In the UK, copyright in a commissioned film usually stays with the people who made it, unless a written agreement signed by them transfers it to you. Paying the invoice doesn't change who owns it. What you normally get is a licence, permission to use the film in agreed ways, and that licence can be very wide or surprisingly narrow. This is general guidance based on the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the government's own guidance. It isn't legal advice, so for a contract that matters, have a solicitor read it.
Most businesses only find this out when they want to do something new with a film. Recut it, hand it to a different agency, run it as an advert on a platform nobody mentioned at the start. That's the worst time to discover the answer.
Who owns copyright in a commissioned video in the UK?
The starting point is the Act itself. Under section 9, the authors of a film are the producer and the principal director. The producer, under section 178, is the person who makes the arrangements necessary for the film to be made. And under section 11, the author is the first owner of the copyright.
The government's guidance on ownership of copyright works spells out what that means for commissioned work: the first legal owner is the person or organisation that created it, not the commissioner, unless you agree otherwise in writing. It also warns that a commissioner may only get a limited, non-exclusive licence if nothing was agreed.
Employees are the exception. If someone on your payroll makes a film in the course of their job, section 11 makes the employer the first owner, unless there's an agreement saying otherwise. A freelancer or a production company isn't your employee, so that exception doesn't apply to them.
What's the difference between a licence and an assignment?
An assignment transfers ownership. The copyright moves from the maker to you, and you can then do anything the owner could do, including licensing it to other people. Under section 90 an assignment isn't effective unless it's in writing and signed by or on behalf of the person giving it up. A line on an invoice saying "all rights to the client" is a weak place to rely on.
A licence is permission. The maker keeps the copyright and lets you use the film within whatever the licence says. It can be exclusive, meaning nobody else gets it, or non-exclusive. It can be limited by time, territory or platform, or it can cover everything forever.
For most businesses, a wide licence does everything ownership would. You can put the film on your site, your channels, your adverts and your sales decks for as long as you like. Ownership mostly matters if you plan to license the film to other people, sell it, or build a product around the footage. If one of those is on the cards, say so before the quote, because it changes the price.
A wide licence does nearly everything ownership would. A narrow one can stop you using your own film.
What should the licence in a video contract cover?
- Platforms and media. Website, social, YouTube, paid adverts, broadcast, events. Paid advertising is the one most often left out.
- Term. A year, five years, or indefinite.
- Territory. UK only, or worldwide.
- Edits. Whether you can recut it, shorten it or hand it to another editor later. Adapting a work is one of the acts copyright controls, so a licence that's silent on it leaves you guessing.
- Third-party material. Music, stock footage and fonts usually come with their own licences, and the film's licence can't give you more than those allow.
- The maker's own use. Whether the production company can show it in their portfolio, and whether you need anything kept confidential until launch.
Ours is simple on purpose. Every film comes with a full licence to use everything indefinitely, on every platform, and it's inside the fixed price. The music is the bit to check hardest on anyone's quote, and we've written a separate piece on music licensing for brand videos.
Does the director have any rights after you've paid?
Yes, and they're separate from copyright. The Act gives the director of a film moral rights, including, under section 77, the right to be identified when the film is shown or communicated to the public. Moral rights can be waived, but under section 87 a waiver has to be in writing and signed by the person giving them up. Plenty of commercial contracts include one. If yours doesn't, it rarely causes problems in practice, but it's worth knowing it exists.
What about the people who appear in the film?
The film's copyright says nothing about the people in it. That's what release forms are for. A release is a short written consent from each person on camera, saying they agree to appear and to the footage being used for the purposes listed. It protects you, and it's fair to them, because they know exactly what they're signing up for.
Barry Road, told by the homeownerOur Barry Road film is the homeowner's own account of a full renovation. That person isn't on the builder's payroll and owes them nothing, so their signed consent is what makes the film usable in a sales conversation for years. The same goes for staff. Footage of identifiable people is personal data under UK data protection law, and people leave jobs. A release signed on the day saves an awkward conversation when someone who's since moved on is still on your homepage.
There's one more wrinkle with interviews. Spoken words can become a literary work once they're recorded, which gives the speaker an argument that they own the copyright in what they said. A well written release covers that too, by giving permission to use their words as well as their face.
What should you ask before you sign a video contract?
- Am I getting a licence or an assignment, and what exactly does it cover?
- Does it include paid advertising and every platform we'll use?
- Can we recut the film ourselves, or with another company, later?
- Are the raw files included, and if not, what would they cost?
- Who's handling release forms for everyone on camera?
- What licences come with the music and any stock footage?
None of this should be awkward to ask. A good production company will answer every one of those in a sentence. If you'd like to see how a film comes together from start to finish, the films page walks through it, and our free playbook, Before the camera comes out, covers the planning in more depth.
