Re: Personal vacation film produced

On 6/3/98, Glen (McKay) Gummess <gmckay[_at_]nmjc.cc.nm.us> wrote:
>
> In my capacity as AV specialist I sometimes am requested to duplicate
> personal videos (e.g., weddings, receptions, birthday parties), which
> were clearly shot on home video and whose content is owned by the
> camcorder operator, usually a member of the family. Permission to
> duplicate is explicitly granted by the filling out of a work order by
> the family member.
>
> Yes, I am careful to distinguish between home videos and commercially
> produced videos which I do not duplicate, period.
>
> The distinction became quite blurred today when I received a vacation
> film featuring members of a family that was shot and produced by a small
> company which I'll call "Specialty inc."
>
> "Specialty inc." is comprised of a shop located on a pier in Puerto
> Vallarta, Mexico. Just two guys with a video camcorder who shoot
> footage of paying customers who swim with dolphins and then edit the
> footage onto a film lasting about 15 minutes. It's quite a creation,
> actually, titled and subtitled with the family member's names and
> featuring choice edits of close-ups of family members and the dolphins,
> and tagged with logos identifying the company. Absolutely this is
> somebody's intellectual property-- I would argue it belongs to
> "Specialty, Inc." but it was produced specially for the family members.
> Therefore, we have a potential work-for-hire with all rights owned by
> the family.
>
> It's the family that's requested I duplicate the video. I need an
> informal opinion here. Can anyone help??? By the way there is no
> helpful information, NONE, on either the package or the video itself
> which I've auditioned.

No way this can be work for hire without a written agreement to that effect. Speciality Inc. has the copyright here and duplication would be an infringement, although the question would really be determined by Mexican law, not U.S.

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Buford C. Terrell                           CAUTION:
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