Expert: Rene Hasekamp - 7/25/2008

Question
Hi there,

i am just starting an aerial video business and i intend to take unique video of various landmarks, buildings in the UK. I want to copyright the video shot and charge companies for use of video in their promotional material (if they so wish).My main question would be that if i post these videos on sites such as YouTube for promotional  examples of my work, can companies use them without payment or 'cheat' and put a link on their site to YouTube which circumvents the clip being on their site. Do i have to specifically put text on clip stating to contact me for professional use etc. Also how do i go about receiving payment?
Thank you so much for any assistance you can give me.Much appreciated.
Regards,
Adrian

Answer
Hello,

Although copyright is not really my expertise, I can answer the following:

YouTube puts a link next to every video, in order to make it possible to put it on a website. It would be strange to forbid others to use tat link for your videos.

But the legal situation can (and should) be found in the "Terms of Use" for YouTube, to which every user has to agree. They are on http://www.youtube.com/t/terms .

At first sight it looks to me that you cannot prevent others to place your videos on their site. And that is it, in my opinion. maybe there are other sites that give you more rigts, asa user, but YouTube seems not adequate for "restricted use".

Hope this helps.

Rene Hasekamp