makehumancommunity.org

I'm currently playing around with generating a large number of MakeHuman models to serve as NPCs in a game (which I gather is not exactly a novel idea from looking around the forums ) along with a fair bit of other procedural content (MarchingCubes terrain, L-system trees, yadda yadda) as well as some more conventional model-work in Blender (various items of clothing/armor/weapons, and body modifications - elven/goblin ears, noses, etc - pushed into MH through MakeClothes, MakeTarget). I have no idea if I'll ever get far enough along in this project for it to be commercially viable, but was nonetheless curious what MakeHuman's licensing terms were like. While looking through MH's readable explanation, this caught my attention:

Specifically, the CC0 exception does not apply if linking to MakeHuman as a library, if using MakeHuman in server mode as a component in an aggregate, or if making code interventions to make mass exports.

And was curious: does use of the scripting plugin that comes packaged with MH to generate a large number of randomly varying models constitute a "code intervention"? Or are the parts of MH's code base that are exposed through its pre-packaged scripting plugin somehow restricted and fair game for the CC0 exception, with the "no mass exports" clause only applying to more direct edits to and invocations of MH's underlying code?

I get the sense from reading through the readable MH license explainer/disclaimer that this may still not be allowable under the CC0 exception, but was hoping to get a firm yay/nay from someone who's spent more time thinking about/working with MH than I have. I'll probably keep tinkering with this project one way or the other, but it's always nice to clearly understand the licensing terms of the more useful tools available. Maybe if I get far enough along for this to matter I can try to find a reasonable alternative package..

The intention back then was to prevent circumventing AGPL by doing a mass export to recreate the target database. Theoretically, you can recreate every available target by exporting combinations of body shapes and calculating morphs between them.

But for your question specifically: Using already available components of the program (such as the scripting plugin or the shell plugin) does not count as modification. Thus you don't violate the terms of the CC0 exception by doing that.

The license terms are found in the license, and it's only that you would need to follow. The license explanation is a discussion of the license terms, but does not count as license terms in itself.

The relevant section of the license text is:

...grants the option to use CC0 ... as a license for the MakeHuman characters exported under the conditions that a) The assets were bundled in an export that was made using the file export functionality inside an OFFICIAL and UNMODIFIED version of MakeHuman ...

It does not say you can't call the file export functionality from the scripting tab.

joepal wrote:The intention back then was to prevent circumventing AGPL by doing a mass export to recreate the target database. Theoretically, you can recreate every available target by exporting combinations of body shapes and calculating morphs between them.

Yeah, I think I saw you reply to this effect in another thread about the license. It's an interesting concern; I guess it wouldn't be all that hard to reverse-engineer MH's primary functionality in this way, since a lot of it could be recreated as a sort've large lookup table over models with different slider settings.

But for your question specifically: Using already available components of the program (such as the scripting plugin or the shell plugin) does not count as modification. Thus you don't violate the terms of the CC0 exception by doing that.

Oh, nice! Not the answer I was expecting. Thanks!

The license terms are found in the license, and it's only that you would need to follow. The license explanation is a discussion of the license terms, but does not count as license terms in itself.

The relevant section of the license text is:

...grants the option to use CC0 ... as a license for the MakeHuman characters exported under the conditions that a) The assets were bundled in an export that was made using the file export functionality inside an OFFICIAL and UNMODIFIED version of MakeHuman ...

It does not say you can't call the file export functionality from the scripting tab.

Right! I was actually looking at that bit of the license text as well, and was hoping that meant the scripting plugin was fair game, but I always worry with legalese that there's some obscure dependent clause or exception elsewhere in the text I haven't read, heh.

Thanks for clarifying!