Microsoft Copyright issue

[donaldfleming]

I have Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Business (Retail Version) and Microsoft Publisher 2010 (Retail Version), which I use in the publication of a church magazine (circulation: around 300) that is distributed free of charge and carries no paid for advertising. In short it is not for profit.

I would like to download images from the Microsoft website for use in the magazine.

Am I free to do so without violating copyright?

The website to which I refer is as follows:

Images and more - Office.com

[glc]

Click the link at the bottom of that page that says "Legal".

[K A Hall]

I can't get that legal link to go anywhere except my live mail account.

I almost replied to this last night but decided against it because image copyright issues are difficult to understand on some sites. But based on my experience I would say that images on that site that are from NVTOfficeClips are fine to use in your magazine and you would need to purchase the others once to use as many times as you want.

[Nuclear Krusader]

I'd rather use some RF pictures from a stock images site such as Fotolia or Alamy.

[donaldfleming]

Hi glc,

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I did as you advised and accessed the 'Microsoft Service Agreement'. It seems to suggest that images can be used in a non-commercial way without including attribution or a trademark; in which case it would be legal for me to use them in such a way in my church magazine.

In this regard I've enclosed a link and a quote for your perusal. Perhaps you could give me your opinion (without incurring any legal liability) on whether my interpretation is correct.

Microsoft Service Agreement

17. Office.com and Office Web App media elements and templates

If you use Microsoft Office.com or the Microsoft Office Web Apps, you may have access to media images, clip art, animations, sounds, music, video clips, templates, and other forms of content ("media elements") provided with the software available on Office.com or as part of a service associated with the software. You may copy and use the media elements in projects and documents. You may not: (i) sell, license, or distribute copies of the media elements by themselves or as a product if the primary value of the product is the media elements; (ii) grant your customers rights to further license or distribute the media elements; (iii) license or distribute for commercial purposes media elements that include the representation of identifiable individuals, governments, logos, trademarks, or emblems or use these types of images in ways that could imply an endorsement or association with your product, entity or activity; or (iv) create obscene works using the media elements. For more information, see the Use of Microsoft Copyrighted Content webpage:

Use of Microsoft Copyrighted Content

[Nuclear Krusader]

Good. Essentially, as long as you don't make the individual files available to your readers, you're OK.