I had search the internet and forum for this topic.
Next to Copyright? which is not answering my question - but showing the complexity i did not found something.
Question:
When i publish screenshots public in a blog or twitter or whatever - do i get problems with copyrights?
Do you know a offical statement von ms / ms flight simulator?
Do i just need to state out the source “ms flightsimulator ingame screenshot”?
Theoretically I think it could definetely be considered a copyright infringement, everything you see in that screenshot is created by MSFS. Having said that, I hardly believe MS or Asobo would ever protest that, after all the software is a flight simulator, not a generator for photos and any screenshots are rather advertisement.
I highly doubt it, after all, you would be providing free advertising for MSFS. If you want a definitive statement I would suggest checking the legal statement within the simulator itself or reaching out to a community manager.
Copyright laws exist to prevent you from copying other people’s creation. So the author or publisher is the only person who has the right to make copies (or to whoever they license the copyright to, for example a record label or a museum).
Images from a video game are not copyright protected. You don’t create a copy of the creator’s work in publishing a screenshot, or even a video of the video game.
Music is copyrightable, however (since it can be isolated and duplicated from a video). So make sure you don’t capture audio from a video game and publish it online without doctoring it enough to make it useless on its own (e.g., talking over it).
I am not a lawyer however!!! This is my understanding of Intellectual Property laws.
You technically might need permission.
But: Asobo encourages sharing screenshots. There is even a forum for that. There are millions of screenshots out there, thousands of hour long videos on Youtube. People make money by selling addons / literature containing and advertising with ingame screenshots. MS/Asobo allows them in their official forum. There is not the slightest evidence that MS/Asobo would not allow sharing screenshots.
There is a chance, that this would be judged at silent permission for sharing screenshots, at least in the EU.
And, in the very, very rare case that there would be danger involved, always remember: You don’t have to run faster than the tiger, you just have to run faster than the slowest other person Youtubers, streamer and other people making money would be sued first.
However there is an aspect that wasn‘t mentioned yet: liveries! And there it could get interesting, from a legal point of view
There is an „official photos“ channel here where you may post your screenshot, and by doing so you grant Asobo/MS the right to publish them elsewhere (twitter, websites, maybe even ads…). And there is a good reason why Asobo asks you not to use any custom liveries (otherwise they won‘t pick it).
Now if you were to publish that screenshot somewhere else…
But then again, if that was any problem then that livery would not exist for long either. And I guess airline companies see it the same way as Asobo: „free advertisement“.
Unless of course you were to use those screenshots / images in a „commercial context“ - then it might get interesting again…