Re: Kansas firm sells candid Wal-Mart videos

Walmart's likeliest tactic will be to say that while Flagler owns the tapes, he has no signed releases for anybody IN them. That means he can't clear the footage for use in documentaries or etc. which reduces the potential for use of the footage anywhere but in academic studies and of course discovery phase of civil suits. With that rulingf they can get the YouTube showings removed as a DMCA violation and prevent junior Michael Moore's from doing too much damage. Nobody still working or wanting to work for Walmart will sign a release to Flagler. And you can't get a release from a dead man or his kin if they don't want you to have it. I suppose a film maker could watch the tapes and re-create footage based on transcripts, but I'm still not sure he could use the actual words of the walmartians without a clearance. That's a question for a real lawyer.

I doubt a judge would allow a presumption that since the people taped all worked for Walmart and gave consent to Walmart, that that consent automatically transfers to Flagler and his assigns and et. al. because I dont think the case law has too many examples of that as a precedent, rather more the opposite, I imagine. (and here is where I should stop pretending to be a lawyer, regardless of my hotel choice)

So maybe not quite the bonanza they thought at first. Still, do you think fifty grand is a fair offer on thirty year's worth of stock footage that chronicles from the inside, the evolution and true workings of the biggest company ever?

I still think Walmart should be sacking a brace of their lawyers for getting them into this mess in the first place, plus the manager who wouldn't approve whatever number Flagler counter-offered with. Only fools argue inside a burning building.