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.
legal@, the attached question was raised on discussion@. I think you will be able to answer it best.
Cheers,
Guillaume Ponce hacker@guillaumeponce.org writes:
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.
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.
This may be of interest/useful (?):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Software_screenshots
K
On 22 July 2013 19:11, Guillaume Ponce hacker@guillaumeponce.org wrote:
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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