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What's the legality around capturing screenshots of movies?

oneida

oneida

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
1,912
I watched Annihilation for the 3rd time last night and I absolutely love the movie, there are some screens I'd like to use for wallpapers. My copy of the movie came with a digital version, so I downloaded that through iTunes to my phone to try and screenshot some stuff, but the feature is basically blocked entirely. Looked around for workarounds, but it seems that Apple is running a tight ship on keeping people from doing this.

Not sure why. Is it illegal to take screenshots of films? Can anyone shed some light on this?
 
OP
OP
oneida

oneida

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
1,912
Thurston Last

Thurston Last

Banned
Jul 26, 2018
1,350
For personal use that would fall under fair use, totally legit. They probably lock it down to prevent piracy.
 
shaneo632

shaneo632

Weekend Planner
Member
Oct 29, 2017
29,003
Wrexham, Wales
Nothing illegal about it as long as you've obtained the right to watch the video legally (i.e. it's not obviously a torrent). I do it all the time for work.
 
collige

collige

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,772
I don't think there's any legal danger in capturing them for yourself. Distributing would depend on the context. The screenshot block is probably for DRM purposes.
 
OP
OP
oneida

oneida

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
1,912
shaneo632 said:
Nothing illegal about it as long as you've obtained the right to watch the video legally (i.e. it's not obviously a torrent). I do it all the time for work.
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So I've got a 4k disc, a Blu-Ray, and a digital copy. What's the easiest means of capturing a screenshot if my PC doesn't have a BR drive?
 
Ravelle

Ravelle

Member
Oct 31, 2017
17,793
I don't think it's illegal to make screenshots, since screenshots are everywhere and you can make screenshots while watching HBO, Amazon and Netflix on PC with just pressing print screen, also when it;s just for wallpapers for your desktop or phone and you're trying to make money of fit or sharing in in public it also doesn't seem punishable and they can't do much about it. This seems just like a weird apple thing, phone screen shots by using the case buttons should always work.
 
TeenageFBI

TeenageFBI

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,239
If you can take one screenshot, you can easily stitch them together to copy the entire film. Not today, pirate.
 
OP
OP
oneida

oneida

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
1,912
shaneo632 said:
I'm guessing you don't have a Netflix sub (or you need higher quality than that)?
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I do have a Netflix sub and i won't lose sleep over lower quality screen grabs. since this just sounds like Apple keeping a short leash, I'll try on PC. but it wouldn't surprise me if iTunes blocks it for the same reason.
 
Mona

Mona

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
26,151
TeenageFBI said:
If you can take one screenshot, you can easily stitch them together to copy the entire film. Not today, pirate.
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125.jpg
 
Shedinja

Shedinja

Member
Nov 30, 2017
1,815
I noticed this one day when I wanted take a screenshot of something on Hulu on my iPad. I just assumed streaming apps block any sort of screen capture functionality (screen recording or screenshots). I didn't realize this extended to purchased movies on the TV app.
 
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