Problem with getting information about usage rights

I have a tiable bark texture, witch, as I remember(I can be wrong), was made by me from an image found with google. Now, I want to use it in a commercial project and I'm having a huge trouble finding the original picture (over two hours of browsing and still no luck). So, I have no idea, whether I can use it or not. Is there any easier way, to find the picture, that has some matching signs with mine?

My texture is this:

 

That will be the last thing, I'm going to do, if I don't manage to get the source, because I've used this texture in about 4 combined textures from my game. So, I'll need to change them too... I'll probably continue searching for some time and if nothing helps, I'll do that(anyway, I've got nothing like deadlines).......

 

By the way... Currently I'm researching the images used in my project and making a big list of websites they came from, so that I could check their usability, and if needed, contact the uploaders to check the usage rights and change textures at some cases. I want to know, is there any sense posting those links as a thread and asking if all of the websites used are actually legal to use and things like that?(I'm a noob at such things, as I have never had any similar experience and that's why I didn't actually think ahead...)

 

Ok, thanks.

 

Several websites/emails seem like they'r "dead" : I contacted them about 10 days ago, then I went out of the town and checked my email just now. Still no answers.(most of the owners contacted me soon enough, but my comment on one of the blogs is still waiting for the moderator after all this time(there was no email), and also, some websites didn't reply). what to do with these?

 

Hmm aren't you putting crazy amount of effort and time on a simple thing? During all that time you could have walked to a forest and take some photos or bought 10 similar textures with the cost of the time and edited them to look like that one.

 

Well.... I already did that with the texture I started my discussion with.... Then, I did what I wrote next and till this day, I was just resting with friends and had no connection with my work. So, this is not quite an effort. I had problems with just a few other ones(blood splash, floor and things like that), but if those websites are truly dead, or don't answer in near future, I'll take my camera into action once again. But... before I do that, I'm just wondering, why is that strange thing happening... And... is there any other way (but contacting) to understand, whether the texture is protected or free to use?

 

There are plenty of sites with textures that have been just randomly collected from the net without permission due lack of understanding of copyrights etc by the site authors or uploaded by users who did not actually made them. Unless you get your textures from a decently looking site (usually companies or photographers with detailed contact info) or ones that have clear license for textures, don't use em. It's safer to just find another place or buy them than risk you luck.

 

Thanks. Practically each of my textures came from royalty free websites(it was written there, in case anyone tells me something), but some of them were just from blogs and sites like that. I contacted most of the owners and got permission. However, there are currently about 4 or 5 problematic links : two of them are from tutorials(one is something like:"how to make blood effect in photoshop"(I'll repeat the described process) and another is result example from something like: "how to make seamless textures"(the image has vary high quality and I would prefer not to change it)). and exept them there is one wallpaper, I want as a stencil (result is different from that image) and one or two websites, that seem to be free, but I don't see the full information about usage rights(free for designers, but nothing told about commercial purposes). I can't get the answers from them(links seem "dead").... Can you suggest what to do with these details? Thanks for help.

 

Its the same thing as with ie. game remakes or with normal holiday beach pictures, if you don't find appropriate license for your use or get permissions then you cant use them. The chance of anyone ever coming after you is minimal or non existent unless you hit top 10 for weeks and someone spots illegal stuff. Best to always avoid everything that does not have clear license.

 

Thanks... I'll probably change them(I don't even think, that the game will become extremely popular, but anyway).

 

Simple, don't use them. Tutorial sites, blogs etc. may not actually own the images, hence not having details. If you are going to use images sourced from the web, use only ones from reputable sites. More importantly though, secure/verify rights BEFORE you use them next time. It will save you all this effort.

 

Thanks... I was actually going to do kind of a similar thing...