Hi, I'm trying to model some books. I got an idea of making a model of the book GPU PRO 4. Just right before I was going to grab the book cover image from their website, or google, I started to worry about copyright problems.
The 3D modeling itself seems hard to violate any copyright. But I can't draw textures, so do I infringe the copyright if I apply the book cover image onto my texture, and then sell the model for a price? What about I share it for free? Also if I grab a texture from textures.com, or anywhere on the web, randomly from google, will I be involved in copyright infringement?
Thanks for your help !
Every texture stock site has terms of use. You should read it carefully before using textures. You can sell your models if you used textures from textures.com: http://www.textures.com/terms-of-use.html
As for random textures from google, usually you can't use them commercially, unless it is stated otherwise by an author of texture.
In general images need to be altered so that it does not display as the original, It needs to be completely or partially unrecognizable.
Putting an image in a 3D frame and render it still will display the original image 100%, same case with book cover.
The original creator could for example claim you are using his design and public awareness of it to draw attention to your product without him having granted authorization to do so.
Sharing it for free would be different story if that image would not directly or indirectly be used to draw attention to some commercial activity's (difficult to prove because CGtrader is a commercial platform).
Textures is a different story as it usually incorporates into a totally different output image.
In order to post an answer, you need to sign in.
