This paper first describes the characteristics of video news footage regarding its thematic variety, its historical, sociological, ethnological and corporate value, its polysemy, its redundancy and renewable interest, and its volume and diversity. Then, it discusses the practical, legal and ethical issues related to the reuse of news footage, including moral rights, technical considerations, identification of archive material and the proper use of shots of identifiable people. In order to illustrate these topics, some real examples are included.