Media rights for race that takes place in public place.

[mrgunner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Missouri

Hopefully this is the correct forum to post this at. I tried searching for a previous post about this subject but could not find anything.

I'm shooting video of various bicycle races (think Tour de France) that take place outdoors on the public streets. The streets are temporally closed to vehicular traffic. I work for a few of the guys who participate (race) in the events. They hire me to produce some short videos for their own self promotion to try and get new sponsors or show current sponsors what value they get.

Recently the organizing body has stated that they own all media rights to their events and that any media created about the race or people entered needs to be approved and a fee needs to be paid. Do they have the right to do this? I have never signed an agreement to this and all of my work is done in the public, not a closed venue. I also do not make it look like these are officially from the organizers and do not use their logos or name. What rights can they legally claim for their event that takes place out in the public?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[quincy]

There are no easy answers to your questions.

There is no exclusive "right" that protects against public viewing and there is no inherent property right in sports information or sports events. That said, however, an organizer of a sporting event may try to control the media coverage of the event in various ways. Some ways are more successful than others.

Obviously, if a sporting event is in an arena of some sort, viewing can be controlled by limiting viewers to paid ticket holders, and photographic equipment can be banned from the site. If the sporting event is to be broadcast by a network, the network will pay the organizer of the event a licensing fee for the exclusive rights to film the event, preventing other networks from competing for the viewership and advertising dollars. The bigger and better the event, say the Olympics or the Superbowl, the greater the licensing fee with be, but the greater the audience will be, as well, and therefore the more the network can charge advertisers to advertise during the broadcast of the event.

If a network, however, purchases an exclusive license from an organizer to film an outdoor event, like the Grand Prix or the Boston Marathon for instance, there are more problems controlling who can view the event and who can videotape or photograph it. There is no copyright violation because sporting events in and of themselves are not copyrightable - only the actual film once taken can be copyrighted so that others cannot use that particular film without permission.

However, none of this prevents an organizer of an outdoor event that is available for public viewing from trying to control the coverage, or to sue those who do not obtain a license to film the event. They can sue over unfair competition, misappropriation of property rights, trademark violations, etc. Whether they could win any suit is questionable.

You can check out Chicago National League Ball Club, Inc v. Sky Box on Waveland LLC, which is not exactly what you are dealing with but which covers some of the issues you may face should you be sued for filming without a license to do so. This suit was settled between 11 out of 13 Sky Box owners and the Cub owners, with the Cubs receiving a portion of the profits (millions) that the Sky Box owners receive.

So, while outdoor events open to public viewing can be filmed, recorded, broadcast and distributed by the public viewers, it would not prevent an organizer from suing.