So... What do you tell people who don't like people sharing/using ripped models?

[Shadowth117]

I haven't had to worry too much about that to be honest although I can definitely see it coming up. But for one thing it usually helps to know the reason so you can sort of form your answer based on that. It also depends on the circumstances though I personally have no problem with it until someone tries to use them for profit or claim that they're their work though that's obviously rather rare.

I'd probably point out that many companies are pretty cool with it first of all. I know for a fact that Epic Games has contacted the author of UE Viewer and complimented him on his work which would certainly imply that they have no problem with that. I'd imagine if they did that they might have had the program taken down. There's also Bungie which definitely doesn't seem to have had a problem with RoosterTeeth using Halo 3 models (I'm referring to the externally animated stuff) as well as Halo Reach textures for CG stuff in Red VS Blue episodes. Of course, there's also the many companies that I'm not 100% on, but have shown somehow that they are okay with at least their sprites being used in fangames such as Nintendo.

Sure there are almost certainly companies that are really bothered by it, but its not often you hear about cease and desists for this type of content. The Resource sites here wouldn't even EXIST if there were a number of companies opposed to them and might I mention that we've yet to have a company's request to have content removed from them.

Now obviously there are other reasons people don't like it such as because of some of the more silly things that are done with the models, but then that kind of thing would occur with or without ripped content. Though to be honest, I'd have to say its rather pathetic for anyone to let themselves be bothered over something so trivial as that and as such its a poor reason for disliking ripped model sharing/usage or anything really.

Now don't think I have a problem with people making their own personal rips and not releasing them; they have every right not to if they choose. I just personally believe that doing so for a petty reason such as the aforementioned one is childish, though as I said in their rights to do.