Are screenshots from GPLed software free?

[Guillaume Ponce]

Can screenshot from GPLed software be used freely in documents?

E.g. can images from Stellarium, a planetarium software under GPL v2,
be used for public communication by an amateur astronomy association?

I think that it should be covered by the "can be used for any purpose",
but not completly sure.

[Heiki "Repentinus" Ojasild]

legal@, the attached question was raised on discussion at . I think you
will be able to answer it best.


Cheers,
--
Heiki "Repentinus" Ojasild
FSFE Fellowship Representative
mailto:repentinus at fsfe.org
xmpp:repentinus at jabber.fsfe.org
http://blogs.fsfe.org/repentinus/
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[Ben Finney]

Guillaume Ponce

Post by Guillaume Ponce
Can screenshot from GPLed software be used freely in documents?

The GPL does not restrict such use. Taking a screenshot of a program
running is not a derived work of the program.

But there can easily be other works under copyright that are in the
screenshot.

For example, a screenshot of the Gimp is not a derived work of the Gimp,
and nothing in the Gimp's license restricts distribution of the screen
shot.

But a screenshot of a Gimp window displaying the Mickey Mouse logo would
require permission from the copyright holders to use in a derived work.

You can see how this can be generalised: the screenshot needs to have
permission from *all* copyright holders in any part of the work which
would be considered restricted by copyright law.

Post by Guillaume Ponce
E.g. can images from Stellarium, a planetarium software under GPL v2,
be used for public communication by an amateur astronomy association?

It depends what the screen shot is showing. The program's GPLv2 license
would not restrict that action, but I don't know what data set you're
using and what the license of that data set is.

[Kim Tucker]

This may be of interest/useful (?):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Software_screenshots

K

Post by Guillaume Ponce
Can screenshot from GPLed software be used freely in documents?
E.g. can images from Stellarium, a planetarium software under GPL v2, be
used for public communication by an amateur astronomy association?
I think that it should be covered by the "can be used for any purpose", but
not completly sure.
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[Joshua Gay]

Post by Kim Tucker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Software_screenshots

Post by Guillaume Ponce
E.g. can images from Stellarium, a planetarium software under GPL v2, be
used for public communication by an amateur astronomy association?

This is a really fun (fair-use and) copyright question! There are so
many different edge cases with user data, fonts, creative use of the
program, etc. that make it less simple than it might at first seem. I'd
love to hear what others are thinking about this and if there have been
any interesting law suits over screenshots or the like.

Josh

[David Gerard]

Post by Kim Tucker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Software_screenshots

This is a really fun (fair-use and) copyright question! There are so many
different edge cases with user data, fonts, creative use of the program,
etc. that make it less simple than it might at first seem. I'd love to hear
what others are thinking about this and if there have been any interesting
law suits over screenshots or the like.

Wikipedia regards a GPL image in a page as part of an aggregation.

Have a look at this image and the licence tags:
Loading Image...
Note how each piece has a licence tag.

Note also that Wikimedia Commons is *obsessive* about content freedom.


- d.