Who Owns a Zoom Recording?

If there's one platform, we've all used more than we ever thought we would, it's Zoom. So...that got me wondering who owns a Zoom recording? 

Zoom? 

The instructor? 

The interviewee? 

Everybody participating? 

Let's figure it out!

how Zoom is used for online business

The first way is Instructional. You're using Zoom to teach something to online participants as kind of a one-way presentation. There may also be some Q&A participation at the end. 

The second way is Conversational. Here, you're using Zoom to interview someone for a podcast or a video show. 

Both of these contexts have one thing in common: you are recording the broadcast.

instructional Zoom recordings

Remember, you're using Zoom to teach something to an audience online. I'm going to preface this by saying we're not really talking about the university context here, because that can depend a lot on the contract or the relationship between the professor and the university. 

In general, if you're teaching and using Zoom, and you hit that record button, you own the recordings. But what happens if somebody asks a question at the end and that question sparks more instructional material more of the lesson? They could be deemed a co-creator of the recording. 

Let's be clear, your participants are not owners of the presentation itself, not of the materials, but of that specific recording. So how do you get around that? It might be a little bit cumbersome, but the best way is to have your students sign a document beforehand, acknowledging and assigning any rights that they might have in participating in the recording to that instructor. A document saying "I student by participating and assume recording, read all at writes that I might have missed recording to you, the instructor." 

Another way is to use the feedback and the questions in that original recording, and take it and create a whole new recording with a new presentation. Maybe you answer those questions that were answered during the live in that secondary recording. New recording, new ownership! 

conversational Zoom recordings

As you might imagine, based on what we just discussed in the instructional context, you have two participants in a recording like an interview, you might have co-owners or joint owners of that recording. Unless you get that ownership document in place beforehand. This would make it clear that you, the interviewer, own the rights to that recording, not the participants or the interviewee. 

This can be easily done by grabbing my Podcast Guest Contract! 

does Zoom have any ownership in Zoom recordings? 

According to Zoom's Terms of Use, Zoom owns its rights to all of its trademarks, and you can't use their trademarks without Zoom's consent. In terms of copyright, you can't post or distribute or reproduce anything that belongs to someone else or violate somebody's rights without that person's consent. But, Zoom doesn't say anything about owning the rights to your recordings. 

To sum up:

• You own your own Zoom recordings, by default.

• If someone else is participating in that recording, they could have some ownership in the recording as a co owner or a joint owner.

• You get around any participant claiming ownership by using the proper documentation and Zoom stays out of it.