Hi everyone,

Joe Saltzman here, I think most of you know me. Anyway, just wanted to say a few short things about why Letterbox studios is no longer distributing my training material for XSI any longer. Firstly, I like to say that there is NO problem whatsoever between 3DTutorial.com and/or Letterbox Studios, we have had and maintain a great working relationship with each other and I expect that will continue on into the future.

So why has this stuff been pulled? Well some recent legal problems have arisen surrounding the material, things that I cant discuss due to pending litigation -- that is the main reason it had to be taken down immediately. Secondly, the material is now really, really, old. Yes, some of it is still valid, however, most of that stuff was made over a period of like 6 or 7 years now, some of it goes back to XSI v4 and well, in software years that is a long time ago. The stuff is obsolete, it has now reached end-of-life status and I am no longer able to sell it or distribute it.

Now here is the important part -- I would really appreciate it if people in the community would just let this stuff die and fade away now. For a very long time I have said it was cool for people to distribute it on their own, provided that they don't charge money for it... but now, well, I would just rather the stuff was allowed to die off.

BTW - 3DTutorial is not dead and I am in fact working on some new things now that 2010 is being rolled out... so you might want keep that in mind.

I know that a lot of my old material is still kinda valid, however, the problem is that because it was made over such a long period of time, much has changed and it can be pretty confusing for noobs. My aim is to help people learn stuff, not confuse people further, so I would really prefer that this stuff gets retired to make way for new, up-to-date titles.

Anyway, it's really about time that the old 3DTutorial.com material was allowed to die a dignified death. Please help me to move aside this old material so that I can make way for new things that I have planned.

If you've got any questions, let me know and I will try and answer them to the best of my ability.

All the best,

Kind Regards,

Joe Saltzman
Director
3DTutorial.com

Hi Joe,

It's very much appreciated to add to the post from the guys at Letterbox.

I think we all understand completely, legal stuff can be a b***h, and the need for the old material to just "fade away". It's been on Redi-Vivus for almost a year, so a lot of people benefited from the training in that period.

I think I can say we all looking forward to anything 3DTutorial will offer for Softimage 2010(+) in the future.

Me personally, I enjoyed all training created by 3DTutorial very much, and am very curious what will come up in the future.

Also, thank you - very - much for the kind offer to have Redi-Vivus host the training material for free as long as it lasted.

Rob

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the note and for understanding why I had to do this. BTW - this legal issue has nothing to do with Autodesk or any of other authors I worked with over the years. It has something to do with technology...but that is all I can say.

Regarding the future....

Yes, I've got some cool things in the works. I can't say much about what I'm up to at the moment, but what I can tell you is this...

Any material that I produce for the community in the future will be either FREE or at a very low cost.

Any material that I produce will contain NO copy protection or other form of DRM, so it will be easy for every one to use.

So, out with the old and in with the new

Cheers,

J

Hello Joe

Thanks for the info on the 3DTutorial material issue. I hope all your legal matters work out in your favor. Looking forward for future materials from 3DTutorial.

Bobby

Hi Bobby,

Thanks!

I'm not too concerned about the legal issue, we've have reached an agreement whereby everyone is happy provided that the current material is no longer distributed, that is why we pulled it and why I'm asking people to just let this stuff die off. By doing so, it will allow 3DTutorial to move forward with our plans which in the long run will be of greater benefit to everyone.

Thanks again for your support, much appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Joe

One thing to add, as I just noticed it:
Maybe you could get someone to remove the "3D Tutorial" advert in the XSIBase sidebar as it still keeps occassionally popping up...

I know.

I've been asking for those ads to be removed for ages but nothing is ever done about it /

Joe

about 80% of all the links on XSIBase are either broken, or severely out-dated. i really wish people could either fix it, or migrate over here more fully.

i dont know..

legal reasons sounds fishy to me....

why now,
whatever reason it is, the damage has already been done. yea?

the moment they were made public [free] they became copyleft [GNU or GNU General Public License]
they became educational resources, no one can claim them as their intellectual property anymore.
how come http://www.vast.ws/resources/xsi/tutorials/tutorials.html dont pull off their materials, some people bought those videos...
i think these should be made available for the xsi community. i mean, i dont see dealing like this with maya or C4D or Max resources...
this is bs, a really good thing that should have been advertised on all major 3d community forums is now getting axed... xsi material is scarce as it is, i think the community deserves a better explaination. i for one bought many stuff from you joe back in the day, [] and i volunteered a couple of my vids to letterbox...

---- what im trying to say is i dont see what the legal repercussions could be, unless an author for one of the tuts is pulling a fast on you Joe?

Sorry but with all due respect you are very mistaken about this.

I own all rights in all media worldwide in perpetuity to all of 3DTutorial.com's material -- free or not it makes no difference whatsoever.

I can't discuss what the current legal issues are, suffice it to say it has nothing to do with anyone who was involved with any of this material.

This stuff is done, over with and finished now -- end of story.

Again, the rights to the material remain mine and I reserve the right to take legal action against anyone who distributes my material without my written consent.

Hope that is clear.

Cheers,

Joe