Do I have to pay license fees to use Windows 7 in my video?

M

mattman1

Member
I'm making some videos for Youtube. If I wanted to show some sequences of characters using a windows or mac computer, would I have to pay licensing fees to Microsoft or Apple? Like showing screen captures of them finding folders on the desktop or something?

Obviously, I would change the desktop background to something I have the rights for.

I'm guessing a feature film would probably clear this, but is this necessary for something I put on Youtube? I will be enabling ads on this content so I wanted to double check. Does it maybe fall under fair use?
 
What Chris said. You'd probably be fine. That said, if you are paranoid, you could use a Linux desktop instead of a commercial one and be perfectly safe. I've seen Gnome desktops show up in episodes of "Heroes" and "Jericho" before, so that idea is not without precedent.
 
I believe the specifics of the 'windowing' systems can be copyrighted and as such, reproduction without license/permission would be an infringement...

That said... since so many people use either one of these operating systems, make screen captures daily, and present them in one form or another on the Web... that this area is almost never policed by either company.

In a big time production there's probably some paper work that is done just to do the CYA aspects of any problem.

On the other hand you could shoot your scene with Linux box running one of the X11 based windowing systems... The general MIT license for X11 is similar to the BSD and GPL licenses that allow for most of the Open Source software industry to 'work'...
 
you can download a live linux operating system, small 700 MB file to a usb thumb-drive, no installation, easy, simple, fast. when done just delete the files on the usb drive.
 
They don't reject the million videos that are online right now that show people doing things on Windows as tutorials, etc, so why would they pick on you unless you used music that set off a flag.
 
They're extremely unlikely to yank down your video because it contains a Windows or Mac screenshot. I'm not as confident about whether or not they let you monetize it. They wouldn't let us put ads on an original music video for an unexplained reason, but my guess is because there was an old Time Magazine cover clearly visible in one shot.

As suggested, if you want to be absolutely, 100% sure, just use a Linux distro and you'll be on solid ground.
 
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