Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Oregon
Wrongful posession of copyrighted material
Someone works on an instructional video for the golf swing with another person who has legal authority over the material. The person with legal authority allows this ''helper'' to have access to original master tapes and copyrighted material for the purposes of editing. This helper takes the tapes out of state with the intention of working on them further, yet never returns them, nor produces the finished edited work. After a few months, this helper does not return phone calls or answer emails from the legal authority of those tapes. Three years pass and the helper is confronted about this. He hands over something, but its not the original master tapes. The helper claims he does not have the master tapes. The legal authority person claims that they were, in fact, taken without his permission. Even though the helper was given access to these tapes to work on, is this stealing and what are the consequences? If you turn over something you've kept for years can you still be sued or prosecuted for stealing or whatever charge would apply here? The tapes were taken from the state of Oregon and ended up in Louisiana, so I assume Oregon law would apply here.
Thank you.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Wrongful posession of copyrighted material
This is not stealing in the sense that you could get the person arrested. It may give rise to causes of action (lawsuit) against the person for conversion, unjust enrichment, and other common law torts. If you can prove you had a contract with the person and that he violated the contract, you would also have a breach of contract cause of action against him.
One problem would be proving the damages (money) that you are entitled to. So what if he did not return your tapes? How were you harmed? Did you fail to keep copies of the tapes yourself? How much money did you fail to make because he took your tapes? Think about how you could prove how many people would buy the tapes and at what price and what the ultimate profit would have been.
Another problem is that the stealer may be judgment proof -- that is, he may have no money or assets with which to pay any judgment you might obtain against him in court. If so, then suing him is a waste of time. You need an investigator to do an asset search to determine if he has anything of value.
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