I have a few questions regarding ripped content, that is; meshes, textures, sounds, etc. that come from a different commercial game. Obviously, doing something like this directly is illegal, at least to distribute, but where is the line?

Is a mesh generated by a program that interprets the game's rendering (ie. an emulator) considered "ripped"?

If that mesh is used as a reference to create your own mesh by hand, (3d concept art I guess), is the mesh you create by hand considered "ripped"?

If you use a ripped texture as a reference to paint your own texture, made to look like the original, is your new texture "ripped"?

If a piece of content is "ripped", where could one legally/safely upload it? Or would it be illegal to distribute in all cases?

It's illegal even if you don't distribute it, actually.


1. I'd guess yes.

2. If you're making it from scratch it should be fine. So if you want to make that ridiculously large sword from FFVII and you look at the artwork or screenshots that's fine providing the actual model is started from scratch. However if you are ripping the model from the game (assuming that is legal) and you tried to copy it exactly I think that would cross the line simply from an enforcement standpoint.

3. Same as the above.

4. If you make something from scratch that looks like an item or critter from another game I assume you can upload it anywhere that accepts mods. As for the actual ripped content, uploading that would be illegal.


These level of legalese really requires an admin response if you want something official.