# You Have The Only Film Footage Of The Biggest News Story On Earth - Now What? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 1, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-the-only-film-footage-of-the-biggest-news-story-on-earth-now-what/604632 "2011-12-01T00:30:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-the-only-film-footage-of-the-biggest-news-story-on-earth-now-what/604632/21 "2011-12-01T22:45:27Z")
This makes me wonder… when people voluntarily upload stuff for CNN iReport or their local affiliate, etc., are they normally compensated for it? Granted, if you had something really valuable and exclusive they will pay you something, but what about all the more mundane, yet still air-worthy and newsworthy stuff that gets uploaded everyday? The media outlets are still using it as part of their programming which means that they are making some profit from it (i.e. for every news video that they didn’t have to pay a news photographer to shoot, they profit). Does anyone every get paid for that run-of-the-mill stuff? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-the-only-film-footage-of-the-biggest-news-story-on-earth-now-what/604632/22 "2011-12-01T22:56:59Z")
I almost profited from tragedy once. I used to sell 11x17 prints of my photography on Ebay. Since I had lived in NYC, I had lots of photos of New York scenes, including quite a few of the World Trade Center. When 9/11 occurred, there were several bidding wars on these prints; they were going for hundreds of dollars each. Then Ebay stepped in and canceled these items and all the bids, in the name of “not profiting from a tragedy.” It didn’t matter that each of the photos had already been offered before 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![slm2955](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c6cbf5/32.png) [@slm2955](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slm2955)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-the-only-film-footage-of-the-biggest-news-story-on-earth-now-what/604632/23 "2011-12-02T03:40:27Z")
I agree, trying make a profit out of a disaster is just wrong…I’d still upload it on YouTube though. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-the-only-film-footage-of-the-biggest-news-story-on-earth-now-what/604632/24 "2011-12-02T05:48:38Z")
Assuming it was newsworthy enough to broadcast in the first place, I don’t see anything unseemly about me selling the footage for the broadcast. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-the-only-film-footage-of-the-biggest-news-story-on-earth-now-what/604632/25 "2011-12-02T06:17:25Z")
> [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](#): > > Yeah, I’d feel pretty horrible trying to make a profit off of some kind of massive tragedy. I wouldn’t. The tragedy happened. The damage is done. Now, the question is - can any good come of it? The answer is yes. If I can profit from it, I can use a portion of those profits to _help_ the victims. ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2011, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-the-only-film-footage-of-the-biggest-news-story-on-earth-now-what/604632/26 "2011-12-02T07:25:57Z")
> [@slm2955](#): > > I agree, trying make a profit out of a disaster is just wrong…I’d still upload it on YouTube though. That just means Youtube is going to profit off of it. Why not get your cut? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-have-the-only-film-footage-of-the-biggest-news-story-on-earth-now-what/604632.md?page=1)