In the near future, media outlets might have to pay at least $10,000 for posting the video which shows a former North Charleston, S.C. police officer fatally shooting Walter Scott. Scott was unarmed at the time.
The New York Times reports that Markson Sparks, the Australia-based public relations company representing the man who filmed the video has issued cease-and-desist letters:
Cease-and-desist letters went out this week to news outlets around the world from Markson Sparks, a publicity and celebrity management company based in Sydney, Australia.
The video, taken April 4, showed a North Charleston police officer, Michael T. Slager, shooting a man who ran from him after a traffic stop. A bystander, Feidin Santana, took the video and then turned it over to the family of the man who was killed, Walter L. Scott.
The officer was charged with murder and remains jailed. The video, viewed more than one million times on YouTube alone, quickly came to represent the excessive use of force by the police.
However, the Times notes that this is all news to Feidin Santana, who filmed the video. Although he remembers his attorney, Todd Rutherford, mentioning something about compensation, he told the Times he didn't fully understand it:
The search for justice is served by turning the video over to law enforcement, Mr. Rutherford said. The news media, he said, appeared to be in the search for revenue.
Markson Sparks chief executive Max Markson told the Times that the fee will be negotiable, but insisted that outlets who previously used the video at no expense will now "have to pay."
[via New York Times]
