{"id":131,"date":"2016-10-05T17:41:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T21:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/chapter\/screenshots-of-software\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T16:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T21:37:06","slug":"screenshots-of-software","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/chapter\/screenshots-of-software\/","title":{"raw":"Screenshots of Software","rendered":"Screenshots of Software"},"content":{"raw":"If you plan on using screenshots of commercial software in your openly licensed work, as a general rule you should check the terms of the product website as they may spell out the rules for how to use or credit screenshots. Many companies are okay with screenshots of their software or products being used for training and education.\r\n\r\nMicrosoft <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/legal\/intellectualproperty\/copyright\/permissions#Screen%20Shots\">spells out how you can use screenshots of their products<\/a> as follows:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>You <strong>may not use <\/strong>screen shots of Microsoft product boot-up screens, opening screens, \"splash screens,\" or screens from beta release products or other products that have not been commercially released.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">You <\/span><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">may use<\/strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"> other screen shots in advertising, in documentation (including educational brochures), in tutorial books, in videos, or on Web sites, provided that, in addition to the requirements above, you:<\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Do not alter the screen shot except to resize it.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Do not use portions of screen shots.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Do not include screen shots in your product user interface.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Do not use screen shots that contain third-party content.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Do not use screen shots that contain an image of an identifiable individual.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Adobe and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/permissions\/using-product-graphics.html\">Google<\/a> allow the use of screenshots of their products, although you should still check the citation requirements. Others, such as Yahoo,\u00a0require that you <a href=\"https:\/\/info.yahoo.com\/legal\/us\/yahoo\/permissions\/\">ask permission<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">If the software is <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Open-source_software\">open-source<\/a>\u00a0or released under a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Free_software_license\">free software license<\/a>, it is usually fine to use screenshots.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">MacEwan University members are encouraged to contact <a href=\"mailto:copyright@macewan.ca\">copyright@macewan.ca<\/a> with any questions or concerns about copyright and the use of copyrighted works.<\/div>\r\n<!-- pb_fixme -->","rendered":"<p>If you plan on using screenshots of commercial software in your openly licensed work, as a general rule you should check the terms of the product website as they may spell out the rules for how to use or credit screenshots. Many companies are okay with screenshots of their software or products being used for training and education.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/legal\/intellectualproperty\/copyright\/permissions#Screen%20Shots\">spells out how you can use screenshots of their products<\/a> as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You <strong>may not use <\/strong>screen shots of Microsoft product boot-up screens, opening screens, &#8220;splash screens,&#8221; or screens from beta release products or other products that have not been commercially released.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">You <\/span><strong style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">may use<\/strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\"> other screen shots in advertising, in documentation (including educational brochures), in tutorial books, in videos, or on Web sites, provided that, in addition to the requirements above, you:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li>Do not alter the screen shot except to resize it.<\/li>\n<li>Do not use portions of screen shots.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Do not include screen shots in your product user interface.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Do not use screen shots that contain third-party content.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Do not use screen shots that contain an image of an identifiable individual.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">Adobe and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/permissions\/using-product-graphics.html\">Google<\/a> allow the use of screenshots of their products, although you should still check the citation requirements. Others, such as Yahoo,\u00a0require that you <a href=\"https:\/\/info.yahoo.com\/legal\/us\/yahoo\/permissions\/\">ask permission<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"line-height: 1.5;\">If the software is <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Open-source_software\">open-source<\/a>\u00a0or released under a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Free_software_license\">free software license<\/a>, it is usually fine to use screenshots.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">MacEwan University members are encouraged to contact <a href=\"mailto:copyright@macewan.ca\">copyright@macewan.ca<\/a> with any questions or concerns about copyright and the use of copyrighted works.<\/div>\n<p><!-- pb_fixme --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"menu_order":4,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-131","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":117,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/131\/revisions\/132"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/117"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/131\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openbooks.macewan.ca\/authorsguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}