rush of new content to flood SL from Google's 3D Warehouse and other 3D model archives.

Does the community hide those files and only license them to select people?
Do the creators keep them and maintain control?
Will source files be lost as fans leave, vanish, crach computer... ?

Well, I guess the answer is "it depends" but that's probably not much of a help...

When MORE was first touted, I think there was some thought as to how this would be dealt with but, it's probably much less clear for an Open Source URU, and I think we need to see what kind of licences Cyan come up with. MORE was probably simpler since Cyan would really have been the sole publisher.

Cyan will need to licence certain tools, and have also indicated that some Cyan assets (textures, objects, etc.) may be made available for use in fan created ages. It is possible that the output from any tools may inherit some licencing characterisic that must be passed on. Similarly, any age that uses Cyan assets will probably need to conform to the licence model that Cyan attach to the asset.

In general, "Copyright" and the licence for use are distinct, although related. It probably becomes "awkward" in respect of game assets, like textures, etc., and differences in international laws can just compound matters. The copyright in any creative work always lie with the creator (unless they were specifcally contracted to produce the work for someone else), even if it uses material from some other source; the problem is that the inclusion of third-party material may make the work unpublishable by the creator. For example, you can create a piece of music using samples from several other recordings. You then own the rights to the derived work, but can only publish it if the rights holders of all the component parts agree.

I'm guessing that we may have a requirement for a licence.txt file or similar to be distributed with every age, asset, etc., that details the licence applicable to the distribution "object" and any Third Party Included items.