Legal Question for Aircraft Painters

***nagpaw*** · July 2nd, 2020, 14:20

Here's the situation...

I'm painting the Sky Simulations DC-9 using the company's official paint kit. The paint kit does not include a base metal texture, only a white fuselage. I need bare metal for at least the lower fuselage. Sky Simulations provides additional textures in separate downloads for each variant of the DC-9, including a USAir DC-9-30 and USAF C-9A that include a bare metal lower fuselage that I could cut and paste.

So here's the question: since the bare metal is not part of the paint kit, but is a part of a "base texture" provided by Sky Simulations, can I legally cut and paste the lower portion of the USAir or USAF texture into the paint kit and distribute the resulting texture, assuming credit is given appropriately? There's no documentation besides the aircraft.cfg entries accompanying the USAir and USAF paints. The "description=" section of each .cfg entry does say "Copyright Sky Simulations 2017," but it's unclear if that references the entire aircraft model or the texture.

I'm no good with legal stuff like this, and I certainly don't want to use someone else's work inappropriately.

I'm leaning heavily towards "no, you can't do that." Can someone provide some guidance?

Thanks!

***Jafo*** · July 2nd, 2020, 17:16

OK...
To all intents and purposes...unless otherwise noted elsewhere...a 'Copyright xyz' pertains to all of the product collectively.
A paint kit presupposes anything within can be used by you....but arguably actually needs to state that the resulting 'paint' can be publicly redistributed and not just be for your own use on your own computer.
Generally you can be covered with what you want to do by crediting 'Sky Simulations' as the source of the kit and other images but...
A statement of 'copyright' defines the one and only entity who can legally release their 'rights to copy' to another entity, so if you feel you may be stepping on their toes the only correct action is to ask - them.
I've done so in the past, and being Admin to an online graphics/skinning site [Wincustomize.com] for the past 20 years means I've had to enforce the 'rules of copyright' more than once...

***nagpaw*** · July 2nd, 2020, 17:24

Jafo,

Thanks for the informed reply! I'm contacting Sky Simulations now. If I don't hear anything back from them (which I suspect is very likely), I'll play it safe and not use the texture. Thanks again!

**Thomas J Wood** · July 2nd, 2020, 17:53

Once anything is given out for free to the public, Unless otherwise stated in a document it becomes public domain.

As far as I know textures can be either or depending on the one who made them or took the picture.

It can get complicated. Like sounds, individually you cant copy write a natural sound, like air plane engine sounds...but a bunch of sounds grouped together into a song...or sound track that is a copy writable property.

It is very unlikely that they will doing anything to you. For instance they would have to prove they have always owned that texture, which probably they haven't. Secondly they have to serve you a public notice of cease and stop order, those cost money, like 1000.000 around here where I am they cost that much.

Its simply not worth it to them on a plane that they only made maybe 5k on. Honestly. The worst they can do is flame you on a forum and they wont do that because that is public slander and they get in big trouble for that.
The worst you will get is they will email the web site you upload it to and ask for the thing to be taken down. That would be stupid because it just moves people away from their products.

I love the paint schemes people do for my stuff, and if they use a little of my paints, what ever who cares...they brought attention to my add on!

***Jafo*** · July 2nd, 2020, 19:53

Originally Posted by Thomas J Wood

Once anything is given out for free to the public, Unless otherwise stated in a document it becomes public domain.

Secondly they have to serve you a public notice of cease and stop order, those cost money, like 1000.000 around here where I am they cost that much.

I love the paint schemes people do for my stuff, and if they use a little of my paints, what ever who cares...they brought attention to my add on!

The copyright notice declares its ownership so it is not 'public domain' other than what is allowed within the terms of the copyright as stated.
Even something released under the 'GNU' license is null and void if said license is not included [in full] with the product.
A DMCA notice does not cost. [that's the 'cease and desist' notification]
Whether you are happy how your property is reused or not has no bearing on the rights of another entity's copy protection and restrictions on its use.

I don't want to belabour the point but having been in the commercial creation of copyrighted property [Architecture] for all my Professional working life [now retired] I am basing my comments on 46 years experience, coinciding with 20 years of online copyright defense [for both myself and others], both locally and Internationally. An example would be...an Australian [me] defending a Brazillian's copyright going after people in both Russia and Norway [successfully]. That was prior to the establishment of the 'DMCA' process which really requires the affected owner to lodge, and not an intermediary...

***nagpaw*** · July 2nd, 2020, 20:10

Thanks again for the input, guys. My question has been answered, and I don't want to start any arguments. Here's two photos of what I'm working on...

Fictional Hawaiian DC-9-15 N903H, assuming the Baby Nines somehow survived into the 21st Century. These colors should be pretty easy to slap on the -51, also.

Fictional Aloha DC-9-14, assuming the airline opted for DC-9s instead of 737s. Note that this paint uses the bare metal from Sky Simulation's USAir DC-9-31. This is the project that raised my concerns, so it'll have to sit in my own personal hangar for now. I've also placed these colors on a DC-9-31.

I've also lined-up everything I need for a Western "Indian Head" DC-9-31 (assuming WAL purchased Nines instead of 737s) and a Piedmont DC-9-31 (again, Nines instead of 737s). Both of those projects would need metal from the free Sky Sim texture packs. There's also a US Navy DC-9-21 "COD" in there somewhere. My holding pattern is stacked about three or four deep right now!

**Bjoern** · July 3rd, 2020, 10:41

This aircraft package is one of the things I really miss in X-Plane. It gets way too little credit as well as it's way too often overshadowed by the Coolsky one.

***nagpaw*** · July 4th, 2020, 08:47

Bjoern,

I just purchased the Sky Simulations package the other day. I liked the look of the Coolsky -30/-80, but in the end it was the availability of the different models that sold me on the Sky Sim package. Yes, it is a heavily underrated product! I will say there's quite a few inaccuracies and problems with it...most of which were quite handily corrected by a certain talented programmer

Seriously, if it weren't for your modifications to the Nine, it would probably be in the bin right now. Well done, and thanks!

And if anyone reading this doesn't know what I'm talking about, head on over to Bjoern's website. The link is in his posts.

**HighBypass** · July 4th, 2020, 09:34

That Aloha Airlines is indeed a fun looking bird!

A bit of a digression, but I really like Sky Sim's MD-11 for FSX:SE, I wanted decent eye candy, with a useable VC and some systems and was too late to the party for PMDGs legacy product. I just wish they'd fix the main undercarriage door animations, but they say they cannot see a problem at their end..