hi...
i buy full perm mesh items to make my own stuff and sell. i have revcently noticed that a few of my items i purchased are not very good LOD and vanish when you slightly zoom out.

My question is this: If i have paid money and officially purchased an item, found out it is low LOD and nicely asked the creator if they could possibly re-upload the item with better LOD and they don't do this, can i still get in trouble for copying the mesh, uploading it and using this instead of their low LOD version?  it's not like i am reselling the item as full perm and trying to pass it off as my own, i have already paid money for it to the creator, i just want a version that has better LOD so i don't get bad reviews and complaints as my items aren't good because they vanish when the customer zooms out.
I am guessing that this is still a no-no, but i am hoping someone is going to prove me wrong and tell me i can't get into trouble for this :)

@nawty did you buy it with a dae file? if you did, then its legal, when you will upload it again but you cant sell it full perm becourse you are not the creator
if you didnt buy it with dae file yes then it is illegal

no, not a .dae file... just the mesh models and textures (although, i have seen one of the models on the free mesh file websites)i had a funny feeling it would still be illegal, but i thought it was worth asking.
oh well, thank you :)

If you know for sure it was from a 3rd party site,then upload,they can't do anything.People don't realize certain sites it's not allowed to bring into any virtual world.even if you paid for item(most state rendered image  use only).As long as it's public domain,and the site specifically states it's ok,then it would be fine.Sites like turbosquid,cgtrader,sharecg,etc not allowed to be in sl,and if a creator uses those items in SL,then they cannot put a tos or anything on it.I've seen quite a few ppl trying it,and when caught they jsut shutup and hide,hehe.

if they dont have a DMCA  then they cant do you anything but there are creators who have them, then you can get a ban from second life, 
but best is when you upload the mesh items link a prim to it, a full perm low prim item or so then if they do inspect they see 2 names 
most people see and think that the other is the orginal creator

@nawty1 what is on the webpage you can download yourself she/he give it away for free,
but its for sure a dae file. you cant upload a full mesh object,
your name is on the mesh object when you upload it 
the only thing is also what is on that web page you can't sell it full perm

ok ty for your replies everyone :)