I've been doing some customs, and I'm encountering some situations where I have potential for a custom to work out, but for various reasons it's impractical for it to be sold by that producer / model.
I'm considering the idea of opening up a UMD store, and then in some cases buying the sales rights to some of my customs and having them sold in my store. This way I'm paying more upfront and removing the risk of a poorly selling scene from the producer.
My question is how complicated is the process of managing the ownership of the sales rights? Like do I need to have a contract with the models or just the producer who made the scene? I assume I probably need to maintain the proof that the model is over 18 and all that stuff?
Your customs are incredible, I particularly love the Human Garbage Disposal series. Nice one for commissioning those
I would love to see you open a store with similar customs and if they are of a similar type (gross food, nudity, etc.) then I would not hesitate to purchase them.
Keep in mind that under US copyright law, the person holding the camera (or at least hitting record if it's on a tripod) is the legal owner of that footage. That's the automatic default. To assign ownership at the time of the shoot, you have to have a written contract signed and dated by both parties (in this case, you and the contracting producer) indicating that the production is a "work for hire". This is a legal document and should be created by an attorney well versed in contract law and copyrights of both your country and the country of the producer if different.
Additionally, you have to provide a model release naming you as the copyright holder. The model needs to sign and date it at the time of the shoot. Ideally, you should also be there to sign, but it can be "witnessed" by the contracting producer.
Lastly, for a US-based shoot, the producer needs to collect photocopies of the model's government-issued ID and all other info required for 2257 records, then send them to you for permanent storage. 2257 is federal law designed for sexual content, but the way it's worded, an aggressive Attorney General with an axe to grind could make it apply to pretty much anything. It's currently a dead horse but still valid law, so anyone who has witnessed the long-term ebb and flow of societal norms and court decisions collects and safely stores the info anyway, just be safe.
What all this does is protect you from future lawsuits over copyright or criminal charges regarding coercion/consent. Very few amateurs will go thru all this trouble, but it's how things are done in the major leagues.
Love you, too
