Reusing other people's models? Is it kosher?

[Tyko]

I'm just learning to write part.cfg files. I'm not ready to dive into part modeling yet, so I've been "borrowing" existing parts (Squad and 3rd party). A couple of things I built work really well and I'd like to share them.

Is borrowing parts considered rude (or actually illegal)?

Thanks!

Edited July 19, 2016 by tjt

[Gaarst]

It depends on the licence.

Most KSP mods have "open" licences that allow you to reuse their material freely as long as you give them credit. Restrictions may apply depending on the licence. 
According to these licences, you do not need to ask for permission when reusing their stuff (not illegal to just take it, as long as you follow the licence rules) but asking is usually appreciated.

KSP is different. I don't know what parts of KSP you can or can't reuse.

[DStaal]

A common way to approach that problem is to just distribute your .cfg file as an MM file that dupes and modifies the original part.  That way you aren't distributing the original part, and you can easily credit the original part maker.  (By mentioning what parts/mods are needed for your .cfgs to work.)

[Nightside]

It is good practice to give attribution to the artists and modders who created the models and textures you might be using, both on the forums and in the part configs themselves.

The license to look out for is ARR - All Rights Reserved - you cannot redistribute anything that came with that license. 

[sarbian]

For stock part you don't need to add them to your mods at all. The cfg allow you to use models in an other directory. Search about MODEL nodes.