Can the author of software claim copyright on the data it generates?
<p>The <a href="http://www.tagxedo.com/faq.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Tagxedo FAQ</a> states:</p>
<blockquote>
<h1>Q: What is the licensing requirement for using images created or derived from Tagxedo?</h1>
<p>A: The images created by Tagxedo, and their derivatives, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike License 3.0, and must be attributed to <a href="http://www.tagxedo.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.tagxedo.com</a>. The images created by Tagxedo and their derivatives are free for personal use, including usage on personal blogs, non-profit organizations, and non-profit education institutions, subject to the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike License. For more information on licensing please contact licensing@tagxedo.com</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If I created the image and the fonts' authors claim no rights over my use of their font, should the image not be mine? Is this permissible under United States copyright law?</p>

<p>Theoretically it could (the case of Tagxedo is not clear). First, anything created by Tagxedo enjoys copyright protection, be it software, fonts, images or text. They may give you a license to use any of this material, which can require you to attribute the thing to them. The FAQ is unclear as to whether "images created by Tagxedo" refers to material created by the company, or with the software. The former would be perfectly standard. The odd interpretation would be that if you use the program to create an image, you must attribute the image to Tagxedo (i.e. "was created using Tagxedo"). That does not give them ownership of the image, though (unless the terms specifically say that whatever you create, they own). This is possible, since it may be in the EULA (if you can link to the actual EULA that would be helpful), and the terms of the EULA govern the permitted usages of software. Unless specifically prohibited by law -- and I don't know of any such law, in the US, yet. If the terms of the EULA are not clear (i.e. if these two interpretations are equally available in the context of the EULA), the ambiguity is construed against the interest of the EULA-writer.</p>

<p>What you posted is actually a license. Which means it is something that may or may not give you permission beyond what copyright law gives you. A license cannot take away from copyright law. </p>

<p>So you can read their EULA, and you can see what they allow you to do even if copyright law doesn't give you that right. Then you can read copyright law. Most likely you need to decide: Are the images the software creates <em>derived works</em> from their software or not? Impossible to say without knowing exactly what the software does. </p>

<p>PS. Can a license be conditional? Sure it can. However, "we allow you to use this software if XYZ" in a license is likely irrelevant; you bought the software and have the right to use it by copyright law. "You can make additional copies and use them if XYZ" is different because you don't have the right by copyright law alone to make additional copies. </p>

<p>Technically No software cant claim copyright as copyright can only be claimed by a human (or business) as seen in the case where a macaque monkey took a photo which had its copyright claimed by David Slater but the US courts ruled that the photo is copyright free due to having not been made by a human.</p>

<p>Alternatively it could be claimed that the copyright is owned by the software's copyright holder as they created the rules that produced the work, this can be seen in the case Nova Productions Ltd v Mazooma Games Ltd [2006] where it was ruled that the person who creates the rules of how the artistic work was created owns the work not someone who put the inputs for the work.</p>

<p>TL;DR Software cant own copyright but a human can claim copyright of thing created by a machine they have copyright over.</p>

<p>So no the image is not yours, look at Nova Productions Ltd v Mazooma Games Ltd [2006] </p>

copyright software