Linden Lab’s Sansar went into public beta yesterday, which I’m sure many of you have noticed. What may not have been noticed (although there were hints if we’d paid closer attention), is that Sansar has a relationship with TurboSquid.
I noticed the relationship yesterday when reading an article about the Sansar launch by Dean Takahashi over at VentureBeat – Linden Lab launches open beta for social VR platform Sansar :
A relationship with TurboSquid provides creators with access to hundreds of additional high-quality 3D models in the Store today, with thousands more being added in the coming months. Planned integration with TurboSquid’s StemCell initiative will make it easy for TurboSquid’s community of 3D modelers to immediately upload and sell their creations in the Sansar Store, further augmenting the assets readily available to Sansar creators.
I’m only seeing around 15 items from TurboSquid in the Sansar Store but maybe TurboSquid creators have their items listed under their own name or maybe the link is a work in progress, but it’s an interesting development because TurboSquid have a very different attitude when it comes to Second Life.
The TurboSquid usage FAQ has the following section :
May I use TurboSquid products in virtual worlds?
Generally, no. While we greatly respect Second Life and related communities, TurboSquid’s artist community does not believe the IP protections for their work are sufficient in these worlds.
The specific exclusion in the Royalty Free License is based on the virtual world being open for importing/exporting and the potential for use as a conduit for piracy for TurboSquid models. If a virtual world is more like World of Warcraft or a closed MMO, then that should be allowed. Please check the Royalty Free License for the specific language.
I’m not quite sure what this tells us about IP protection in Sansar as opposed to Second Life but I have said in the past that links between Linden Lab and other companies could be beneficial to both creators and the platform, so I do see the potential regarding the TurboSquid relationship with Sansar.
I am sure that plenty of Second Life content creators who are happy that Second Life doesn’t have a similar link with TurboSquid.
Now the TurboSquid relationship with Sansar won’t be that surprising to those who have been paying closer attention to developments, covering Sansar’s appearance at a web summit back in November Inara Pey wrote :
The creative aspects of Sansar are only briefly looked at, and for those who have been following Sansar reports, offers nothing of significance. However, it is somewhat interesting to learn that the familiar Golden Gate bridge seen in Sansar is actually a TurboSquid model, underlining the ability for models to be purchased from other mediums and pulled into Sansar.
So whereas the news of the TurboSquid took me by surprise, it will not be surprising to those who have been closely following Inara’s posts.