What legal requirements, if any do i need to enable me re-produce an internet downloadable audio documentary?

Question

I identified the profit potential in re-producing and selling the audio educational documantary which i down-loaded from a US based site. What are the legal implications inherent in the venture, being that i want to restrict the sales to my own country outside of the US, where the owners of the work are based; especially as two US based competitors are giving me conflicting signals. While one is saying that they cannot grant me such a permit as it is against the patent laws of the US, the other is asking that i pay a fee of $2500 for a five year renewable contract. Since i'm based in Africa and do not know what the US requirements are, what do you advice that i do, please.

Answer 1

your country is almost certainly party to the Geneva Convention, the treaty that equalizes copyright treatment around the world. the law in your country then is essentially the same as in the US.

you will need to identify (and the burden is on you!) the owner(s) of all related intellectual property rights, and acquire a license from them to all you to reproduce and distribute.

You may or many not be able to identify all the rights holders - for instance, their may be secondary rights holders in the music - maybe the filmmakers only have rights to distribute that in the US, who knows?

Once you find the rights holders, they are under no obligation to negotiate with you or provide you the rights under any terms at all, let alone terms you prefer.

These are not trivial legal or business matters, but they are not necessarily insurmountable. But they do need to be done.

You can seek out attorneys specializing in the matter in your country, or if there are none, perhaps you can find some that specialize in intellectual property and export of films to your country from the US.

Google can probably help you identify candidates.

You are right if you think this might not be cheap.

But it is the cost of doing legitimate business, and needs to be taken into account in your profit calculations.

Answer 2

u need permission from the rights holder in writing. it needs to be specific to your intended use of the audio.  such as your ability to modify it, your ability to add information to it, your ability to sell the audio.  i would get the help of a lawyer in your country, because you wil be selling the audio there will likely be additional fees and liability issues to be added to the contract. u could maybe start by talking to the people who told you about the contract and ask for the name of their lawyer and how to contact him. u cant accept what someone tells you over the phone unless they are a lawyer. its not them who will get sued if they are wrong, so they may likely be guessing or misinformed on the details of that $2500 fee and agreement. ask if they can fax you a copy of that agreement and see if the points i mentioned are in it.    you really need the help of a lawyer though.