November 17, 2012, 09:45:17 pm
Guys, Google (as usual) never wants to make any TOS even a bit more clear as mud. Now that the owner changed, they did nothing much than changed the "Google" label to "Trimble".
I have been dealing with this for years now and what I can say is that at least employees never said "no" when it came to questions like this. So in essence; yes, whatever is posted in the 3D Warehouse is free to use even in a commercial environment (let's forget about the average quality of these models now).
As for the "source" of whatever has been shared there is royalty free or no, cannot be checked (unless you have a better knowledge about a certain item being pirated). You are only required to
- keep yourself to the TOS and use the models there by your good faith that they are free to use
- assume that everyone else keeps themselves to the TOS (i.e. they do not share copyrighted material)
- and assume that the owner of the 3D Warehouse enforces the TOS (i.e. they remove everything that has been shared against the TOS - e.g. copyrighted materials)
From the above points, it is clear that (unless you do know the contrary) you may assume that whatever is shared there is shared free of any copyright and you are free to use it.
Edit: ah yes, I am a lawyer, too.
