Alteration license

Question

Suppose that a designer, John, is making a 3D animation. The models that he found online, have licenses that prohibit alteration. What does that mean? Can john animate it or is it better if he just makes his own model?

Answer 1

One cannot be definite without knowing just what the license that "prohibits alteration" says.

Many licenses in common use, like the CC-BY-ND license, contain provisions prohibiting the creation of derivative works. In general, a derivative work is a work based on another work.

In most countries an animation of a digital work would be considered a derivative work.

Note that if a license does not mention derivative works at all, one may not create derivative works under that license. A person needs specific and explicit permission to create a derivative work, or to distribute it once it is created, unless an exception to copyright applies.

Exceptions to copyright vary significantly from one country to another, and the question does not specify a jurisdiction. It also does not specify the purpose or intended use of the animation, but if it is for commercial use, or for general distribution that might interfere with a potential market that the owner of the copyright on the model could exploit, then it would not fit an exception to copyright in most countries, if indeed in any.

US Law

17 USC 101 says that:

A “derivative work” is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications, which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work”.

127 USC 106 (2) says that the owner of a copyright has the exclusive right:

(2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;

The owner can license this right, and can make payment and distribution agreements a condition of such a license.

Conclusion

Depending on what the license says, John can probably not animate the models without separately obtaining permission from the copyright owner.

John would also be wise to check that the posting is by the actual copyright owner or someone authorized by the owner. It is unfortunately common for people to post digital content and purport to license it when they have no right to do so at all. Such a license give no legal rights because the poster had no rights to give.