Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Oregon

intellectual property vs. copyright

I contracted a company (comp1) to design and maintain a subscription type web site with my copyright protected videos (streaming video). The customers pay a monthly fee to join my site and view the material we have released for download. I have since fired said contractor and hired a new company (comp2) to manage my site. Comp2 copied the clips/mpegs captured, from my videos, by comp1, and began hosting the site on their server. I then recieved a letter from comp1 stating that we could no longer use any clips captured by his company because he owned them as ''intellectual property''. Is this the case, or is he just blowing hot air?


Asked on 4/08/04, 8:12 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Owen Smigelski Smigelski & Savari

Re: intellectual property vs. copyright

It is not likely that comp1 has any rights to your video, as you retain the original copyright, and changing it into another form such as streaming could be considered a "derivative work." The original copyright holder retains the rights to derivative works.

There are a few types of questions that need to be answered, such as whether any other modifications or creative elements were added, and what the terms of any contracts surrounding your hiring (and their hosting). Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this further.

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Answered on 4/08/04, 10:01 pm


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