In a message dated 4/15/2006 9:01:19 AM Eastern Standard Time, pasher@ee.net writes: Unless the right to distribution was granted exclusively (which must be in writing) the speaker/author still retains the right to distribute in other ways and/or to other markets. I made an assumption based upon Richard's original post--which stated: "You give a lecture at a genealogy convention and, with your approval, it is taped (either audio or video). Absent any specific contract point on this, who owns the copyright - the person who gave the lecture or the person who taped it?" ...From the above I figurerd there IS a written contract and perhaps I'm assuming too much but my assumption in this type of agreement is that the right to distribute would be spelled out as belonging to the person doing the recording--that this would pretty much be standard. I just can't figure why anyone would make a recording (other than someone wanting to tape it for their personal reference) unless the end goal was to distribute. Now in a specific case, Bob Velke has stated that he did make such a contract with Richard--but I'm assuming the original question was a generic one. Maybe I need more coffee this morning before assuming anything further. ;) Joan