A question about high-poly meshes and Bridge Commander

[21310061976]

I was wondering: would it be ok to download someone else's high-poly mesh, and without asking the original author, change a few things, import it into Bridge Commander, and then tell everyone that I did all the work?  I think it would be great to fly around in a ship with an unnecessarily high polygon count but I'm too lazy and/or unskilled to make my own models.  And I want notoriety for myself, so could I just whittle the polycount down and tell everyone that I did it all?  I could save a lot of trouble by not asking the original author because he might not say it's ok or might be hard to contact after all these years.  Besides, the model was released so long ago, he probably doesn't care anymore.  He's probably so busy with work, raising a family, etc. that he wouldn't even notice.  This would all be ok, right?
 

[limey BSc.]

I'm assuming from the clearly sarcastic tone that someone has stolen your work. That behaviour is neither supported nor tolerated within this community. If you could do us the courtesy of talking straight, we can work to resolve this.

[21310061976]

Ok, so I have someone's attention.  I'll continue this with you in private.

[JimmyB76]

ill lock this thread for the time being as the discussion will be taken off the forums...