Library FAQs

Thanks for reaching out with this question!

As long as you are using the screenshots to talk about them and comment upon in your text (and not as an illustration), it will probably fall under Fair Use. Here's why Fair Use tends to be favorable towards use of screenshots:

• First factor: Criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research are favored purposes under the first factor.  Transformativeness, using a work for a purpose different from the purpose for which it was created, also favors fair use.
• Second factor: If the work you are using is more factual than creative, this weighs in favor of fair use under the second factor. If it's more creative than factual, that weighs against fair use. The second factor carries less weight than the other three.
• Third factor: Under the third factor, using a large amount of the work or the part of the work from which the work derives its value, sometimes termed "the heart of the work", weighs against fair use. Screenshots/stills typically depict a very small part of a film, which weighs in favor of fair use.
• Fourth factor: The fourth factor looks at the impact of your use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. Screenshots in your dissertation are unlikely to decrease demand for the original by acting as a substitute.

For more information see the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use in the Visual Arts, and be sure to attribute appropriately!