For example, if you pick up an image from Wikimedia Commons and use the image on a brochure you prepared, does it infringe any copyright? If you record screen movements for some program and put it together as a tutorial, are you infringing the copyright of the software or hardware owner? I will first answer the case of Wikimedia Commons. Yes, you are infringing copyright if you are using some image from Wikimedia Commons and do not attribute its use to the original creator in the manner prescribed by Wikimedia. For those who don’t know, Wikimedia is a repository of text, graphics, animations and audio/video that is meant for sharing under creative commons license. A Creative Commons license requires you to attribute the work to its creator in a predefined manner.
Microsoft Copyright Statement
Coming to Microsoft, if you create a tutorial for – say MS Paint – and upload it on to some video sharing site or distribute it through CDs, are you infringing copyrights of Microsoft? MS Paint is a software from Microsoft so naturally whatever appears on the screen are products of Microsoft. Under such cases, the copyrights to screenshots belong to Microsoft. But… Microsoft relieves you of the copyright issues by providing some guidelines. If you use the screenshots in the manner prescribed by Microsoft, you hold the copyright to the screenshots.
Cases Where Copyright Infringement Happens
If you accessed some software that is still under construction and is not available to the general public, you cannot use its screenshots. After and only after Microsoft gives out the software – in pre-release of final form, irrespective of what they call it – you can take and distribute its screenshots. If the screenshots you are using contain images that belong to third parties, it may or may not be Microsoft copyright infringement. For example, if you are documenting some software such as Adobe Premiere, and you capture screen for representation purpose, you need to check with Adobe whether you can use the screenshots as such or would you require any kind of pre-written license to use the screenshots. As far as I know, if you are using AutoCAD and take screen-snaps for any reason, it is copyright infringement even if you are running AutoCAD on Microsoft Windows. This is because Microsoft does not possess the right to relieve users from copyright issues arising out of the use of AutoCAD. It was mentioned in some forum that AutoCAD users are not supposed to take screenshots as it would amount to copyright infringement. But then, the case would be “user vs AutoCAD” and not “user vs Microsoft” as the latter has nothing to do with AutoCAD that operates on Windows operating system.
Microsoft Intellectual Property Permissions
The following are some restrictions imposed by Microsoft before letting go of its copyright on screenshots of Windows and Windows-based software. Read: Microsoft Product Use Rights (PUR). If you are looking for copyright information on the usage of other elements/software from Microsoft such as distribution of box shots, icons, clip art, capturing video games, etc, you can check out the full text of the Microsoft Copyright Statement.
