Sport Clips Copyright

CyberDave

To settle an argument... My mate runs Facebook page where he uploads recorded video clips of TV coverage. Who owns the copyright on these videos? Is it the TV company or the sporting organisation in question?

Trojan

That's quite complex. The sporting authority, e.g. Pro 12, normally license one or several TV companies (broadcasters), e.g. TG4, the rights to broadcast the game live and often highlights and re-runs, and for pay-per-view, sometimes usage of moving footage in news reports.

The broadcaster may have used their own staff or hired someone like Aperture Media to shoot the event, e.g. I think they might do all televised Leinster RDS matches for Sky and TG4.

I would guess that copyright ownership is probably held by the sporting authority, but licence to use given to the broadcaster, assuming that whoever actually shoots it is hired on a "work for hire" basis - otherwise they might own the copyright by default.

And that's not counting the interesting world of performer image rights.

I'm not a lawyer nor would I want to be