[License-discuss] Screenshots of Open Source SW

[Kuno Woudt]

Hello,

On 03/17/2014 06:24 PM, Gervase Markham wrote:
> On 16/03/14 13:31, Sebastian Hoffmann wrote:
>> I think, Wikipedia for instance treats screenshots in the meaning of
>> "derived work", which is sometimes covered by OS licenses.
>> As a result the screenshot has a remark (when you click on it), that it
>> has the same license as the originating OS program.
>
> Absent fair use, I would say that a screenshot of e.g. the Firefox
> window is a derivative work of the graphics (e.g. button icons) which
> are shotted, and so carries their license.
>
>> Few countries could cover this by "fair use", but a lot of countries do
>> not know "fair use" in their legal system.
>
> Are there really countries with no concept of this at all?

Yes, Berne only requires signatories to implement citation rights.

The Dutch implementation ("citaatrecht") has the following requirements 
for a citation:

- You are only allowed to use a citation for a particular purpose
   (a particular purpose according to Dutch copyright law are things
    like an announcement, a review, polemic?, or a scientific treatise)
- You cannot include more than what is necessary for the citation
- You have to give attribution

You're also limited in what changes you can make to the citation, 
because it needs to be faithful to the original.

So, using a screenshot (assuming the screenshot is copyrightable) in any 
kind of fiction (written story, video game, etc..) would not be allowed 
because fiction is definitely not a scientific treatise nor a review, etc..

I think most commonwealth countries have Fair Dealing.  I always assumed 
fair dealing is broader than citation rights, but it seems even fair 
dealing often has requirements for a particular purpose and such.
(I know nothing about Fair Dealing :)

-- Kuno.