Introduction
The information on this page is aimed at answering some frequently asked questions regarding usage in print, TV, film, and other media.
For details of the licenses, copyright and trademark, please refer to:
Citations
The correct form of citation is as follows:
Short version:
Audacity® software is copyright © 1999-2021 Audacity Team. The name Audacity® is a registered trademark.
Long version:
Audacity® software is copyright © 1999-2021 Audacity Team. Web site: https://audacityteam.org/. It is free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The name Audacity® is a registered trademark.
Please ensure that for either version, the first and last sentences are presented exactly as above, without any additional text interspersed into them.
Example usage:
(A) “For this work I used version 3.0.0 of Audacity(R) recording and editing software[1].”
(B) “Audacity Team (2021). Audacity(R): Free Audio Editor and Recorder [Computer application]. Version 3.0.0 retrieved March 17th 2021 from https://audacityteam.org/ [1].”
Where [1] links to either the short or long version citation shown above.
The citation could be in a footnote, or linked to on a Credits page, or similar.
Permissions to use Screenshots
Professional book film and TV sometimes seek copyright clearance to use images from and screenshots from Audacity, for example a TV program showing actors using Audacity to play a digital recording. Generally we are very happy for this kind of use. Inappropriate use of the Audacity trademark, for example to imply endorsement by Audacity, is not acceptable, but that is about trademark, and generally not something that arises when people are seeking copyright clearance.
TV or Film
We typically welcome TV or film that has some segment that shows incidental use of Audacity in the plot. It is good publicity for us. Please send us a snapshot from that segment that we can use on FaceBook.
Books
Educational books that have content about how to use Audacity need to ensure that the (R) or ® is present in the first mention of Audacity to indicate that Audacity is a registered trademark. Please send us a copy of the book when it is ready
Websites
Screenshots that show and explain features of Audacity are fine. If you use material from our manual it needs to comply with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. We’d rather you did not host our downloads, but instead directed potential users to our download page
YouTube Tutorials
We generally welcome YouTube tutorials. Please send us a link when it is ready. Please ensure that the tutorial states the full Audacity version number so as to avoid confusion.
Website and Documentation License
The Audacity website and documentation are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 3.0.
You may modify, copy, distribute, and display this material, but you must give credit to the original authors.
Please see the license for details. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
