HUDL copyright infringement issues

[Roger Van duyn]

[Timothy Nordmann] “I tape a lot of high school sporting. Usually one customer hires me to do a video then they give a free copy”

If you don’t want your material on HUDL or YouTube, have you spoken with that customer that hires you and told him not to share it with someone who is uploading w/o your permission. Maybe he doesn’t know where that the free copy he gives to his friend is winding up. A lot of problems are cleared up just by a friendly chat.

Of course, the guy hiring you might consider the whole matter a work for hire. The companies that hire me to shoot sports had me sign a work for hire agreement. Private individuals that I do the same thing for, it’s more or less just a favor.

Roger

[Timothy Nordmann]

Yes, I definitely agree a lot of things are indeed cleared up by friendly chat. Indeed we have had a couple of conversation about not having this to end up on HUDL or YouTube, but it was all verbal.

To answer your question, I have spoken to the original customer, but he, nor his child uploaded the video to their HUDL account, it was other athletes who were not customers. The customer is very friendly and very sympathetic to my cause is also bummed so many other people are getting free use out of the video he paid for.

[Timothy Nordmann]

I went ahead and emailed them a formal request and provided the information needed under Digital Millennium Copyright Act and they have agreed to remove my content.

[Timothy Nordmann]

I posted my previous comment too soon. HUDL refused to delete the videos.

[Mark Suszko]

Is this a work for hire? If so, you don’t have much say about where it ends up.

Frankly, I think you’re doomed to a full-time job chasing pirates of the footage, this seems unproductive.

When you say you watermark the footage, exactly how are you doing that? Because I see an opportunity to let the file sharing become free advertising for your services, if your name stay attached to the footage wherever it goes.

[Timothy Nordmann]

Under my limited understanding of what work for hire means, I feel that this was not a work for hire arrangement. I am not an employee and there was no contract. As there was no mutual agreement, I feel this wasn’t a work for hire arrangement.

I have a subscription based pricing system based on how many customers participate versus the number of games you subscribe to. So rarely does only one individual hire me.

In the lower right hand corner I write ©Nordmann Photography with an slight outline and a drop shadow, all set to a 40% opacity. Yes, it is good when it is shared, under the right circumstances.

I am ok with one of my customers sharing and uploading tidbits or highlight reels, but the person who has never ordered anything from me, and steals the video and then re-uploads it, that gets me kind of bent out of shape.

Another user on youtube actually covered up my watermark with a graphic and uploaded my video. But thankfully youtube has a quick and easy process to follow when someone does things like that.

[Brent Dunn]

If you want to spend the money, have an attorney send a strongly worded letter to HUDL and the offending persons.

In the future, if you post on VIMEO, you can also attach a password. That way only the persons you give the password will be able to view the video. They can email coaches, etc. with the password.

To make it a pain for the offenders, change the location of your watermark every few minutes to different parts of the video. Also, put a disclaimer at the beginning of your videos to clearly state that violation, or unauthorized useage may result in significant penalty up to $500,000 per play or to the full extent of the law.

Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.net

Sony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro
with Final Cut Studio Adobe CS6 Production

[Mark Suszko]

But without a written clause to the contrary in the contract, in the US at least, you ARE assumed by courts to be a work for hire, so the client owns it all and your trademark or copyright claim isn’t valid.

If you really want to retain ownership, you’d better consult an attorney. But IMO you’re pursuing an outdated ownership model more appropriate to stills photogs than videographers.

Brent’s roving watermark idea is a good one but not likely to be accepted on the actual master by the client, only on dubs. And your problem comes from the client sharing out the wrong version.

How I would approach this is to get paid in full up front before delivery, charging a little extra perhaps, but totally ignoring the piracy, because really, you can’t stop it. Though sometimes you can put it to your advantage. PSY the South Korean star of the “Gangnam Style” video kept a policy of not fighting any piracy of his video. He is now ahead of Bieber as the most downloaded youtube artist ever, and the combination of legit paid downloads, prompted by viewers watching pirated and parody versions, plus the additional publicity and gigs generated by that visibility – made PSY a very rich dude indeed, able to live any style he likes now.

I know your sports videos serve a smaller niche. But have you considered partnering with the school to add in some promo/recruitment material about the schools into each package, in exchange for consideration (money). Especially with colleges this could more than offset your losses to piracy. Just an idea to think about.

[Timothy Nordmann]

I very much appreciate the input, as everybody is coming up with really helpful ideas.

I agree with your ideas of not fighting copyright, but for me only under certain circumstances. For instance. A football team hired me to cover their whole season, and they wanted to upload it to hudl. So I made a counter offer agreeing to waive my copyright, but in exchange I would get a larger fee to cover my loss of revenue. They were happy, and I was happy.

I make very little money on sports related work that comes through my office, so at times it feels silly to get upset over something I make so little money on. I wouldn’t really care if a bride uploaded one of my videos, as they have paid a fair market price for my services and nobody feels cheated. But when an athletes parent simply steals a video, that means they got something, and I receive nothing. I am ok with existing customers sharing my videos online. In fact I would like to see more of it, especially when my watermark is on it.

Your story about PSY makes good sense and is a good alternative to the way I see things.

Going back to the work for hire issue here is the info I was going on and what constitutes work for hire. I am no expert by any means on this particular subject. I have copy and pasted that info below.

———————————————–

For a work created by an independent contractor (or freelancer) to qualify as a work for hire, three specific conditions found in the Copyright Act must be meet:

1. the work must be “specially ordered” or “commissioned.” What this means is the independent contractor is paid to create something new (as opposed to being paid for an already existing piece of work); and

2. prior to commencement of work, both parties must expressly agree in a signed document that the work shall be considered a work made for hire; and

3. the work must fall within at least one of the following nine narrow statutory categories of commissioned works list in the Copyright Act:

(1) a translation, (2) a contribution to a motion picture or other audiovisual work, (3) a contribution to a collective work (such as a magazine), (4) as an atlas, (5) as a compilation, (6) as an instructional text, (7) as a test, (8) as answer material for a test, (9) or a supplementary work (i.e., “a secondary adjunct to a work by another author” such as a foreword, afterword, chart, illustration, editorial note, bibliography, appendix and index

[Mark Suszko]

Where, geographically speaking, do you work? And where are you cutting and pasting this quotation from?

My experience and that of others I know is, any video job done for a client where you are not on salary, is a work for hire, unless otherwise specified in writing in some kind of memo or contract. And as a work for hire, the judge generally awards all ownership of the final product to the guy that paid you. You may hold on to materials you created and used in making that master, but he owns the master. Same as if you were a hot dog cart vendor and you hand me a hot dog when I hand you five bucks, unless we signed a a memo saying different, what happens to my dog after that is not within your control and you have nothing to say about it. You can keep the hot dog water and the five bucks.:-)