Someone familiar with legal/licensing issues can check the terms of license found here,

https://github.com/freesurfer/freesurfer/blob/dev/LICENSE.txt

Part B section 1 may be of interest,

PART B. DOWNLOADING AGREEMENT - License from MGH with Right to Sublicense
("Software License").

1. As used in this Software License, "you" means the individual
downloading and/or using, reproducing, modifying, displaying and/or
distributing the Software and the institution or entity which
employs or is otherwise affiliated with such individual in
connection therewith. The General Hospital Corporation ("MGH")
hereby grants you, with right to sublicense, with
respect to MGH's rights in the software, and data, if any,
which is the subject of this Software License (collectively, the
"Software"), a royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use,
reproduce, make derivative works of, display and distribute the
Software, provided that: … list of conditions follow …

If you agree with/adhere to the license conditions, then my (non-lawyer) interpretation of the above is that you are allowed to display (publish) the output from freesurfer commands/processes and/or display templates/files that you use. You could also cite something to the effect that Freesurfer is licensed by the MGH corporation of Boston MA, USA with the above link to the license.

- R.

On Feb 24, 2025, at 16:45, Brown, Tanya <tanya.brown.extern@ae.mpg.de> wrote:

External Email - Use Caution

I am writing on behalf of our research team regarding our upcoming publication of our study, in which we would like to include results figures that were output from Freesurfer software (specifically the fsaverage template in Freesurfer). As we prepare our manuscript for publication, we have encountered a licensing issue. Specifically, the journal has indicated that we need to seek permission for figures where we use Freesurfer brain templates.

Have you encountered similar challenges when publishing figures that feature images from your software? If so, could you kindly share the approach or any guidelines you followed to comply with the licensing terms while still effectively presenting our findings?

Any advice or suggestions you could provide would be greatly appreciated, as it would help us determine the best path forward and ensure that we adhere to the necessary legal and ethical standards.

Please note, we have cited the inaugural paper: Fischl, B. (2012). FreeSurfer. NeuroImage, 62(2), 774–781.

Thank you very much for your time and assistance. I look forward to your guidance.

Tanya
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