# Who has title to a video text message?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-title-to-a-video-text-message/517799>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 16, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-title-to-a-video-text-message/517799 "2009-11-16T17:51:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WPA-Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@WPA-Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WPA-Guy)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-title-to-a-video-text-message/517799/1 "2009-11-16T17:51:27Z")

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With the ability for most everyone’s phone to make a video and then send it anywhere in the world, who has title (or copyright) to the video?

If I receive an unsolicited video, do I have the right to distribute it as I please?

If I video people on the street, do I need their permission to distribute the video?

Once one of these video text movies gets into the wild, so to speak, are there any rights the participants have?

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**Author:** ![pan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@pan1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pan1)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2009, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-title-to-a-video-text-message/517799/2 "2009-11-16T18:06:43Z")

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> [@WPA-Guy](#):
>
> With the ability for most everyone’s phone to make a video and then send it anywhere in the world, who has title (or copyright) to the video?

The person who filmed it, unless they filmed something they did not have the rights to film, owns the rights to the film.

> [@](#):
>
> If I receive an unsolicited video, do I have the right to distribute it as I please?

no

> [@](#):
>
> If I video people on the street, do I need their permission to distribute the video?

if you filmed people yes, if you filmed the street, and people happened to walk by, no. It’s a fine difference but very important.

> [@](#):
>
> Once one of these video text movies gets into the wild, so to speak, are there any rights the participants have?

yes. If they expected privacy and it was violated they can try to sue the producer of the film and anyone who distributed it. They can easily contact, say youtube and have the video removed. For actual legal proceedings, I can’t exactly give advice here (or anywhere really).