A Filter Forge "Remix" Culture - Is This Encouraged?

I know I have made some of my best filters remixing others' work and hoping people will do the same with mine.

The free and open sharing of our techniques is something I think has really flourished and turned this more from just a software tool to a genuine artists' community.

How do other filter authors feel about the concept?

I'd be hopeless without picking apart the filters of the legends here.

But there are issues of professional courtesy and IP and idea "ownership" that should be discussed, I think.

Like many others here, I bought FF because I want to use it to produce commercial-level textures. But I'm up against a quandary right now - I am using FF to produce Unity materials and textures, and each filter *variation* practically *is* a material in and of itself. They look *fantastic*. You can wallpaper an entire virtual world with the entire library.

I certainly wouldn't feel right about just taking someone else's filter, turning its base morphs into wonderful Unity materials, and selling them without discussing permissions/use rights/revenue shares.

At the same time though - some morphs I have of other users' filters feel "unique" to me, enough that I've created something unique - and I certainly wouldn't be offended if others used my more versatile filters to create (and sell) unique materials of my filters.

So I'm really wondering, hmmm, where is the line? And what does the FF license say about such?

Every minute that some FF textures *aren't* up on the Unity store, the Unreal Marketplace, et cetera, seems like it's literally holding back scientific, architectural, and commercial development for those technologies and the human race - but that may just be my high opinion of this software and community.

I certainly feel it's an issue worth discussing.

I am certainly aware that I've committed my filter work to "the commons" - not exactly the public domain, but it might as well be. That was part of the appeal for me, in fact - a lot of my filters are remixes of the work of others here, and I think we all learn a lot from each other.

That being said - for now I'm leaning towards almost never using others' filters for actual commercial materials for sale. If I want a particular look I'll do my best to re-engineer it and make it mine.

Some authors don't have the means, knowledge, or wherewithal to make materials from filters, though. Some have all of these but no interest. And that leaves a lot of really stunning textures that will never make a material, and most people still don't know about, since FF is still - bizarrely - one of those "undiscovered secrets" that many have not heard of.

I wonder if it would be possible to start a forum topic for Unity materials creators and discuss best practices.