Perhaps I’m late in finding this out, and all of you have known about it for years. If my anger is unjustified and these companies are within their legal right to do what they do, then please speak up, so that I can put my mind at ease.
I live in Arizona and am a freelance photog. 75% of my work is with the local news stations. Recently it was brought to my attention that there is a local company that physically records every news broadcast in the state. They then sell the video, package, or entire story to individuals and/or companies who call them and ask for it. Whats even worse is that 99% of their referrals are from the news stations themselves. News stations are bombarded with calls on a daily basis from viewers and companies who ask for copies of a certain story for one reason or another. The stations don’t want to bother with it, so they refer the viewer to this private company. The private company charges in upwards of $80 for every 15 seconds of footage they send to the requester.
I take issue with this, because when I sell my video to a station I make them agree to not sell or redistribute my footage in any way, and that the footage is still property of mine. Technically they aren’t selling or redistributing the footage. I get that. It’s the private company that is ripping it. All of my footage is watermarked FYI.
If I had a dime for every time a person approached me at a scene and asked, Hey can you send me a copy of this footage when it airs?" I’d be a rich man. Turns out someone else is… for that very reason. I called the company and spoke to the owner and politely stated my concern. He became very hostile and said that once my footage airs, its open for ANYONE to take it and do whatever they want with it. Embargoes and agreements go out the window. He then laughed at me and hung up.
Further research of the company revealed that it has been around for almost a decade, and that it is extremely profitable. They have locations in almost every major metropolis in the country. A buddy of mine in the medical helicopter industry even told me that their company has a 5 figure contract with this private company to give any and all footage aired that involves their helicopters at a scene. The helicopter company requests the footage of course before hand.
What are your thoughts on this? Again, I apologize if this topic has beat to death already. I hope I’m not coming across as a whiney jerk. I’m just having a struggle accepting this. In no other media related profession would this sort of practice be tolerated.