I have a client who appeared on a national morning show recently. He got a copy on VHS and has hired me to convert this segment into a web-friendly format.

I loaded the tape and the first thing I see is a warning about copyright and that this tape may not be edited, copied, displayed publicly, used in litigation, etc.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the ethics of converting this, despite the warnings, for use on his website. I'd hate to turn him away.

Daniel,

This is not legal advice.

I work for a very large corporation. We often get segments of broadcast TV shows sent to us by corporate PR as they are often about a lab in which I work.

They (corporate legal and PR) have told us many times, NEVER use these in any of our productions.

I have asked them to get permission. They have told me that they cannot get permission because no broadcast group will give permission as it may look like an endorsement, even though we are a large and legitimate organization.

I wouldn't discourage you from what you are doing, this is just the path we are obligated to take. You may (although I doubt it) be able to get permission to use this in a specific manner.