![[Sketchlife logo]](sketchlife.png)
The Terms of Service for Google's 3D Warehouse (see especially section 4, under the heading "Your Rights") give Google and its end-users (that's us) a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual license to exercise the rights in the Content, as stated below:
...
Notwithstanding the above, end users may not aggregate the Content obtained from the 3D Warehouse for redistribution, and may not use or distribute Content obtained from the 3D Warehouse in a mapping or geographic application or service without Google's prior authorization.
This paragraph seems to limit the above four permissions. (That is: all parts of the license must be satisfied, so we can do any of the above four things, unless we aggregate [vague] the content, or use it in a geographic application.)
Now, Second Life could hardly be called geographic. "Geo" means "Earth", so in Second Life we would have something like "virtuogridographic".
The "aggregation" clause is what we need to worry about. It seems to be there for the purpose of not allowing, say Microsoft, to mirror a large part of 3D Warehouse (as the four permissions alone would have allowed). Still, it is the broad interpretation, not the initial reason for the clause, that we need to consider.
First of all, the "aggregation" clause refers to "the Content", not to derivative works of the Content. Recasting models using Sketchlife is a creative process (it requires human-level common sense and creativity, and cannot be automated by any available technique), so the result will be a derivative work, to which the "aggregation" clause does not apply. (In other words, the Content itself is not aggregated if we have, say, a Second Life shop of items based on 3D Warehouse originals.)
Secondly, Sketchlife is not in competition with the 3D Warehouse, but it extends its importance, bringing it to Second Life, which has users numbering in the hundreds of thousands. For this reason, we encourage Sketchlife users to acknowledge any models based on content from the 3D Warehouse, by, for example, putting a link back to the model in the "Description" field of the object.
The next paragraph of the Terms of Service states:
You retain the right to make the Content available under different license terms or to stop distributing the Content through the 3D Warehouse at any time; provided, however that any such election will not serve to withdraw the license granted under these Terms of Service. In order to stop distributing the Content through the 3D Warehouse, you must terminate these Terms of Service as set forth in Section 9, or utilize the content removal function provided within the service, in which case the content removal will be effective within two (2) days.
Now, what this means is that content creators have the right to use 3D Warehouse's content removal function — and the content will be gone from the 3D Warehouse. However, if we have previously made a derivative work from this Content, we still have the license granting the four permissions as above — whether or not the Content is still in the 3D Warehouse. You cannot revoke a perpetual license.
Since commercial use is not prevented by the license, it is allowed.
Disclaimer: what I am writing here is not legal advice, it is only my interpretation of what the Terms of Service say. One would need to consult an experienced lawyer to confirm their rights under this agreement. I cannot be held responsible for any decision that you make after having read this document. This document is meant to encourage thinking about the Terms of Service, and relate my own understanding of it (which may be incorrect), not to state any facts.
Evgeni Sergeev
Sunday 05 July 2009 12:40 (Western Australia Standard Time)
