meshlab - Is it possible to view license info on an .stl file?

Question

I would like to know if there is a way (with meshlab) to view license information of the modelling software used to create .stl files.

Many free resources of .stl files are tagged ''free for commercial use'' however there is no indication of the software used to create the file, not to mention if they possess a commercial license for the software.

I would like to stay out of trouble while selling/editing these files, so it would be much appreciated if someone has an answer on this.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65645552/is-it-possible-to-view-license-info-on-an-stl-file

Answer 1

License info can't be stored as a field in stl (nor most others file formats), so it is usually stored as a comment in the stl file or into a txt file appart of the geometry file. Same is valid for other usefull authoring information like name of the author, date of creation, or software used by the creator.

None of those ways of storing authoring information is supported by meshlab. It won't refuse to open a file with "do not modify" terms, and won't mark the files with your author name or license when exporting a mesh. It is your responsibility to know the terms of the license, usually taken from the same source were you downloaded your geometry data.

How to know if someone has uploaded a model as "free to use" when he is not the real author? Well, you can't do it for sure.

What I do in case of doubt is to document (in an external file) the URL of original data, and one screenshot of the web. When I publish the models, I include clearly a note saying if I am the only author of the model, or if "this model is an authorized modification of model xxxx published by yyyy, available at URL zzzz"