[License-discuss] Screenshots of Open Source SW

[Gervase Markham]

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?

This is the sort of thing fair use was made for. Without it, I couldn't
take a full-screen screenshot of a problem I'm having on a Windows
machine and send it to my grandma so she can help me debug it, because
it contains the Windows logo.

> Companies producing commercial software usually have some condidtions
> published, under which screenshots are granted to be used (i.e. Microsoft).

Certainly when people email me about using screenshots of Mozilla
software, I say that we consider it fair use, and they should go ahead.
And not to bother asking for permission next time :-)

Gerv