Screenshots...The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Published on December 29, 2004 By Essencay In OS Customization

"The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"....not talking about screenshots themselves, but just trying to point out up front that this thread could easily go in that direction and I would rather that folks remain civil when posting in this thread about screenshots...Thanks ahead of time

I'm no legal expert....

I am of the opinion that a screenshot is like a photo. Whether it is a picture of your desktop you captured or a picture of a Disney character you took while on vacation, you own the picture, you don't own the content of the picture, if you didn't create it. The artist or copyright holder owns the content of the image. So I believe that you have a responsibility, if you display in public, to present the content in a positive light and if your "picture" doesn't redistribute the artist or copyright holder's original content without consent then it constitutes fair use. How you present that content in your picture is fair game as well, provided that the intent is not to defame or slander the artist or copyright holder. So if I displayed in public a picture I have of let's say Mickey Mouse and alter it so that he's standing there with his knickers around his ankles, then I'd expect that if Disney asked I'd have to remove the picture from the public's view, though Disney can't have the picture because I'm the one who took it with a digital camera then altered it.

I'm not saying that my view is correct, I just posting my viewpoint to get the discussion going so that in the end we all will benefit from having a clearer understanding.

Comments (Page 3)

Corky_O

on Jan 01, 2005

"Murky" seems an appropriate discription.

I think Byron Todd's idea above would be the extreme solution, but if these things escalate with the improved color support in WB and SkinStudio's ability to manipulate skins, it may be a real solution.

The downside (from my point of view) would be that "newbies" of which I still feel a part, would not have the easy access to a gallery that shows some fantastic ideas on how to use all the great skins available at this site.

I know that as a beginner, I am already planning on developing some WB skins which will have color support as a basic option. I am a long way from many of the fine Skinners at this site, but I have to believe that people who might download my skins will want to tweak them as needed to suit their individual tastes.

Perhaps there could be a variety of skins that fit into a "Professional" category, and that WindowBlinds and SkinStudio could be upgraded to recognize these skins and not allow changes?

I am certainly not a "coder", so I don't know if this is viable.

Well, Happy 2005 for now.

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