Screenshots - Legal Issues

Hi there,
Just wondering if anyone knows if it says anywhere on the site it is legal to use screenshots of the game (which you have taken yourself) on blogs. I am at university at the moment and for my coursework I am running a blog, I have to be very careful about plagiarism and although I am sure it is fine to use, I'd like to have a link that backs this up. I have been searching around for the past few hours and can't really find any relevant info.
Thanks,
Kate

As far as I know, there is no specific legislation about this.

You own the exclusive copyrights on your photo.
Since you want to be extra-careful, however, you may want to ask to both sim owners, objects creators and avatars a permission to publishing those photos that depict them.

Note that personally I never did this, nor I'm planning to do it.
My personal take about this is that if you let a Second Life area open to public access, and you don't provide your visitors with a specific notice about how they should behave, you're giving everybody an implicit OK about taking/republishing photos/videos.

As a matter of fact, thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of SL snapshots are being republished every day on the web without any permission.

But again, _there is no specific legislation about this_ AFAIK.

My points still stand, but I just noticed that a thread about these same topics was recently published here:
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=309572

I'm pretty sure, as long as you cite your source in accordance with your school's writing style guide, you should be fine.

Plagiarism and copyright are two different issues.

If you copy someone's work, whether you have permission to copy or not, and claim it as your own, that is plaigerism. If you copy someone's work without permission, and the work is covered by copyright law, you are violating copyright even though you accurately attribute the true author.

Katheryne Helendale gave you the answer for avoiding any plaigerism problems. Just accurately describe the source of the screenshot.

Copyright is a different issue.

If your blog is for a school project, and no one but your class and/or teachers have access to the blog, then you're mostly likely in the clear due to Fair Use.

There is debate about whether the SL TOS s 3.4 creates a potential copyright problem. I think that section only covers taking LL's textures outside of SL, and doesn't apply to screenshots at all. I don't think a screenshot violates anyone's texture copyrights- rendering a texture on an avatar or object is the intended use of a texture.

Since you have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting a cease-and-desist letter regarding your Second Life screenshot, I would recommend spending no more minutes researching that issue. The person you have to please is your professor. If you have any questions about your coursework blog, ask your professor.

Thanks for the information. I have asked my professor and I was told to email the folks Second Life, and ask them about the copyright of screenshots. Unfortunately I got an automated reply saying it would be a long wait for a reply, that is if they responded to my query at all. It's just, I need to be able to justify that I have permission for every photo/picture. Not so worried about being sued! In any case, I will keep reading up on copyright law and Second Life's terms and conditions till I find an appropriate quote I can back the use of the screenshot up with. Apologies for the ignorance, first year student, second week in

No worries, hon. When it comes to issues of copyright, particularly in the academic world, one can never be too careful.

I'm going to guess if this were of any real concern then there wouldn't be SO many images of SL already plastered all over the web.

Lets see.....there's photo sites like flickr, koinup and avatrait.....there's all sorts of personal business blogs by SL residents......you'll find tons just by looking in the 'new products' section of the forums......lots of designers have their web site. Of course, in order to do that, they have to include screenshots of the items they create. In many cases those screen shots include more then just their content.

There are also a good handfull of individual blogs that track daily activity in a persons SLife......some on fashion....some on travel.....but they're out there....and they all have screen shots.

I'm sure if you site the source, as you stated, you will be just fine.

Fair Use covers what you are doing.

Since SL encourages people to share their photos through Flickr and with Linden's such as Torley, I wouldn't worry about using them in this context. Screen shots that accompany an academic or journalistic article are covered under fair use.

I *think* that, if you were to try and sell prints from snapshots taken inworld you could run up against LL and texture designers' copyright protections. However, inworld photographers sell their services capturing residents special moments and that seems acceptable, in part because the object remains inworld. A personal print made for your office wall would also fall under fair use.

I am an visual artist and am currently working on some large 3d "paintings" in SL. I have a gallery that is in the sky, everything visible (every texture) has been created and uploaded by me. I also set up an opensim at home, to experiment with this idea on a greater scale. If I end up selling prints or paintings created from this experimentation, I can avoid infringing any copyright, especially since opensim is opensource.

Though I believe you're correct, as Amity said, the person the OP has to please is the professor in the class, who seems to be demanding a permission from LL.

And it looks as though LL is NOT going to come through with a specific statement giving permission for snapshots to be used in this way (or that would be my guess).

So the student has a genuine problem.

Were I that student, I'd print out rulings on Fair Use, copies of ( and links to) this thread and the other thread cited here, and the ticket submitted to LL as well as the 'may take a long time for a reply or may be no reply' response, and turn that in. Then hope for the best.

LL doesn't claim ownership of the builds in question, just a license to use them - that is in the TOS. She should contact the sim owner or parcel owner and get permission, since they are the ones who own the copyright to their work. Even though it is arguable that you don't even need to do that - the composition of your picture (lighting angles, cloud cover, etc.) is all your choice and could possibly be described as derivative work.