Recently the owners of the “Hawk Tuah” video have applied to register a copyright for that famous film footage. Who are the owners? The copyright owners are the team that filmed the now-viral video — actually, the man behind the camera, technically speaking. They are mad because people have been distributing the video in violation of their copyright rights.
Didn’t The Owners Of The Hawk Tuah Video Upload It To Social Media?
How is this possible? Didn’t they upload the video to social media, where it was shared around and circulated, bringing them fame and fortune? Unfortunately, no.
People downloaded the video and the famous clip containing the “hawk tuah” phrase, and then removed the creators’ watermark, and then distributed it, denying the creators the recognition that they deserved.
Is Sharing On Social Media Copyright Infringement?
It’s permitted to share a post on social media — that is, to re-share content that a creator has uploaded via the sharing permissions on the social media platform. What’s not allowed is downloading the video, and then uploading it as a native post on a new social media profile or platform. That’s a violation of the Terms of Service, and a copyright violation.
When creators upload content to a social media platform, they agree to the platform Terms of Service, which typically state that when you upload content, you’re giving the platform permission to share it, and other users of the platform permission to share it. You’re not giving the platform the copyright rights; you’re only giving them the right to share.
What Rights Do I Have As A Copyright Owner?
Think of copyright as a bundle of sticks, and there are various sticks that you can give away. One such stick is the “right to share” stick, and you can give that away while keeping the “right to own” stick. As the creator, you get to set the terms under which your content can be shared and distributed. When you upload to a social media platform, you’re giving the platform and other users of the platform the “right to share” according to the terms of service for the platform. Those terms of service do not include the right to download the copyrighted work, and upload the copyrighted work to a new platform without the permission of the creator. If you do that, it’s copyright infringement.
Hawk Tuah Video Owners Get Greedy!
There’s also a funny twist to this whole tale: The video creators are now claiming that Haley Welch, the woman that uttered the now-famous “Hawk Tuah” phrase, owes them some kind of monetary remuneration because they made her famous. Nope, sorry boys! She actually made YOU famous, and you have the video rights, but unless Haley has illegally reproduced your video, she doesn’t own you anything. She still owns the rights to her name and likeness, and doesn’t owe the creators of the video a darned thing.
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