Standard video licensing rates/fees.

[John Baumchen]

How much do you want?

Since they infringed on your copyright, you are somewhat in a position to name your price.

I would factor in what my standard rate would have been to create it had I been hired by the end user, then triple it as a punitive measure for the infringement.

Just my $.02

“be seen, be heard, be remembered”

[Midwestmonsters]

What I want? Still unsure. I have sold licensing rights for a photo for a mere $125 simply because my customers are race teams on a tight budget.

The footage used was around 10 seconds long, yet without it, the entire video would be pointless. The original content was also manipulated to a lower quality and to remove the date stamp on the video.

This video is a whole different story as its a world wide company’s production group at fault here. Would I be off my rocker asking for $125 x 3?

[John Baumchen]

Well, lets look at it this way. You sold a still photo for $125.00 because you were being a nice guy and you were helping a race team on a tight budget. I remember something from 1978 where the potential commercial value of a photo was pegged at $2000/photo.

Here you have 10 seconds, (600 frames), of video being used by a multi-national company who is raking in billions of dollars in profits every year, and, they didn’t even have the courtesy of coming to you before using your work to help them promote their product.

As I’ve never been in your position, am hesitant to advise you on a specific amount though I would venture to guess that you would be entitled to a great deal more than $375. I think spending 30 minutes with a lawyer just might be worth your while.

“be seen, be heard, be remembered”

[Mike Smith]

You might want to cost similar footage to yours from a commercial library, for use in a commercial. Over here in the UK, “standard” footage is often in the

[Mark Raudonis]

$2,500 to $3,000 would be in the ball park if this was a straight license fee. How much you want to ad for “copyright infringement” is up to you. I disagree with Mike S and his comments above. A client that steals from you is NOT one that you’d want to cultivate. They’ve already shown their colors. Make what you can now, and don’t expect a payday from them EVER again.

Now, I’m NOT a lawyer, but I sure can GOOGLE like one!

Read this from the copyright statute:

(c) Award of Damages.

[David Roth weiss]

I agree with Mark completely.

I’ve been fortunate enough to stumble onto some of my own stock footage in use by commercial and/or news agencies from time to time. I typically charged them either two or three times my minimum stock footage license fee (per clip), so the charge was $750 x 2 or 3 (per clip), depending on just how nice they were to me. Anything other than than a big apology made me hopping mad and I’d extract the maximum. As I recall, CNN was pretty nice when I caught them, so they got off easy — just $1500 for a 4-second shot of a dead sealion caught in a drift gill net.

Whatever you do, don’t allow an advertisng agency’s whining to discourage you from punishing them for their offense, they’ll just mark up the fee 35% and charge the client anyway.

DRW

[Midwestmonsters]

I apprciate the opinions on the matter from everyone. I settled with the production company for $1000 two weeks ago but have yet to see any of the paperwork. I made it plainly clear they pay a little now and deal with me, or pay a lot later and deal with the court.

[David Roth weiss]

[MidwestMonsters] “I made it plainly clear they pay a little now and deal with me, or pay a lot later and deal with the court.”

Sounds good… Always best to give them a chance to play nice before lowering the hammer.

DRW