Clearing Rights in Footage for AI Training

Clearing rights in footage

Licensing footage for AI training starts with title: the reels must be yours, or yours to sublicense, and the buyer will ask about four things: the music, the people on camera, the places and marks in frame, and the contracts the footage was shot under. Most of the work is reading paperwork you already have.

Who owns the footage in the first place?

Start with the contract the footage was shot under, not the hard drive it sits on. A creator shooting their own channel usually owns everything they recorded. A production company working to a commission may not: many client agreements assign copyright in the finished program and the rushes to the client, or forbid reuse.

Broadcasters and archives face a different question. Contributor, freelance and co-production agreements can give third parties a share of the rights, and some older agreements never contemplated licensing to a technology company. Footage acquired from agencies or stock libraries is licensed to you, not owned by you, and can almost never be licensed on.

A quick ownership test

Did you or your staff shoot it, on your own project?
If a client paid for the shoot, does the contract let you reuse rushes?
Is any clip stock, archive or user-submitted material licensed in?
Do investors, a former partner or an acquirer hold rights after a sale or a wind-down?

What about music in the footage?

Music is the most common reason a library needs work before it can be licensed. A synchronization license for a track, or a subscription to a production music library, is normally written for publishing your video, not for passing the recording to someone else to train a model. Unless the music license says otherwise, plan to deliver mute files or files with the music removed.

Live sound you captured yourself (a street, an engine, crowd noise) is generally yours, but it can pick up music playing in the background. Note which reels have that problem.

Do I need releases from the people on camera?

Expect every buyer to ask what consent you hold for identifiable people, and whether it covers AI training. Appearance and model releases signed for broadcast, advertising or social posting often say nothing about it. Labelbox Prism, for one, turns down likeness or voice material unless the consent behind it is explicit and carries a time stamp.

Faces raise a second issue in the United States: biometric privacy laws. Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act covers a scan of face geometry and requires written consent before biometric identifiers are collected. Texas and Washington have their own biometric statutes. Raw footage is not automatically biometric data, but a buyer that extracts face geometry from it may be collecting it, which is why buyers care where footage was shot and whether consent exists.

Voices count too. A clear voice can identify a person, and a voiceprint can be biometric data under the same laws.

Locations, logos and artwork in frame

Private locations are usually filmed under a location agreement. Check whether it limits use to one production. Trademarks, building designs, artwork, screens showing other people's content and license plates are each worth noting in your description: they rarely stop a deal, but a buyer may ask you to exclude or mask some clips.

What do I need to have ready before talking to a buyer?

A short inventory: hours, formats, resolution, frame rates, years, where it was shot.
What audio it has, and whether music can be stripped.
What consent you hold for people on camera, with a sample release.
The contracts behind any commissioned or co-owned footage.
Any past license of the same footage, especially an exclusive one.

None of this goes to us. We only need the summary on the form to check which buyers fit.

Questions

Does owning the camera files mean I own the footage?

Not always. If a client commissioned the shoot, the contract may give the client the copyright or limit what you can do with the rushes. Footage shot by employees in the course of their job usually belongs to the employer. Read the contract before you list anything.

Can I keep the music in?

Treat commercial music as a reason to strip the audio. A music license bought for a video or a channel almost never covers licensing the recording on to an AI developer. Natural sound you recorded yourself is a different matter.

Do I need releases from everyone on camera?

For identifiable people, expect a buyer to ask what consent you hold and what it covers. A standard appearance release written for broadcast or advertising may not mention AI training at all. Crowds in public places are treated differently from interviews and featured people, but each buyer sets its own rule.

Does blurring faces solve the problem?

It can reduce it, and it lowers the value for some uses. Blurring does not deal with voices, name tags, license plates or the music bed, and it does not fix a contract that says the footage belongs to someone else.

Should a lawyer read the license?

Yes, one who acts for you rather than the buyer. Ask them to look hardest at the grant (what the buyer may do with the footage), exclusivity, the term, your warranties about rights and any indemnity.