Can Agents protect their talent against their content being used without permission?
Alex is the Managing Director of major UK talent agency InterTalent. He represents his clients alongside overseeing the agency's creative strategy, day-to-day operations & acquisitions.
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Last week, while I was in the blistering heat at Cannes Lions and networking at a million miles per hour, I received a phone call from Mark Sellman. Mark is The Times newspaper’s Technology Correspondent, and he told me that he had a story he was running about YouTube for taking content from creators to train artificial intelligence (AI) programs without telling them or paying compensation. Mark wanted to get the viewpoint of a talent agent representing creators whose work could be used in such a way.
Immediately, I went into ‘protect our talent’ mode. Ultimately, one of the major responsibilities of an Agent is to protect your client’s creativity, their work and their IP. I felt that using creators’ videos in such a way, even if YouTube are within their legal right to use any video that is uploaded to their platform, will only lead to anger against the platform and resentment. In my opinion, it is not ok to use someone’s work without a) asking clearly for their permission or b) compensating them for doing so. Mark & I had a half-hour chat where I answered his questions and set out how I felt an Agent could handle this kind of situation.
Mark spoke to a lot of great people, including Steven Bartlett and Dan Neely from Vermillio. This company specialises in IP protection and monetising AI so ultimately the article only ran a few quotes. Still, I appreciate Mark including me in what was a big talking point that day.
If you have access to The Times then you can read the article HERE.
I’m going to do a bigger post on AI specifically soon, but my overall feeling is that using someone else’s content is not a bad thing. Inspiration happens everywhere. It happens often in music, where artists sample other artists’ work. That’s not the issue. In music, when you sample someone else’s work, you usually have to ask for their permission, you have to clearly credit them as part of the songwriting team and then pay them appropriately for using their material. It’s clear, it’s visible, and it’s good business. AI platforms/companies using other people’s content to train their models or to create ‘new’ work is fine, but it should be the same: permission needed, visibly labelled (no different from having to say an Instagram post is an #ad), and paid for. But it’s the wild west right now, and until there is a new law passed or a strong AI union, you will need a company like Vermillio to hunt down unlawful use of your talent’s content.
When I returned to networking on the French Riviera (not bad, eh!), it dominated my conversations for the next few hours. It’s not just about AI. It happens everywhere. I have many examples of clients’ work being used without discussion.
So, how can you protect your talent’s work? Is it possible? Can you be proactive? Or is it a situation where you have to accept that it happens and then go chasing people afterwards with unknown results? Or are you too nervous to do anything about it?
I thought I’d dive into what you can do to not only prevent your talent’s work from being used without permission, but also what steps you can take if it still happens.
Let’s go! ⬇️
🤔 Can talent agencies protect their clients against their content being used without permission?
Let’s start with the obvious: people steal things all the time. Whether they mean to or not, stealing or plagiarising happens all the time and if you represent someone who puts their art out to the world as a creator, musician, actor, presenter, writer or anything else then you have to accept some people may use/take/repurpose that work without asking or paying. You can’t stop them. What transpires from there depends on how far you’re willing to take it legally.
But that’s about individuals.
🤔 What happens if a company does it? A company you’re working with. After all, I was asked about a situation where YouTube were being accused of doing just that.
➡️ So let’s start with PREVENTION.
✅ Negotiation: No matter the set-up of how your talent is working with/for someone else, it’s important to agree on the usage. How can they use the content? Where? For how long? How will it be distributed? As distribution has expanded over the past few years, the usage clause has become more important than ever. Make sure it’s clearly defined so it’s very clear for how long they can use the content and where. Online? Billboards? TV? In store? Try and make it super specific. Too often, I see companies try and use content in ways that were not agreed upon in the contract. For example, seeing a brand campaign on a billboard (OOH - out of home - as it’s called) when they only agreed to use it on TV, social media and company website. Unless it’s contracted in the usage clause, they can’t just use it how they see fit. The usage clause is also very important because it has a big impact on what fee you are willing to accept for your client. The more ways they want to distribute the work, the more they should pay to do so. It’s as simple as that.
✅ Secondary Use: As I mentioned in The Times article, nowadays it’s integral to insert an AI Clause to agree that anything featuring your client will not be sold or licensed to train AI models without prior approval and payment. Most contracts will not come with that at the outset. Make sure you fight for it. However, this isn’t just an AI issue. The company might want to sell or license the work to any third party, especially if they own the IP. Who can legally do what will depend on each individual situation but, in theory, your base level feeling should usually be that redistribution without consent is not agreeable. Usually, there is always a way through this to ensure a fair outcome. For example, your client might work on a TV project for a smaller broadcaster, and as such the budget for them will be very small. Later down the line they might sell the show to a global platform like Netflix or Apple. Try hard to protect your client should the secondary use make the original distribution deal now look unfair and inappropriate for what has come next.
✅ Small Print: I know this sounds obvious, but the small print is more important than ever in 2025. Whether it’s the boring bits at the end of a contract or the T&C’s when you sign up to a platform, usually in there, they have some important wording about what they can do with your client’s content. Make sure you read it, understand it and ensure your clients know what other companies are allowed to do with your work. In the case of this YouTube video, it sounds like YouTube put out some information in a blog that no one read. The plot thickens… but it’s a reminder not to ignore the small print. It could come back to bite you on the bum down the line.
✅ Reminders: It’s so easy to work so hard on the Usage part of a negotiation and then forget about it once the deal is complete and the job starts. My advice is to copy and paste that particular clause into whatever notes app you use and keep an eye on it. Put reminders in your calendar. When you’re not far off the usage expiring, that’s a good time to speak to the other side and remind them that it’s coming to an end and discuss a paid extension. Too often, companies we work with use forgetfulness as the reason content is being used outside of the agreed-upon dates. It’s a poor excuse, and don’t let them get that far; remind them that the end is coming and now is a good time to discuss the future.
Even if you do all of that and you are meticulous, it can still happen.
➡️ Here’s what you can do should a company or platform use your client’s content outside of an agreement:
✅ Discoverability: Actively use tools to trace illegally used content. Especially if there is a fear that your client’s work is being used by AI models such as Google's brand new Veo 3 Video Generator. AI is harder to unravel, but there are many ways generally to track content from simple Google Alerts to working with companies like Vermillio who are now scanning 99.9% of the internet and 2 trillion items yearly to identify AI-generated likenesses of talent, and work with platforms such as Meta and YouTube to have them taken down. It’s up to you how in-depth you want to go, and even though it’s the wild west right now, there are still ways to track your client’s work.
✅ Negotiation #2: Where removal isn’t realistic or the content was used commercially without a negotiation, you can seek retrospective licensing fees. It’s not just about pulling content down, it’s about securing fair value. Ideally, no one wants to take legal action. That’s a last resort. So it’s time for everyone to get back to the table. It’s not ideal, and as it’s after the fact of happening your power in this negotiation is a little limited - it’s not a position you really want to find yourself in as an Agent, but you still hold a key card in that you are ready to take stronger legal action should a fair and reasonable deal not occur which will be expensive for the other party.
✅ Legal: Ok, so now you’re at the last resort. You hoped to get back to the table but it’s just not working out. It depends on if your lawyer thinks you have a strong chance of winning the case (note: make sure you have a good lawyer who is honest with you about this, not one who will tell you that you do just so you pay them to take the job). If you do, and you/your client can afford it, I think holding onto your morals is a good thing and taking legal action when you need to is a fair step to getting your talent paid.
✅ Go Public: No one likes to be publicly shamed. If you’re client has a big audience and a company won’t engage to rectify inappropriate use of content, then naming and shaming them to the wider public is not ideal but often the only route to get them to take notice. I’ve seen it happen all the time. Companies don’t reply, don’t engage and don’t play fair. You go public? Suddenly, your phone doesn’t stop ringing. If the other side plays dirty, then there is always an ace up your sleeve if you need it.
📥 I would love to hear from you. Any ideas, thoughts and feedback via alex@intertalentgroup.com are always most welcome.
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See you next time.
Alex
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