Frequently asked questions
No. Even if a model is available free to download, it is still protected by copyright. You can’t sell it or give it away without permission from the rights holder (us!).
No. Copyright applies automatically from the moment the work is created and exists in some form, such as in a digital file. Copyrights can be registered, but works are protected even if they are not registered. Marking (or not marking) something with a copyright notice does not change its level of protection at all.
No. That’s called a “derivative work.” That means you took something that was protected by copyright and derived a new work from it (adapted it to make something new). But the copyrights still apply to the original work, even if your changes make the model unrecognizable.
Giving credit is a nice gesture, but it doesn’t affect copyright at all. To sell or give away your version of the model without permission from the rights holder of the original model is copyright infringement.
No. Copyright is not affected by whether the work is available on the internet.
Yes, you need permission from the rights holder to distribute any copyrighted work, even if you are not charging for it. It’s against the law to give away protected work without permission.
That’s certainly a possibility, but copyrights can be sold or transferred. Sometimes people sell models that they don’t have the rights to – and that’s copyright infringement. So if you see a model on the site that you think infringes on copyright, please contact us so we can investigate.