[cc-community] CC-like video release form

Fred Benenson fred.benenson at gmail.com
Tue Jan 15 15:00:40 EST 2008


IANAL,  but it is my understanding that you don't own the copyright to your
voice unless you record yourself and own that recording. Your image and
likeness are all tied to something calld publicity rights -- things that
have nothing to do with copyright and which CC licenses don't imply.

This is issue with the Virgin suit that was recently dropped -- the
plaintiff was alleging that their privacy rights and rights to publicity
were violated and that CC didn't make this clear enough when a work was
licensed under just BY.  Read more about this here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_publicity

Lessig has good discussion of it here:

http://lessig.org/blog/2007/09/on_the_texas_suit_against_virg.html

There seems to be some case law where rights to publicity are considered
equivalent to a copyright, but I don't think its right to say that one
someone's "image, voice, and likeness" are copyrightable because they don't
tend to be fixed.

Anyway, this isn't to say that I don't like the idea of creating a
copy-left-esque model release, I just don't think its copyright territory.

The only lingering question I have is whether or not "publicity rights" are
perfectly alienable.

F



On Jan 15, 2008 11:18 AM, Matthew J. Agnello <matt.agnello at gmail.com> wrote:

> By default, you own the copyright to your own image, voice, and likeness
> -- you get to decide exactly how it is used and how much someone pays to use
> it. Traditional releases basically give full permission to the video
> producers for whatever uses they want. Releases can do this in a variety of
> ways, but the most common is simply to state, "By signing this form, I agree
> not to sue the producers for any use they make of my image." So, you're not
> giving ownership away, you're just releasing the producers from any
> limitations copyright would normally bestow upon them. It's actually very
> similar to a Creative Commons Attribution license, since these contracts
> usually stipulate a listing in the credits asSo, you're not giving ownership
> away, you're just releasing the producers from any limitations copyright
> would normally bestow upon them. It's actually very similar to a Creative
> Commons Attribu compensation.
> I'd like to adapt the BY-SA license to make a copyleft version of a video
> release so interviewees don't have to be concerned about having their
> contributions becoming proprietary (that is, released under traditional
> copyright limitations). This would still allow commercial use, but it would
> require releasing the derivative (my documentary) CC BY-SA.
>
> (You could adapt a CC BY-SA-NC license to a video release as well just by
> changing the URL at the bottom of the release form, but this would not allow
> the filmmaker to make money from the film. Certainly still possible, though,
> and would make sense in a variety of contexts.)
>
> // Matt
>
>
> ----------
> *Matt Agnello*
> http://www.hungryfilmmaker.com
> < matt.agnello at gmail.com >
>
>
>
> On Jan 15, 2008, at 1:55 PM, Fred Benenson wrote:
>
> My understanding is that "traditional release" means commercial rights to
> your image.  I'm sure these types of waivers exist -- it must be how
> corporations like Getty Images and Corbis acquire rights from the people in
> their stock photos.  If we can get our hands on one it might not be that
> hard to port it to a public like / CC-esque license. Though I'm not sure CC
> wants to go there yet with one of their own licenses..
>
>
> F
>
>
> On Jan 15, 2008 10:01 AM, Matthew J. Agnello <matt.agnello at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm working on a documentary about new media and the free culture
> > movement. I've interviewed a bunch of people, and as such I have to ask them
> > either to sign a release form or give recorded verbal consent to be
> > photographed. I'm releasing the doc BY-SA, so many people are confused when
> > I present them with a traditional release form that gives me full use of
> > their image/likeness without any guarantee that I will use it on a project
> > governed by a CC licence.
> >
> > I'd like to put those fears to rest with a CC-like release form. My idea
> > is to have them sign a one or two sentence contract that basically says, I
> > release my image/likeness to you for the purposes of your project under the
> > terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence, the text of
> > which can be found at the following link. Following that would be the
> > human-readable version of the licence and the legal code URL. If the person
> > wanted a copy of the CC text, I would have printouts with me.
> >
> > I like this idea because it guarantees a listing in the credits, it
> > makes people feel better about contributing, spreads the word about CC, and
> > it acknowledges that my work is really a dervative of all the contributions
> > of the people in it.
> >
> > I was curious if anyone had heard of something like this being done, had
> > done it themselves, or had some advice regarding it. If this is deemed a
> > valid method of releasing subjects for broadcast, I'd love to see an
> > official version with CC's blessing. I'll try to draft something more
> > specific in the meantime.
> >
> > Best,
> > // Matt
> >
> >
> > ----------
> > *Matt Agnello*
> > http://www.hungryfilmmaker.com
> > < matt.agnello at gmail.com >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> > cc-community at lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community
> >
> >
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