Ethics, professionalism and more....

Your client, not the other production company are the ones who violated the terms of your licensing agreement; your contract was with the client not the production company. That though does not exclude the other production company from liability or responsibility but that is a separate issue.

We dealt with this many times over the years and usually the client or their staff do not fully understand the licensing aspects of the agreement, or they simply choose to ignore it.

Early-on I would become angry about it but as I began to fully understand my rights as the author of my work, I began looking at it as an income opportunity.

Instead of sending an "angry-gram", we sent a polite but firm letter along with an invoice for the additional usage. That usually got us a call from the client with an apology and an adult conversation about it. First time offenders got a one-time waiver or a negotiated fee and repeat offenders paid the price. A few got pissy about it and only one ever had to get the lawyers version of our letter.

As for the other production company, who knows what they were told by the client as "buyers can be lairs". Or that production company may be ignorant or misinformed as most people are with regards to licensing and copyright.

Robert
 
I agree with you totally, Robert. That is exactly the way to handle it. However, you are making one assumption that is not always the case. That assumption is that the client and "their" production company are honest and the mistake is an honest one. We, like you, have come across similar issues over the years. Some issues were honest misunderstandings, some were not. It really boils down to individual cases.
 
great info, always more to learn. i for one after dealing with a deadbeat client, combined my invoice and contract onto one page, so every detail is on one page with their sign and date right under it
 
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