Secondary Exploitation

Secondary exploitation means any commercial use of recordings beyond the originally planned release: the same scene on additional platforms, in compilations, abroad, as a trailer or years later in a re-release. For the production, it is often a major part of the revenue; for you, usually without additional compensation.

Typical forms

• Sale of the same scene through multiple platforms and clip shops
• Compilations, best-of edits and themed collections
• Licensing to distributors in other countries, sometimes with a translation or new title
• Use of excerpts as advertising, a preview image or a trailer
• Re-release of older productions in new formats

None of these forms is inherently dubious. They are the usual business model productions use to recoup their costs over the years. However, they explain why a single scene can appear in many places that no one mentioned during the shoot. This often happens years after the shooting day, when you have long since lost contact with the production.

Why you rarely earn additional money from it

The standard arrangement in Germany is the buyout. The fee covers the granting of the rights, and in most contracts this also includes secondary exploitation. With us, fees range from 250 to 600 euros per shooting day for photo productions and from 400 to 1,200 euros for video productions; a share of later sales is not included.

A share is not excluded, but it is rare and must be expressly agreed. Independently of this, copyright law provides for a claim to appropriate remuneration and, under certain circumstances, to a further share if a work is exploited with exceptional success. Whether this applies in a specific case can only be assessed by a lawyer.

How secondary exploitation becomes legally possible

For a production to pass on material, it needs sufficiently broad exploitation rights and the right to grant sublicenses. If both are missing, it may only exploit the material itself and only to the extent described in the contract. It also needs your consent to publish your likeness, which is usually set out in the model release.

The scope and limits therefore almost always follow from a single section: the one covering types of use and transfer. Wording such as “for all types of use known now or becoming known in the future” practically includes every form of secondary exploitation, including forms that do not yet exist today.

Room for negotiation before signing

You can rarely prevent secondary exploitation, but you can often limit it. Realistic points include:

• Exclusion of specific channels, such as freely accessible video portals
• A requirement to use your stage name rather than your legal name, including in compilations
• Restriction to specific territories, implemented technically through geoblocking
• Information when material is transferred to new distribution partners

Anyone who wants to work anonymously should know that every further level of exploitation increases the likelihood of being recognized. What helps and what does not is explained in the article about working anonymously. This entry explains the term and does not replace legal advice.