Copyright notice?
 

Hi everyone,
If you produce & edit a video demo for a singer who will use it in her press kit (and her manager will send it around to try and get bookings), do you put your copyright notice in it somewhere? Most of the video demos for singers and musicians that I've seen on the net are not very professional, but I haven't seen any copyright symbols. If you get paid for making it, who owns the copyright?
thanks
D

I don't know who owns the copyright, but what I would do is put the name of the singer, the name of the record label, the name of your company and your name in the lower left hand corner both in the beginning and end of the video, very similar to how music videos work.

Well, there is no record label yet, and I don't have a company yet. Plus, I've never seen one of those kinds of "name tags" on a DEMO. I think it would have to be less obtrusive.

In lieu of any other written agreement, you as the creator own the copyright on the video. However, the composer owns the copyright to the song, meaning you can't use the video without the composer's permission, and the composer can't use the video without your permission. It doesn't matter if you get paid or not.

I'm a big fan of subtlety - A second after fade to black, I'd put a copyright notice on the bottom of the screen: "(C) 2008 Diane diGino".

BTW, is this singer performing a song that she wrote, or at least one she has mechanical reproduction rights for? I've been passed over for a few jobs because I insisted on following copyright laws.

Unless you want your work to go into the public domain, put a card at the end of the piece, once the song and action's over. In white type on a black background, put the following:
(c) 2008 Your Name

Substitute the copyright symbol in place of the (c).

I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV so I cannot tell you how much, if any, protection it will offer you. But what I do know is that if you don't mark your work you will be hard pressed to prove that you have done anything to protect your rights for your piece.

I put the copyright notice on the project, the media and the packaging.

Copyright symbol
 

you can get to the actual copyright symbol © by typing Alt 0169

or option G on a mac....©©©©©©

but you should have a contract and have that spelled out in the contract, even if the work is free, it's good to have the issues worked out in the contract....plus, if you itemize what they are getting and zero balance it at the end, then they can appreciate more, exactly how much they are receiving in exchange for nothing....

In cases like this - here in the UK actors, singers and even dancers often appear in what is called an electronic press kit - allowing the producers to market the product they appear in. So a show here can be 'hawked' around the US or Europe in the hope it migt get picked up. When you shoot material for this kind of thing it's common practice for the copyright to be assigned to the people who commission it.

When the clients pay 'proper' money, then I always assign the copyright, take my fee and forget it. I've got loads of stuff on the shelf that I can't do anything with. Even worse when you see your material on an out of the way satellite channel and don't get a penny. However, for cash strapped bands, I retain the copyright, and can do with it what I want - but I agree that the band get a percentage of any money I make out of it, and I'm entitled to the same percentage if they make any money. I realise they will obviously duplicate their own DVDs and not get any more from me after the first batch, but I can live with that, on the off-chance that if they become famous, my material is worth more.

I always add my logo, name and phone number at the very end.