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watermarking and contracts
My company filmed an event recently where in our contract we agree to provide the organizer with copies of our “raw footage” for the event. It’s time to make those copies, and I’m concerned about their using it as stock footage or for other reasons other than promotional. We did NOT give up the rights to the footage, just agreed to provide a copy of the “raw footage.” Is it within my rights to add a bug/watermark to the “raw footage” to prevent it’s unauthorized use?
Thanks!
pope -
8 Replies
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Within your rights? If you’re in the US, probably.
Does this have the potential to upset the people getting the footage? Maybe yes, maybe no.
Your agreement to provide the raw foots should have specified what they could DO with it and that you still owned it. But hindsight is almost always 20/20. Then again, they may just be the anal type of client who wants to have control of everything even if they then don’t do anything with it. I’ve had clients who simply wanted to be sure that they saw everything, even if they had no idea what to do with it other than comfort themselves that they were “in control.”
My advice, add the bug in a small and subtle manner and wait to see how they react. Maybe then you’ll have the conversation about ownership.
-Nick (still not at NAB) Griffin
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That’s exactly what I’m doing. Thanks.
The contract for this year’s event will be quite different–I’ll see to that!
cheers,
pope -
I’d include a timecode burn & reel # ‘for their convenience & reference’. Put them just high enough off the bottom to make cropping impractical.
Arnie
https://www.arniepix.com -
good call…
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I think burning t/c is overly confrontational and mildly rude. A small, translucent bug makes it clear that it’s your footgae without throwing it in their face. As the man said, “But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.”
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Nick, I thought that you were “the man”. When you said “like the man said”…you threw me a bit.
I REALLY liked your piece in the magazine’s premiere. Thanks for being a genuine dude!!
Michael Munkittrick
Gainesville, Florida USA -
Actually the phrase “But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong” was the sign-off that Dennis Miller used to say at the end of his rants which ended the monologue portion of his HBO show.
So, he’s the man. (At least he was before he drank all that right wing Kool Aid. Maybe in light of current sentiments he’s sobered up and returned to the radical middle where he was funniest.)
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I forgot about that being DM’s sign-off. What a hoot…Dennis Miller as “the man”.
Michael Munkittrick
Gainesville, Florida USA
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