(I will be posting a followup later, when I've had a chance to rethink things, It seems that this posting below was motivated by an over-abundance of caution, that based on some apparent misconceptions. Feedback is welcomed in support of proving that I was in fact wrong. I'd like to apologise and hope that further debate on this issue can be to the standard the community expects.)
This is posted in follow up to the topic here - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14866
In that thread a use-case of using a combination of Make Human , (potentially Blender) and a vector drawing tool to create 'figure templates' was identified. However, the conclusion was reached that it wasn't possible to use Make Human as the first step for this, because of the strong licensing model currently used.
I am therefore opening a new discussion here so that there can be a further debate and possibly a fix to the licensing model implemented to make what is and what is not allowed explicitly clear.
Currently, the licensing advice in the FAQ states that some exported models can be used under CC-0, and it's strongly hinted in the fuller licensing explanation that individual 2D renders could potentially be CC-0 as well (provided that neither use third party assets under a different license), It doesn't however to my reading clearly and explicitly state that rendered 2D "program output" is CC-0 directly in all instances.
Once a set of 2D renders is obtained, the next step in the use case would be to trace these in an appropriate vector tool ( the industry leader would be the proprietary Adobe Illustrator). A personal view expressed in the earlier thread was that SVG/EPS should be treated as 2D render. I wasn't necessarily convinced by this and expressed a view that an explicit "license to trace" needed to be indicated.
Additionally in a tracing into a vector format it would be possible to create 'generic' figure templates ( by identifying muscle groups and joint points) building up a figure pose as a hierarchy of paths and linked rotation centres, which in it's ultimate implementation could be a digital analogue to the real-world figure templates used by designers on drawing boards. My conclusion was that despite the intermediate step of a render, this was getting unacceptably close to the sort of 'workaround' engineering that someone with ill intent could use to replicate an AGPL covered asset. Providing the whole of the Make Human source code (many MB) in order to have a usable and complaint (with AGPL) vector figure template which is typically a few K in size would be laughable, and hence it was concluded that without an explict "manual trace and pose" grant under Creative Commons terms it was impossible to safely make "usable" generic figure template using MakeHuman as the first step.
Without a "fix" to the licensing model to allow "manual trace and pose" on the vector side of things (without the AGPL terms becoming involved), the use of MakeHuman for this use case is suppressed (even where the intent would be for the 'generic' figure template to licensed as CC-BY-SA for example), and because there is no actively available "free" alternative, the use of proprietary tools (e.g Poser) is inadvertently encouraged. There also being very few 'figure templates' available that are license compatible with a 'free' (i.e Creative Commons) design infrastructure, the use of proprietary resources is also encouraged in preference to "free" ones. This is NOT and should NOT be a situation that an item of "free software" should be encouraging (however inadvertently).
The "fix" for this usage case "bug", (as opposed to a bug in the source code) would be to explicitly :
* State renders (as opposed to 2D "assests" are covered under CC-0 (provided that user contributed resources under other licenses are not involved.)
* Permit "manual tracings" to be made from 2D renders into vector explicitly. (I'm excluding automatic tracing with good reason here, for broadly the same reasons as given in the explanation given in the licensing advice.)
* Permit the use of "manual tracings" in the creation of generic figure templates for use in 2D artwork EXPLICITLY, and to allow that artwork to be distributed. (This would essentially be a clarification of the 'modify' clause the FAQ already indicates.) . The 'model' effectively being a 2d one instead of a 3D one.
*Potentially Change the licensing model so that "program output" (e.g exports and renders), underlying data model are under CLEARLY SEPARATE and EXPLICITLY stated licences from the source code, (OpenStreetMap for example, has a licensing model where the platform's source code is mostly GPL, MIT etc.. , the database model and data is under ODbL, and derived renders are under CC-BY-SA.) This to me seems to be a much cleaner approach, then the AGPL/CC-0 "exception" model currently used for MakeHuman.)
These changes would greatly assist the use case concern, and help make it more attractive compared to proprietary tools.