Re: Lectures

At 12:30 PM 4/14/2005, Graham Henderson wrote:
>Hello everyone,
>
>I have a question that I hope that you can help me with. If this isn't
>the proper forum for this question, I apologize in advance.
>
>If someone comes to our college to give a lecture, and the college
>videotapes it, who holds the copyright?

In what? In the words of the speaker, the visual aids (if any) or in the audiovisual representation of the speaker?

Other list members have have addressed the question from the perpective of the contents of the talk, but I just wanted to point out that there's more than that. The relationship between the speaker and the college, whether the talk is scripted or extemporaneous, and whether there are any visual aids, all have bearing on this issue, but that's not the end of the matter. What's the relationship between the college and the person taping it? An employee working in the course and scope of employment? An independent contractor with a work-for-hire agreement? I bring it up because in addition to the competing claims of the speaker and the college, the videographer might have a claim as well, as to his/her contribution. If there are visual aids that are not the speaker's creation, that futher complicates matters. Any background music? (or perhaps the speaker performs music, or some other work of the performing arts, particularly if the presentation is in an arts department).

In the original hypothetical, the question was "who holds *the* copyright?" as if there were one and only one copyright. There could be several. And with regard to the talk itself, there is the possibility that it was not fixed before the lecture, and that the fixation was *not* with permission of the speaker, and thus there is no copyright.

Also, although it's a bit off-topic, there's possibly more than just a copyright issue, but a right of publicity concern. One could have all the necessary copyrights, but without the necessary "model release," having the copyright(s) might not be enough to exploit the videotape.

S. Martin Keleti
Cohen and Cohen
740 North La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038-3339
323.938.5000
323.936.6354 fax Received on Fri Apr 15 2005 - 21:35:00 GMT