replication

We in the video business see some of the same problems as the artists. Unfortunately there are times we travel thousands of miles at our own expense only to be hassled by someone from a group or museum, for some reason or another. My feeling is that the historic railroad industry is so small in scope that it needs all the good publicity it can get, and if some of these folks don't get their act together and be more positive then nobody will care to help them!
A few years ago I sold some footage of a major mainline steam locomotive to a major Network for a daytime soap opera. When the shots aired over the course of a week or so, the group who had restored the engine cried FOUL to the network, demanding they be paid for this use. Well of course the network came back to me, since I had stated I was the sole owner of the footage. I contacted the group, and they backed off since they knew me.
This got me to questioning the situation, and I contacted a lawyer, who advised me that I was doing nothing illegal since I was selling my artistry, or my depiction of a particulary subject. If one DUPLICATES an object that is a copyright violation. Thus had I built an identical locomotive to the one I videotaped then I would be in possible legal hotwater.
A good example would be if someone decided to build an identical 4-4-0 to Mr. Markoff's and portray it as THE EUREKA. This would be copying.
As Coker said, this is a small market for railroad items, and nobody is rolling in dough from what little photo or video may be out there.
The problem is sometimes there is a fine line between someone getting free publicity, and that someone having their hand out demanding funds when there is no budget for same! Generally the ones who are nice about it are the ones we tend to steer towards, while forgetting the hard-nose types.
I know one videographer who told me how he shot a steam train at a tourist railroad, and was approached by the engines owner, who told him he could not sell this video since it had his copyrighted name on the tender. Rather than fight the guy, the videographer simply did nothing with the footage, and therefore it never got much publicity. While this engine no longer runs at that location it and the owner are still out there. I doubt seriously if the owner would have challenged the videographer, and I feel the owner was missing a chance for some free publicity, that would cost quite a bit had they hired a production company for a day or two from the REAL WORLD! Again some museum and historical types have backward thinking like the technology they are trying to preserve! It does make one appreciate the good folks though!
Steamingly,
Greg Scholl