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Clients wants to copyright my FCP file
Hello all,
I did a memorial slideshow for a client, she wants the project file and copyright it. She wrote a song had it professionally produced, recorded and wants to market memorial slideshows using her song and my layout to the song. Any suggestions? Can she copyright an FCP file?
Thank you,
Maria -
18 Replies
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Hello Maria,
That is a very interesting question. I know that this subject has been treated before.
I suggest you to post in the Business&Marketing Forum.
There are the experts in copyrights and all those complications.
Please do it. I would like to know what they say.
Cheers,
Rafael -
That is a curious thought. Obviously the end product (the video and the song) are easily copyrighted…. but can you copyright the ‘exact’ steps you used to attain that video?
like if you had the photoshop layers that a famous artist used to produce a piece of art… but substituted your own photography and made adjustments to fit…. Could the original artist have copyrighted the steps within a piece of software used to make the look? But what if you emulated it perfectly in GIMP?
Or in your case, what if someone was able to copy the edits, etc… of your piece in Premier or Avid?
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The FCP project file is your work. Therefore it’s your property and not hers to “copyright.”
As far as I know, a finished work can be copyrighted and a concept can be copyrighted. I’ve never heard of any project file that could be copyrighted.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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Simply stated: it is not her’s to copyright. As Water points out, the finished work is her’s to do with as she wishes but the FCP project file is NOT her’s unless she has a contract with you that says that at the end of the project, you owe her the project file. If that doesn’t exist, it is legally not her work.
It would be like me buying a bottle of wine and then telling the winemaker that I had a right to their equipment that produced it. Your “equipment” is your software, and the end-product is owned by her. How you got there is not owned by her, unless the contract states clearly that it is the case.
Best regards,
Ron Lindeboom
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My lawyer hates it when I use “copyright” as a verb, because a copyright is something you hold. What this person really means is “register the copyright.”
This is not merely a pedantic semantic detail, especially when the work is collaborative.
“Copyright protects an author’s specific expression in literary, artistic, or musical form. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, system, method, device, name, or title.”
https://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl115.html
My opinion, not a lawyer, is FCP project file is a system and device and not subject to copyright.
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AND YET…as a camera person, all the footage you shoot, the master tapes, are the clients, not yours. You cannot keep a copy for your self.
But I guess that is a different circumstance.
On the work I do it is in the contract that the network recieves the project files, and every bit of data…tapes, pictures, music, paperwork galore…when production is done. HOWEVER, they cannot “copyright” the project file…mean say that the way this was edited and put together is unique and cannot be copied.
Your client has a very…skewed view of production. This isn’t a book here, this isn’t a picture. The same rules don’t apply.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Shane Ross] “AND YET…as a camera person, all the footage you shoot, the master tapes, are the clients, not yours. You cannot keep a copy for your self. “
Boy you opened a can of worms there. I completely agree with your statement. The overwhelming majority of those who weigh in on this issue on this forum say the cameraperson / production company owns owns all the original footage, not the client who paid for the job. Strange but true.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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[walter biscardi] “The overwhelming majority of those who weigh in on this issue on this forum say the cameraperson / production company owns owns all the original footage, not the client who paid for the job. Strange but true.”
You’re kidding? Really? This, to me, is cut and dry. They hired you, you billed for your time and tape stock. You were compensated….they own the footage. This has been the case on every network, corporate and commercial project I have ever worked on. WEDDING too. Copies can be retained for demo reel purposes only, but all the masters belong to client.
But I am changing gears to a topic that I see (after searching) has beed HOTLY debated. So let’s not continue.
Project files…only networks have asked for them. Commercial, corporate and event and wedding clients never have.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Shane Ross You’re kidding? Really? This, to me, is cut and dry. They hired you, you billed for your time and tape stock. You were compensated….they own the footage. This has been the case on every network, corporate and commercial project I have ever worked on. WEDDING too. Copies can be retained for demo reel purposes only, but all the masters belong to client.
You stated that on the projects you work it’s in the contract that the network or company hiring you owns the footage, which means you’re doing “work for hire” and the client does indeed own everything.
But in the absence of that contract or a specific request in writing, the videographer or main creative person behind the shoot legally owns the rights to the footage even if the client hired you and paid you for your time and tape stock.
As Walter points out, people have widely differing views on this and there’s nothing wrong with running your business by taking either of the two sides. You can be “right” doing either. There are dozens of threads about this and there’s a ton of misinformation about the issue on this and many other forums.
But the facts are easily found by doing a few searches online and by reading a couple of media law primers and books written specifically about this issue.
There are also scores of cases that consistently back the videographer, producer, director, production company or artist when clients claim copyright yet have nothing in writing stating as such.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com -
[Shane Ross] “You’re kidding? Really? This, to me, is cut and dry. They hired you, you billed for your time and tape stock. You were compensated….they own the footage”
No Shane.
I’m hired to make a video.
I’m not hired as cameraman.
If my client want the rushes this have to agreed before.
When I go filming I endure really hard conditions.
Some times I spend weeks sleeping in huts and eating rats and bamboo-shots.
If I do that is because i count with the images I will get for my archive.
My client pay me to get a 15 or 20 minutes video. That’s what he will get.
For me is not a problem of rights, but of agreement.
My customers can deny me to use their logos for my Demo-reel, why should I be that generous with them?
Rafael
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