Dan Robinson
EF5
My aunt had a break-in at her house over the holidays, and thankfully her CCTV system captured the incident. I was repping the video for her to interested outlets. Here's a text discussion I had with a station who wanted to use it. I was willing to let them use the video for free locally because I didn't see a big impact for it over the holidays (and figuring the video airing might help with the investigation).
But no, permission to use the video locally wasn't enough. They wanted me to sign their stock agreement giving full rights away, and they would not budge on it. They promised that the video wouldn't be sent outside the station, but weren't willing to put it in writing. If I had signed the agreement, that promise wouldn't mean squat and I would have no recourse if they went ahead and sold the video for the next "crime caught on tape" show on Discovery or NBC.
Get everything in writing: the rights grab culture is in full force.
But no, permission to use the video locally wasn't enough. They wanted me to sign their stock agreement giving full rights away, and they would not budge on it. They promised that the video wouldn't be sent outside the station, but weren't willing to put it in writing. If I had signed the agreement, that promise wouldn't mean squat and I would have no recourse if they went ahead and sold the video for the next "crime caught on tape" show on Discovery or NBC.
Get everything in writing: the rights grab culture is in full force.
