[WikiEN-l] Are TV screencaps reputable sources?

[Ray Saintonge]

Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote:

>mboverload wrote:
>  
>
>>Someone explain to me how a screencap is ANY different than a quote from a
>>book.
>>    
>>
>Quotes are factual (somebody said them), and facts cannot be copyrighted.
>
Wow!  Some people really work hard to prove they haven't got a clue.  
Quotes may be factual, but they are not facts.  What is copyrighted is 
the way something is expressed rather that its informational content.  
Sometimes they become merged when the two are indistinguishable.  The 
merger principle can render something uncopyrightable; this was the 
basis for Lexmark's loss over the copyrightability of the software in 
its ink cartridges.  When the work in question is fictional you are less 
likely to be dealing with facts, and unless the work is in the public 
domain the use of any quotation from it is an example of fair use.  
Picking up the quote from a work about the work doesn't change that.

>A screenshot is one of several thousand (~= 24 * 60 * 45) copyrighted
>images, a story, the characters in the story, and an audio track which
>make up an episode of a TV show.
>  
>
My understanding was that "screenshot" and "screencap" referred to 
stills from a moving picture.  You make it sound like each pixel is 
copyrightable. :-)

Ec