FF Exchange Models goes public
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Yes. If you look at Section 3: subsection 3 here https://www.formfonts.com/information/exchange_artist_license.php (sorry, it was drafted by real lawyers, so isn't the easiest thing to read). You'll see that FF assumes all rights to the uploaded content (for legal reasons that will become apparent) but immediately grants those rights back to the artist to do pretty much anything you like with them...including posting to other sites. They are your models, after all.
What FF doesn't do is grant all those rights to anyone else who downloads them. They can use your models in their renderings for clients, illustrations etc, but can't take your models and post them anywhere else as their own (because FF has already assumed copyright of them). It means we'll chase them up; individual artists don't have to. So no one else can take your stuff off the Exchange and post it to the 3DW or another modelling forum without our say so...and we aren't about to give that.
This isn't just academic. I personally had a case of someone downloading a model of a church I posted to Objective Networks (the forerunner of FF) and posting it to the 3DW as his own work.
The legalese always tends to look pretty scary, but that's not peculiar to FF. It's pretty much the same as any other Terms of Use.Yes. If you look at Section 3: subsection 3 here https://www.formfonts.com/information/exchange_artist_license.php (sorry, it was drafted by real lawyers, so isn't the easiest thing to read). You'll see that FF assumes all rights to the uploaded content (for legal reasons that will become apparent) but immediately grants those rights back to the artist to do pretty much anything you like with them...including posting to other sites. They are your models, after all.
What FF doesn't do is grant all those rights to anyone else who downloads them. They can use your models in their renderings for clients, illustrations etc, but can't take your models and post them anywhere else as their own (because FF has already assumed copyright of them). It means we'll chase them up; individual artists don't have to. So no one else can take your stuff off the Exchange and post it to the 3DW or another modelling forum without our say so...and we aren't about to give that.
This isn't just academic. I personally had a case of someone downloading a model of a church I posted to Objective Networks (the forerunner of FF) and posting it to the 3DW as his own work.
The legalese always tends to look pretty scary, but that's not peculiar to FF. It's pretty much the same as any other Terms of Use.
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Well, the 3DWH is full of this all the time.
I have even removed all my stuff from there except for those files I had uploaded to help forum posters out with their problems (also to cause the least possible broken links). -
thanks for explaining
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I'd just like to clarify a few points which have arisen since I posted this notice.
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Existing FormFonts subscribers don't need to sign up for the Exchange...they already have access to it as part of their subscription.
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We take the quality of submissions very seriously:
Any work uploaded must be your own. We have had submissions of models acknowledged to be by other people; we are not going down that route.
The model must be of good quality and fully purged...and of reasonable size. No 7MB cars please.
The thumbnail must be at least visually square and around 400 pixels on a white background.
(In Photoshop you can force a square crop by holding down Shift; in Corel Photopaint use Ctrl.)
Failure to do this may, at least, result in a delay in the model being approved onto the site. If the submission is too far wide of the guidelines it may not make it at all.
Thanks
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Thanks Alan this is a great idea and a fantastic gesture.
Are you going to rate the models when they are uploaded and then decide whether they 'deserve' the 3 downloads or will the user automatically get their 3 downloads as soon as they've uploaded their 1?
For example Joe Spo could upload a cube, call it "Child's wooden building block" and get their 3 free models.
Also I could upload Pews, Chandeliers, Columns, Doors, Confessionals, At least 5 floor finishes, 15 Stained glass windows, Baptismal, Lecturn, Radiator etc etc. just from one model.
How are you going to stop people abusing the system?PS Please find attached 1 Pew, 1 Chandelier, 3 columns, 4 doors, 1 confessional........
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Are you giving away your chuch now, Paul?
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Its not my church its HIS church and HE hates me so yea, I'm goin'a strip it and get what I can for the bits
Anybody want some virtual lead?
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Paul,
As with the FF artists, all models are rated the same. Fred Abler and I agonised about this some years ago, but decided that there is simply no way of formulating a system to grade models.Everyone knows an "easy" model when they see one, but actually categorising it is a whole different thing. You can't grade according to the type of model (saying chairs are easy compared to cars) because what about some of the very fluid modern designs or a Louis XV, covered in mouldings and gold ormalu? Nor can you go on the number of polys (Just leave the arcs and circles at their default values and you can end up with tens of thousands of polys in seconds). And it would simply get too argumentative classifying each model individually...and somewhat subjectively.
The site actually says 4 downloads for 1 upload, but I've never had cause to test it. Jo Spo won't be able to upload a cube...because I won't approve it. Remember, it's not an automatic upload as on certain other sites, everything goes through QC. I can (and do) edit models that haven't followed the guidelines correctly, just as I have refused a few models that were too far wide of the mark (usually lousy quality or obvious copyright infringement). It'd be just as easy for me to simply delete extra configs that I thought were milking the system.
I'm hoping to put up a clearer list of guidelines shortly, to minimise such problems.
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Alan,
Are FF subscribers free to download Exchange models or are they also required to upload first?
Best, Tom. -
No, they have to contribute stuff on the same basis as everyone else, Tom. It's just that they are already registered. All very "co-operative"
We are thinking of using this flyer.
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