Copyright

If it used in a screenshot to be uploaded and is partially obscured then no. If it is used in a skin to be uploaded then yes, the film studio holds the copyright and permission is needed.

don't really understand what you mean! Partially obscured?

In a screen shot - you want to obscure enough of the wall so that someone can't just take enough of it to make a decent wall off of it.

Ok this is a logon I'm talking about.... I've made a star wars logon with a screenshot of darth vader. Do I need to contact Fox studio to use it?! Because actually the name STAR WARS is copyright protected, so many skins here actually "illegal"

You can upload images of Star Wars as they come under fan art, but screencaps are a different matter I believe.

Hopefully somebody can give me some info on this subject, so I don't do anything wrong!

You cannot technically use material that is not yours, unless you have permission from the original author.  If you're talking about making a logon using a screen-capture from a movie, then you wont be able to do that unless you have permission.

Make sense?

I'm more Star Trek than Star Wars anyway (made this one for a friend and thought of sharing it)and like making S.T. based skin with my own artwork (although some of my first skins were made with pictures taken off the internet)

Guess I won't be posting this one!

For screenshots, you can pretty much do whatever you want as long as the screenshot obscures enough of the wallpaper so that someone can't easily make their wallpaper your screenshot.

As for the rest, under fair use, as long as you're not selling it and giving credit to the author and are only using a small portion of the original copyright you can use it.

 

Here's a question that has been on my mind for some time...Skins that are uploaded are by right owned by those who create them. My question is...do you need to have them copywrighted as in going the legal route? I have no clue about this.

No, no formal copyright is needed.  All created 'art' has inherent copyright.  The only thing registering it does is assist in showing proof of ownership in a court of Law, however there are other legitimate ways of providing appropriate evidence of authorship that do not require registration fees, etc....

Thanks for the input. Greatly appreciated

I've seen a handfull of copyrighted wallpapers in the gallary