Legal Issues: Tv Station using footage

M

mmiller884

Active member
Hey guys, i was just wondering if a tv station had legally use my or anyones footage without some kind of permission. Fuel tv ran a program about a week ago where they used about 30 seconds + of my footage. They were suppose to contact me but failed to. The segment was on one of my buddies so that is how they got the footage. On top of that, they didnt even give me credit! Im not looking to sue or anything i just want to talk to them about it because im a little mad that i didnt even get recognition.
 
they weeze alot of home movies. If you can prove it's your material, you can basicly name your price at this point. Record it off the air if you can.
 
Thanks for the response. I guess the only way i can prove it is mine is because i have the actual raw footage.. lol yea i called them and they gave me some bullshit excuse why it happened. lol they offered me 150$. I guess they dont think im serious..
 
Push 'em on it. They should pay you or you can settle out of court. Have a lawyer send them a letter and see how they act then. :beer:
 
Yeah, if you had used material of theirs in some production of yours, they would have taken you to the cleaners. $150 is a worse insult that giving you nothing.

On how many days did you shoot the footage in question? Charge them your day rate for all those days, including gear rental & media costs.
Or find out how much they charge for using their footage (normally it's a per second cost) and charge them that plus some.
- Whichever of the 2 above is more.
Their website lists viewship of 24million US homes, plus viewership in 50+ other countries. They are a big outlet and owe you for your footage.
Personally I'd probably take whatever rate I would have charged them before and simply double or tripple it.

Also ask them for a copy of their "broadcast log" and their "off-air" or "air-check" tapes from the day/time of broadcast if you can. .. And if you can record it yourself with them airing it, great. Proving they aired it sould be pretty simple.

Don't give away your original master, if they want to see it, make them a copy.

And if they don't belive you, then do get a local lawyer to send them a friendly letter informing them that you are serious.

Their website has 7 pages of legal text in their "terms of service". Offering you $150 is an underhanded move to try and buy you off for nothing, you arn't that stupid. $150 beforehand as pre-aranged would have been fine, but as compensation, it's nothing.


- Mikko
 
Last edited:
Don't be too much of a hardass here, because you would like them to use more of your footage in the future, right? It's 30 seconds that they used, and not a 60 minute piece you carefully shot and edited over the last month. $150 for 30 seconds is a good profit, and you want to build a positive relationship with them.


Wow... all this happiness and tolerance coming out of me?
 
grinner said:
you can basicly name your price at this point.
Click to expand...
Hardly the case. If it ever gets as far as a court room then the judge and/or jury will decide the damges. So what are the damages for using :30 without clearance on a national show? What are the fees involved in taking a case like this to trial?

The formula simple:

$ awarded minus the legal fees = net profit

The problem is that all the little phone calls back and forth between your attorney and Fuels attorney's quickly drive up the legal fees. Meaning it's an expensive process with very little net profit. Except the lawyers of course, they always win. Heck, Fuel offered $150 - it will cost more than that just to talk to a lawyer.

I think you should come up with a reasonable fee for your footage. If Fuel had bothered to ask permission before hand what would you have charged them? $500? $1000? $1500? Given that the segment was about one of your buddies I don't think you would have have charged them an outrageous amount. Anyway, come up with a number you're satisfied with and tell them that's what you expect to be paid. If they say no then consult an attorney. Keep in mind that the lawyer might charge you for an hour of his time just to tell you that it's not worth pursuing.

Short answer: Take what you can get without involving attorneys and move on.
 
Last edited:
They should compensate you at prevailing stock footage rates at minimum. If aired nationally, that might be between $25 and $100 per second.

As was indicated above, you should frame correspondence through an attorney if possible. How did they come to have the footage? If your friend granted them a license, then you might have an issue. If said friend represented himself as the copyright holder, this is a stickier issue.

Not because you wouldn't have an interest in the action, but because this third party is representing your work as their own. Perhaps you shot this as a work for hire? Did you grant pass-through rights to your friend?

You need to have solid, defensible answers to these questions prior to engaging an attorney.

e
 
wow! tons of responses, thanks guys, i appreciate it.. As far as how they got the footage, my buddy gave it to them and gave them my contact info inorder to contact me to air it. My name as at the end of the video, so they know who made. Yea, im trying to keep it cool with them only because you never know what or who is going to do what for you in the future. Like all you said, that $150 was kinda a slap in the face ecspecially considering that they illegally used it. My buddy was at a big corporate dinner where one of fuels free lancers was covering the show. So fuels excuse for using the footage was "when the freelance guy gave us all the footage and the dvd, we were under the impression that it was his footage...etc" I thought their reasoning was pretty funny.. Thanks again for all the input guys.
 
Not an attorney, so FWIW. Your friend made the first mistake when he gave a disinterested third party unsolicited materials. Fuel may not have been acting with malice when they used the tape, though there are certainly procedures in place that were obviously disregarded in checking copyright and forging a license agreement over your footage.

Not to be friendly for future work, but I would almost extend them the benefit of the doubt on how they came to possess and subsequently use the footage. It could simply be an independent producer who somehow came to have your footage in his bins with absolutely no knowledge of how it came to be there.

At any rate, from a legal standpoint, I'd bet that you have an issue with both Fuel and your friend.

Submit an invoice for your footage at international rates per second and be prepared to back up your claim through legal channels when they come calling.

e
 
150 bucks? lol
but your minimm stock footage fee is a grand, right?
and since they just nagged it, thats a 100% mark up so yur now at 2k.
I'd go ahead and double that, and send em an invoice. You have the power here, man. They stole from you and will pay your price to keep it out of court. You can literally make up a number, man. Even at 5 figures, a CEO would rather emdo that than tie u that much money in addition to time in court.
enjoy, man.
 
Capt Quirk said:
Don't be too much of a hardass here, because you would like them to use more of your footage in the future, right? It's 30 seconds that they used, and not a 60 minute piece you carefully shot and edited over the last month. $150 for 30 seconds is a good profit, and you want to build a positive relationship with them.
Click to expand...

I agree only with the fact that he shouldn't come off as hard to work with. I don't agree that he should take $150.00 and hope for future business. Bad move!
He should make sure he's represented by someone, so that what ever the out come of this dispute he won't be seen as a difficult person to work with. There are ways to diffuse yourself in these situations. Let your lawyer be the bad ass so when its your time to speak, you can seemingly be the voice of reason who only wants whats fair. Good cop, bad cop, or what ever. Don't be Peter Parker, and let the Buggle name its price for your hard work. Even though your friend my have been the one to make the deal with them. Your lawyer is not going to them to negotiate. You have a set price for every thing you shoot, and when your lawyer sits down to speak with them that is what he is going off of. That is your property, and the used it with out your permission. Now on the other hand if your friend and yourself did not make a signed arrangement for this footage you shot for him and he is the talent then I believe by law you both equally own the piece of work. In such case if he sells or makes a deal with a third party, he has that right, but only to sell his share of the work. So your still intitled to something but I believe the third party can argue that they paid your partner for his share, so what ever you say your work is worth would be minus the amount they paid your friend.

I know this holds water when dealing with music producers, and vocal artist, so I would guess its relevant in video. The marriage of production, and artist become one with out a signed work for hire aggreement.
 
Depending on the clip I think Transworld and 411 pay between $50-$250 per clip and I know fuel has a bigger budget than them so I'd charge somewhere in that area. I also have a buddy that shoots BMX events for them and I know he makes pretty good money, so don't settle for too less.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top