What are our rights if the videographer deleted our wedding video?
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What are our rights if the videographer deleted our wedding video?
Our wedding videographer sent us our wedding video via email in a youtube video about 3 1/2 years ago. The link no longer works when I click on it and it says the video is unavailable. I have contacted the videographer requesting that she resend the link or the video and she says she no longer has the video and it is deleted from youtube and there is nothing she can do. I contacted youtube and they said there might be a way to restore it but only if the uploader communicates with them since it is her video. I informed her of this via email and I have been trying to contact her and she has stopped
communicating with us altogether. I do not know what to do from here. I would like her to cooperate and help us retrieve the video, but since she is refusing to communicate, I do not know what to do form here. Meanwhile, my wedding video is gone. I am completely devastated. Please help steer me in the right direction. Is there a lawyer who specializes in this kind of thing? I have no idea.
Asked on March 16, 2018 under Business Law, Colorado
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
You write that she "sent us our wedding video via email in a youtube video". That means that she fulfilled her obligation: she sent you your video. You should have downloaded or archived it at the time, since you had no reason to assume that the video would be hosted forever on your on the web. Unless the contract with the videographer stated that she would host it (or arrange for it to be hosted; e.g. on Youtube) perpetually, you have no legal claim or cause of action, and she has no obligation to help you retrieve it: she sent it to you, and what happened to it after she sent it is not her concern. (If the did require perptetual online hosting, though, then you could sue for breach of contract if it is no available.)
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