Derivative work is not protected from copyright. As long as the “user” of the model does their due diligence, and ensures they are not infringing on copyrights - they are golden.

But here in lies the challenge. Are there reasonable methods available to ”users” for checking their works against infringement?

I don’t think so. We’ll need a centralized searchable database of all copyrighted work. Who is going to build that? To make matters more complicated, every country has their own copyright certification process. Maybe Google with its means can build something like this.

In any case, this is uncharted territory.