Copyright, our video work
We’ll always do our best to fulfill your needs and meet or exceed your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong. We don’t want to trick you into something you might regret later. We just want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.
However, copyright is one of the most important parts of our video production and is least understood by most people. Here is a summary so you don’t have to search through through the contract to know what to expect.
Copyright Overview
New Vista Video performs work for you under one of two basic contracts, either as an independent contractor (also called Work-For-Hire) or as a freelancer (sometimes called Original Creative Content).
The two agreements differ primarily in basic ownership and assignment of copyrights. Complete copyright text is provided in the contract, but a quick summary is provided here:
- Independent contractor: you own all copyrights for everything we create and may assign limited use rights to us (see below)
- Freelance: you own copyrights to individual components, such as unique artwork and video clips, while we retain copyrights of the completed video and assign exclusive rights to you
Independent contractor work
Work for hire often contains little original creative content supplied by us. Either we are doing this under your creative direction or we are simply documenting activities on your behalf. Some examples of such videos include:
- Events we don’t create, initiate, direct or supervise
- Interviews using questions you provide
- Training videos documenting your training content (such as procedures, techniques, and policies) or for equipment training
When your final payment has cleared, copyright will be automatically assigned as above.
Freelance work
Freelance contractor videos contain original creative content generated by New Vista Video. The video may also include work copyrighted by others and either provided by you or by us (text, music, on-camera talent, voice over, graphic design, images, or software).
Freelance contracts are used when we produce videos based on activities we create, direct or supervise. Some examples of freelance videos are:
- Promotional videos – either for products or services
- Marketing and advertising videos
- Product training we customize or optimize
- Profile videos for businesses or individuals
First, you guarantee that all elements of text, images or other content you provide are either owned by yourselves, or that you have permission to use them.
Then, when your final payment has cleared, copyright will be automatically assigned as follows:
When we provide third-party copyrighted work we’ll transfer the rights to you to the extent we are authorized to do so. The license we get is usually based on the expected size of the viewing audience. For example, the license may cover either a local business’ web site, or a regional or national advertising campaign. Assignment of these rights is limited to the purpose specified in our Customer Order.
You’ll own the video elements that we create for this project. We’ll give you source files to your specific graphics, text, narration, audio and video footage and finished video files. You should keep them somewhere safe as we’re not required to keep a copy. You own all elements of text, images, and video and audio you provided, unless someone else owns them.
We’ll own the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete video and we’ll license that to you, exclusively and in perpetuity for this project only, unless we agree otherwise.
Copyrights assignable to us
We love to show off our work and share what we’ve learned with other people, so we reserve the right, with your permission, to display and link to your project as part of our portfolio and to write about it on websites, in magazine articles and in books.
Copyright, this site contents
The contents of this site is copyright © 2018, by New Vista Video. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of New Vista Video is prohibited and strictly enforced.
Pages may contain links to sites on the Internet owned and operated by third parties. New Vista Video is not responsible for the availability of, or the content located on or through, any such third-party site. Information in this document is provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and freedom from infringement.
The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. We will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of this information, including, but not limited to direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, and consequential damages.
