YOUR NEWS
As many of you will have already heard by now, US Congress is planning on administering a bill which supposedly will help crack down on online piracy. In reality this bill will cause much more harm than good to the Internet as a whole and damage or even cripple well established websites such as Facebook, Wikipedia and Reddit to name but a few.
Below is a brief explanation from Google as to what SOPA and PIPA are proposing to do:
More about SOPA and PIPA
Members of Congress are trying to do the right thing by going after pirates and counterfeiters but SOPA and PIPA are the wrong way to do it.
1.SOPA and PIPA would censor the Web
The U.S. government could order the blocking of sites using methods similar to those employed by China. Among other things, search engines could be forced to delete entire websites from their search results. That's why 41 human rights organizations and 110 prominent law professors have expressed grave concerns about the bills.
2. SOPA and PIPA would be job-killers because they would create a new era of uncertainty for American business
Law-abiding U.S. internet companies would have to moniter everything users link to or upload or face the risk of time-consuming litigation. That's why AOL, EBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga wrote a letter to Congress saying these bills "pose a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job-creation". It's also why 55 of America's most successful venture capitalists expressed concern that PIPA "would stifle investment in Internet services, throttle innovation, and hurt American competiveness". More than 204 entrepreneurs told Congress that PIPA and SOPA would "hurt economic growth and chill innovation".
3. SOPA and PIPA wouldn't stop piracy
To make matters worse, SOPA and PIPA won't even work. The censorship regulations written into these bills won't shut down pirate sites. These sites will just change their addresses and continue their criminal activities, while law-abiding companies will suffer high penalties for breaches they can't possibly control.
There are effective ways to combat foreign "rogue" websites dedicated to copyright infringement and trademark counterfeiting, while preserving the innovation and dynamism that have made the Internet such an important driver of American economic growth and job creation. Congress should consider alternatives like the OPEN Act, which takes targeted and focused steps to cut off the money supply from foreign sites without making US companies censor the Web.
What impact could this have on the Internet and non US website/companies such as goodtextures.com if these bills were to pass? First of all, due to the fact that citizens from the US download and use content from this site, theoretically this site could get banned if someone thought that I was breaking a copyright infringement by emulating another texture stock site for example. Secondly, seeing that the human race has not got the best track record of being or acting in a responsible manner regarding the use of power and wealth, I shall remain very sceptical as to putting my trust in the governing and corporate powers that be.
If such a bill were to pass, would other countries follow suit and endorse censorship laws worldwide? A terrifying thought that could come to pass if we let it.
Last but not least, here are a few links on the topic:
http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/
Happy New Year!
I hope everyone survived Xmas and New Years without too many broken bones and minor family punch ups.
The goodtextures site is currently experiencing an issue regarding the uploading of new textures which is causing great stress to the server. The problem is being looked into as I speak and I hope to be able to upload some great new textures soon.
The next batch of textures will include some seamless wood, metal and brick textures.
I wish you all a great and successful year.
Texture Update (17.12.2011)
What would Christmas be like without any seamless plaster textures. I shall tell you, absolutely rubbish!
I am here to save the day by offering you some great plaster textures to get you through the Xmas period. Previous updates over the past weeks have included various seamless grass and snow&ice textures.
I hope you like them and I wish you all a fantastic Chrimbo and New Years.
Texture Update (26.09.2011)
What a treat I've got for you today.
I have just finsihed uploading 15 very sought after "Woodend" textures.
You would not believe how many people have written to me pleading for "Woodend" textures. So, after spending the weekend running around the woods chasing after wild boar, I managed to find the time to take some fab photos of tree stumps.
Other textures in today's update include:
11 Hay Bundle Textures
6 Stoney Ground Textures
Enjoy!
Texture Update (25.06.2011)
14 seamless grass and 16 snow & ice textures added.
For a short while now, Goodtextures has been offering high quality seamless textures for download. There will be weekly updates where I shall be adding new categories as well as adding more seamless textures to current ones.
For those of you who are wondering what seamless textures are and what they can be used for, here is a brief explanation. A seamless texture is an image that can be placed side-by-side with itself without creating any noticeable boundries or seams between the two copies of the image. Seamless textures are especially important in 3D computer artwork, where large surfaces can be covered by a seamless texture without the appearance of any distracting seams.
Seamless textures are almost always used within the computer gaming industry be it to create an interesting landscape, or scaly monster skin for example. Seamless textures can also be used to create a website background or even be used as a desktop screensaver. So you see, using seamless textures can offer a lot of flexibilty and save you a lot of time if you have them at your disposal.
Texture Update (11.04.2011)
Hi Everyone, It's been quite a while since I last made a news update. That being said, I have been busy adding new textures to the site as well as working on writing some texture tutorials.
Last week I created the 'Tasty' page for those of you who are new to the site and are unsure what kind of site this is. The 'Tasty' page as stated will give you a little taster as to the quality of the textures.You can also download them without having to register first.
Aside from finding new and exciting textures, I work work full time as an environment artist for the company BigPoint Berlin. Last week the game I have been working on 'Drakensang Online' went into the closed Beta phase of production. I am proud to say that almost all of the textures I created for the game originated from this website. If you would like to take a look, just click on the banner below and it will take you directly to the official website.
As always, happy texturing
Texture Update (13.11.2010)
I have finished uploading a new batch of textures today
They are as followed: 14 painted wood and 9 plywood new textures.
More textures to follow.
Texture Update (16.11.2010)
9 Ornate border and 11 Bark deciduous textures.
Texture Update (17.11.2010)
I have spent today uploading various different textures to the site. They are as followed:
6 brick modern large block, 4 large mixed and 1 large bare texture
7 industrial doors and 4 ornate doors
8 vent textures as well as adding a new sub-category called containers
last but not least 11 ceramic tiles
I hope you like them.
In addition to the textures on this site. It was and is my intention to write tutorials from my experiences gained working as an environment artist for many a year now.
I thought I would start off with the basics such as how to quickly make a texture tileable (using Photoshop), moving on to more and more advanced techniques. I will also be adding a lot of fun stuff Photoshop tutorials, which in my opinion are important to do as they have opened my eyes and hopefully yours to the thousands of possibilities Photoshop can offer.
On that note, bear with me a little while. As soon as I have got a few tutorials written up, I shall make them available to all that want to see them.
Regards
Simon