A dispute has erupted over the ownership and rights of footage shot during a recent charity trip to Senegal.

Community activist Khalid Wasi took a group of young men to the African nation in March as part of Operation Green Light. The aim was to show the young men how disadvantaged others are. They worked with Habitat for Humanity.

Abdallah Ahad, who made headlines in 2004 when his contract with the Ministry of Education was cancelled by the Public Services Commission following reports questioning the legitimacy of his credentials, was asked to tape the trip.

Originally the men agreed on a $5000 budget to shoot and edit the experience; however, unforeseen complications caused much of the editing budget to be eaten up before the group left Bermuda. Mr. Ahad said he was informed about this but went on the trip anyway.

?He came on the trip as the designated photographer and paid for everything,? Mr. Wasi said. ?We paid for airfare, food, transportation, accommodation and licenses to film specific areas. We also paid for a great translator who has taken both (former US president) Bill Clinton and (civil rights activist) Rev. Jesse Jackson on tours of the area.

?We also went on safaris, which we paid for. In total we probably spent $5,000 on his trip. We also paid for a special $500 lens he needed.?

By all accounts the trip itself was an amazing success. Mr. Ahad said it was one of the best times he has had and said he would go back in a second. However, when the men left Senegal trouble began to brew.

Mr. Wasi made repeated attempts to get the raw footage ? approximately 20 hours worth ? as well as hundreds of still photos. Initially, Mr. Ahad was not pleased and said he expected to be paid $5,000 for both the filming and editing.

Emails were sent between the two and Mr. Wasi explained that he could not afford the editing at the moment and said he could pay $1,500 for the raw footage.

He said people had volunteered to edit the footage for free. In the email correspondence Mr. Ahad agreed to the fee and said he would send the tapes, so far Mr. Wasi has not received them.

?Essentially the case is that Green Light ? for a lack of a better phrase ? ?hired? Abdallah to shoot our trip,? Mr Wasi said. ?He would be our employee as far as the tape and footage is concerned.

?He was filming our trip at our request and was paid for to do so ($2000 and all expense paid trip). It is the charity?s intellectual property. It?s just awful we have an event to publicise our trip and group in June but no footage.

?Basically we would like the public to urge him that this is a charitable group and the whole exercise was to encourage other young people to take the trip. The footage is meant to inspire people about the type of trips we want to take?

But Mr. Ahad told there are incorrect assumptions in Mr. Wasi?s view. He said he has never paid for his filming and the $1,500 fee was for copies of the footage, not the rights to the footage.

?I am surprised that this is coming out in the media,? he said. ?I can?t understand how anyone can expect to not pay someone and then expect to own the property of the person that they were not paying.

?I think has been the problem, that I was reluctant to give him my video until I had some kind of way of making sure that there were limits to the use and respect to my rights as the producer.

Mr. Ahad said he is working on making copies and it has ?always? been his intention to turn them over. He explained it takes time because the footage must first be rendered and then copied. While he was speaking with he was in the process of copying the first tape. He added that it is normal in the film industry for things to take some time. He added that he has never shown the footage to the public.

Mr. Ahad now wants Operation Green Light to agree, in writing, that the intellectual property is his and cannot be used in anyway that infringes his rights. When that happens he will hand copies over.

But Mr. Wasi said he did not go to Senegal for ?intellectual reasons? but as an employee of the charity. He has also said he is considering legal action. Both men agree that they have learned a valuable lesson, that contracts will be drawn up in the future.

Mr. Ahad said he would require everyone he now works with to agree to his ownership of the intellectual property and a time line before he begins work while Mr. Wasi said he would need contracts that outline payment and ownership in the future too.