Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Re: Who owns a film

Under copyright law the actual author owns it unless he agreed to give it away in some manner. So the answer depends on who ccntributed to its authorship and what the author contracted to give away, if anything. For instance, if only the director/writer contributed to the creative content, and didn't contract any of it away, he owns it.

Re: Who owns a film

If there was no work for hire agreement with the writer/director, it's likely the writer/director still holds copyright to his creations. The producer, however, may have contributed to the film as well, in which case the producer would have a copyright interest. If so, the parties would be equal owners and either could make a non-exclusive license to a third party without the other's consent but there would be an obligation to account. This is a complicated situation and you should confer with an attorney as there are probably facts you haven't disclosed that might bear on the ultimate answer. Ownership of the physical print is a seperate matter.

Re: Who owns a film

You would need to sit down with an attorney and go over all the facts before they could even begin to give you an opinion. Please feel free to contact my office if we may be of any assistance to you.

Re: Who owns a film

It's an extremely complicated question that requires more facts and more exploration, It's possible that no one individual owns the full rights to the production, or, depending upon the contracts, whether written or verbal, it's possible that one person has the rights. And it isn't just contracts between the producer, writer and director that need to be considered - there also may be an impact from union contracts, especially SAG's.

Either way, moving ahead without careful exploration of the facts is an invitation to litigation. If you'd like to discuss the matter further, feel free to get in touch.

Re: Who owns a film

I have a client who just recently avoided litigation on this issue because they paid me to cover these issues before problems arose. Because you have this problem, I assume you haven't been using an attorney for this project...so does that mean that you haven't invested enough time or money into it to bother even consulting an attorney now that you have this problem? If so, then we shouldn't bother writing a response. But if you have a enough time and money invested, then you should consult an attorney either together or individually and try to get this problem wrapped up before it gets even more complicated. The answers above are all accurate, with Mr. Mark's being the most helpful, as usual. I'm sure any of us could assist you with this.