[cc-community] who are the copyright holders in the video recording of a seminar?

Peter Brink peter.brink at brinkdata.se
Tue Mar 7 10:56:22 EST 2006


Ross Gayler skrev:
 >>From a point of view of copyright,
 >>the videos are derived versions of the papers,
 >>so the scientist who wrote the paper
 >>must give permission for you to copy/distribute/derive
 >>the tape.
 >
 >
 > In this case the speakers are the authors.  The only slight wrinkle
 > here is that some of the papers had multiple authors, only one of whom
 > was the speaker.

Since the papers predate the talks, the talks are either adaptations of 
the papers or copies of the papers. If the author of the paper also held 
the talk, then this distinction is moot, he will in any case hold the 
copyright to both, even though he might have transferred the economic 
rights of the paper to the to the publisher of the proceedings. The in 
turn videos are *copies* of the talks and thus the copyright belongs to 
the speaker. Now, depending on the agreement with the publisher of the 
proceedings, the talker might or might not need permission from the 
publisher to release the video under an cc-license. You will in any case 
need permission from the talker.

In the case when the paper has multiple authors and the authors agreed 
(presumably) that one of the authors should prepare and perform the 
talk. Then there is a *joint* copyright in the paper and (if the talk is 
an adaptation of the paper) a single semi-independent copyright to the 
adaptation (the talk) - provided of course that the adaptation is 
original enough to be considered a work of authorship on its own. The 
video is (of course) still a copy of the talk, but in this case you will 
need the permission of the all authors of the paper and possibly the 
publisher of the proceedings, to be able to release the video under a 
cc-license. This is because the speaker may not issue a license on his 
own without asking for permission from the fellow copyright holders of 
the paper.

 >
 >>the videos are derived versions of the papers,>
 >
 > That's interesting taken in the context of the argument I have seen on
 > the Open Access booster sites.  They argue that an author may
 > self-archive the penultimate draft of a paper even if the copyright of
 > the final draft has been assigned to a journal.  They argue that the
 > act of changing a few words between the drafts renders them different
 > works each with its own copyright.
 >
 > Taking that argument to this domain, the presentation would be a
 > different copyright work to the paper because it is not a verbatim
 > reading of the paper.

Merely editing a work *does not* - in most of the world (with the 
possible exception of the U.K.) - result in a new work. If the paper is 
adapted not merely edited then adapter gets a semi-independent copyright 
to the adaptation.

 >
 > 1) A speaker (There was generally only one speaker per presentation. 
  > The speaker was always an author of the presentation - and an author
 > of the paper on which the presentation was based.)

A single copyright holder, you need his permission.

 > 2) All the speakers (There were a few papers where two of the authors
 > spoke.)

A joint copyright, you need the permission from all the authors of the 
*paper* as well as the speakers.

 >
 > 3) All the authors of the presentation.

A joint copyright, you need the permission from all the authors of the 
*paper* as well as the speakers.

 > 4) Any audience member who asked a question or otherwise joined in the
 > discussion.

I wouldn't expect the questions to be "works of authorship", and thus 
this is not a copyright issue.

 > 5) Any audience member whose face appears or voice is heard in the
 > recording.

Not a copyright issue.

 >
 > 6) The recordist.

Not a copyright issue. Merely recording a conversation on video is no 
base for a copyright claim.

 >
 > This also leaves unanswered the question of who is the copyright
 > holder in panel discussions and general discussions.
 >
 > The two suggestions (as I interpreted them) I have had so far from
 > this discussion list are: all the speakers and all the authors.
 >

Was there a moderator who prepared and planned the panel discussion? If 
it was, then he might have some kind of copyright claim as well.


/Peter Brink




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