Obtaining sourced content can come with a dark side. We find it interesting that so many articles found on the internet state that using sourced content is actually free. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Users are protected by U.S. Copyright Laws. The content that they create is considered to be their intellectual property and permissions must be granted from the owner of a video or photo. This also means that anyone seen in the video or photo must give permission for use as well. There is also something called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that criminalizes production and publication of technology, devices, or services intended to bypass measures that control access to copyrighted works (Wikipedia). Basically, it’s a copyright law intended for the digital world that protects website operators but not the speakers. For example, if I posted a user generated videos in a commercial that I edited on my home computer with sourced content and did not get permission from the video owners, they can come after me but not the social media platform itself if that makes sense. This is why getting the proper licensing for videos is vital! Permission must be granted from the copyright owner and releases obtained from anyone in the videos, photos, or even audio tracks. Having professionals source videos for ad agencies that don’t specialize in the field is tricky business. Indemnification for the license of the content should be obtained in a case of a situation where someone falsely claims content that was not theirs by copyright. This is where companies that specialize in UGC, such as us, come in handy. We have a very strict verification process and are able to identify red flags early one during the clearance process. This allows us to protect our client partners from any legal issues so that they’re commercials are free of any liability. Since this type of advertising space is fairly new the waters are still being navigated by most but our founder and CEO has almost 20 years of experience with licensing and agreements in the sourced content field. Legal issues are no
