YOU JUST VIDEOED A SIGNIFICANT EVENT...

[230RN]

...what is your best move now?

I watch "Mayday"a lot and saw an episode last night regarding Air France Flight 296 / Airbus A320 Crash, where one of the first A320s was supposed to be demonstrating its new fly-by-wire tehniques. But it crashed into the forest on landing. You can review the story in many places on the net, but the thing here is that a high quality video was taken by one of the observers:

https://youtu.be/-kHa3WNerjU

My question is, what is your best move to protect your property rights to the video.  If you call the news outlets to get the best deal on the vid, how do you retain residual or resale rights to it. (Obviously, if it's real good, they'll want to put it on the air immediately.)

Will the authorities just commandeer it and tough luck, soldier?  If you sell the video to a particular outlet, what can you do to stay on the payroll, so to speak?

I've seen that particular video in many places, and that's a you tube video of it.  The Mayday episode showing the "footage" of the crash was what triggered my curiosity, and any advice here might be useful if one of our members is behind the lens on an incident like that.

I wonder if that person is (still) getting any compensation for that world-famous video.

Terry, 230RN

[HankB]

The value of the video would depend largely on two things - how significant/spectacular the event is, and how unique your video is.

If it were something like a plane crash, you had the ONLY footage of it, and it was good quality, you could probably command a good price from some news outlets - but I suspect it would be VERY difficult to protect your future property rights so you'd get some money every time it aired. Maybe you'd get a one-time payday. And you could COUNT on "the authorities" immediately trying to seize it - without compensating you. And once they had it and released the footage, I think you'd have a hard time getting paid by ANYONE. So you'd have to stash it somewhere safe until after the newsies paid you.

It's a good question and worth thinking about, since it's clear that I really don't know the answer and am just speculating.

[French G.]

If it's something that is going to need to be suppressed like Biden laptop guy the first thing you need is several Deadman  switches. Yes there are copies, no you can't find them and if I am not in contact with them regularly then everything goes live. Or, no one knows you have the info, no one  and you sit on it until you need it.

[230RN]

^ Well, yeah, if it's something poitically explosive.  All bets are off when the power brokers get involved --anything can happen then.

But I'm talking like a big accident  where yours is the only camera operating. Like that video of the rocket fuel plant exploding taken by a lineman fixing a power line up on a nearby mountain.  This one shows that and a couple of others:

https://youtu.be/_KuGizBjDXo (20:31, but the explosion is in the first few minutes.)

So you're driving along and your dash cam catches something super exciting, line a plane coming down, hitting a car, and crashing into the river.  Or like when the pressure cooker bomb went off during the Boston Marathon

Or the cops come looking to find if you have any security cam footage of a brawl outside the bar next door... seems like you're out of luck on that one: "witholding evidence."

What are your options?

Terry, 230RN

[HankB]

^ Well, yeah, if it's something poitically explosive.  All bets are off when the power brokers get involved --anything can happen then.

But I'm talking like a big accident  where yours is the only camera operating. Like that video of the rocket fuel plant exploding taken by a lineman fixing a power line up on a nearby mountain.  This one shows that and a couple of others:

https://youtu.be/_KuGizBjDXo (20:31, but the explosion is in the first few minutes.)

So you're driving along and your dash cam catches something super exciting, line a plane coming down, hitting a car, and crashing into the river.  Or like when the pressure cooker bomb went off during the Boston Marathon

Or the cops come looking to find if you have any security cam footage of a brawl outside the bar next door... seems like you're out of luck on that one: "witholding evidence."

What are your options?

Terry, 230RN

That video has been manipulated - it's being filmed from quite a distance away, and yet the "bangs" of the explosions take place simultaneously with the visuals of the explosions. It should have taken the sound at least a couple of seconds to reach the camera.

As for a brawl you're not involved in - I doubt very much that newsies or anyone else would pay you big bucks for images of it, given how many videos of riots, flash mob shoplifting, etc. have already been broadcast. If a lawsuit were to result, maybe one side or the other would be willing to buy the footage, but getting together with them would be a problem. Especially if the cops came along and demanded it first.

[cordex]

So the primary goal is to monetize the footage you've captured to the maximum extent while avoiding having to hire attorneys to defend it? 

I'm sure there are some video aggregators that would have the resources to protect the IP, but I'm sure you'd be receiving only a small fraction of the amount they bring in.  Defending IP is expensive.  If you need it defended, you'll have to pay for it, whether directly or through an agency.

I have no idea how IP applies to evidence.

[Bogie]

Just like being a freelance news photographer...
 
"Hello, network. I have footage of thing. Clarity and steadiness is excellent. What will you give me for it?"
 
Repeat until you have a bite.

[BobR]

Just like being a freelance news photographer...
 
"Hello, network. I have footage of thing. Clarity and steadiness is excellent. What will you give me for it?"
 
Repeat until you have a bite.

If you go this route be prepared to give them exclusive rights to the footage. Because of that you may be able to squeeze an extra quarter or so out of them.

bob

[Bogie]

There are still folks who run around with scanners, trying for those money shots...

[230RN]

Hank B said,

"That video has been manipulated - it's being filmed from quite a distance away, and yet the "bangs" of the explosions take place simultaneously with the visuals of the explosions. It should have taken the sound at least a couple of seconds to reach the camera."

That seems to be sorta forgivable.  I've seen both flash-bang and the more true-to-life flash.......bang.  Most of the Beirut explosion footage ("bytage?") showed the delay between flash and shock wave hitting,.

cordex, yeah, I suppose it could be said I'm looking for "free" legal advice, but really I'm looking for some street smarts.  I doubt it would be a good idea to wait for a lawyer to respond to one's calls for advice.  But thanks for pointing that out.  I jokingly suggest that in the real journalistic world, receivable dollars for something like this has a half-life of three days.

Terry, 230RN

[cordex]

I didn’t take it as you looking for free legal advice. I was just pointing out that if you are looking for something beyond the proceeds of a single, first sale you need an expensive legal team to defend it.

[RoadKingLarry]

If it's something that is going to need to be suppressed like Biden laptop guy the first thing you need is several Deadman  switches. Yes there are copies, no you can't find them and if I am not in contact with them regularly then everything goes live. Or, no one knows you have the info, no one  and you sit on it until you need it.

Three can keep a secret if two are dead.

[French G.]

If there is any chance of a lawsuit anywhere I would need life changing dissappear money. Otherwise,  no film, never happened. I  stopped to help an interstate accident,  was there for less than a minute after the cop showed up, gave him the rundown. Never ID myself but dashcam and my plates I guess. I get called five years later by one of the crash test dummies lawyers suing another of the crash test dummies. Wildly inaccurate story. I don't need all the drama. Next accident I got the crying toddler out of the turtle car, scene gathered more people,  everyone safe, me and the retired trooper who also stopped mutually agreed to bail before the evidence collectors arrived.

[230RN]

I mentIoned once that my older brother, who gave me a lot of my New York practical wisdom (street smarts), once said that sometimes it was "a good idea to say you were tying your shoes an' dint see nuthin nohow."

There's a certain wisdom to be applied there, too, though, not universally applicable.  Note the "sometimes."

Which is why I was asking if you capture something salable and newsworthy, what's your best move?

Terry, 230RN