OT-Someone's asking for copies of videos I shot and edited

A company I worked with a few months ago for whomI shot a charity event is asking for digital copies of videos I did. They planned the event, a charity auction, as far as I can tell. I did the job for free, the charity is using the videos to get sponsors, and the only benefit I've gotten is a few hundred views on Youtube. I haven't gotten any jobs with these groups, who are using the videos to promote their organizations, so think I should ask for a fee for the three videos, such as $100.

I realize they could download the videos regardless if they did some searching on how to do so, though it would be without my permission. I've never spoken to this person before or had any agreement who is asking for my videos, though I did work with his/her client, who was the event planner. I never had any agreement with them before about pay or non-pay. Would it be bad form to ask for payment now for this (I would do some slight recutting of the videos as well)?

http://www.scenethroughglass.com

It's not raw footage, just the edited videos...but under pricing has certainly been a problem for me. I just thought of this, though-the person who ran the auction, for whom I was really donating my time and who ran the charity, said that she owned or had the rights to the video at some point. There was nothing official about it other than her asking me to add that to the video descriptions on Youtube. I still feel I should be compensated.

http://www.scenethroughglass.com

It's not even the charity, but the event planners. But ok, thanks. I'll give them my offer.

http://www.scenethroughglass.com

I don't suspect it will be much of a problem. Either they take my offer or leave it (it'll probably be more than $100). I don't intend on shooting any free events again. I did them for about a year while I worked a day job and barely got anywhere. Finding clients who can pay me adequately in the first place has been a problem for me, the other being that the ones who don't pay me and say they'll promote me never refer me to jobs that pay, anyways. So it's basically the flip side of the coin about finding clients who can pay, anyways.

I never had any agreement with anyone before the event. I put videos on my Youtube channel, made DVDs, which I sent to the charity and a salon who donated their services. That was months ago, and I figured I was done. Now the event planners want the video for their own Youtube channel.

http://www.scenethroughglass.com

Charities or community TV stations will expect something for nothing, and then want more.

I spend about 100 hours per year doing camera and editing work for various Queensland scouting organisations. The money goes towards putting on live theatre productions for costumes, equipment replacement for sound and lighting (but not video - we use media equipment loaned by a University A/V dept) venue hire and props. There's about 100 hundred of us, some who put in 400-500 hours because their kids are still involved or used to be involved.

I had no connection with the Scouts prior to this, but have learnt lots and gained experience from working with sound, lighting and video professionals using broadcast quality equipment. I did not walk away totally empty handed.

It's always tough to charge a charity or community based organisation for work done, especially if there are others doing the same. I believe the charity still needs your consent to use any of the footage as you own the copyright to it, unless you unwittingly signed it away. They can risk not asking you, and you could rightly sue them, but is it worth the effort?

If you sell you work, is it going to be a 'right to use' only, or are you going to completely sell all rights to it. If the latter, and the footage turns out to be a money earner, you have no entitlement to royalties or such.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

Photographers have the identical problem, and schools emphasize the need to copyright your work, charge appropriately for any rights or work delivered to a client, prepare written documents which describe the limited rights granted by paying a fee, refusing to undercut your colleagues by giving your work away, etc. The bottom line is that the charity has no rights to your work unless you grant them those rights. That is what a copyright gives you. However, to obtain serious damages for unauthorized use, you need to properly register the work before distributing it. If someone demanded to use my work without compensation, I would tell them no and do so in written form.

I've done so much charity and non-profit video work in the last two years-easily at least 100 hours-and while some of it was with a small group of people who I would happily work for free for, for the most part, it was people who had no intention of paying me, never referred me for paid work, and it undercuts my chances of future pay. Plus, there's the fact that for the last few months I've barely had enough money to pay my bills. I won't even get into my finances beyond that since this is a relatively public place, but I was almost considering selling some of my equipment. That's no way to make a living.

http://www.scenethroughglass.com

To me, it's obvious that they are looking to enhance their business from or through your efforts and work.

That said, 100 bucks p/video with a contract for all video work in the future with them, would be where I would start. Though, the "if it's free it's for me" theory isn't in my stable any more.

Find your per day per camera rate and that's the contract rate for future work. It's up to them to sell your video services with their planning services as a package.

If it moves . . . Shoot it!