I'd think thrice before Posting on Vimeo

[Martin Weiss]

I've noticed that of late quite a few people are posting their video via Vimeo. I am very impressed by the video quality, that is no doubt superior to youTube. So today I had a look at their terms & conditions and stumbled upon this sentence:

you hereby grant [...] a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicenseable (through multiple tiers) and transferable license (with a right to create derivative works) to use, copy, transmit or otherwise distribute, perform, publicly perform and display your Submission for any legal purposes whatsoever now known or hereinafter becomes known.

Though I am thankfully not a lawyer, from what I understand is that you are essentially losing control of the film you are posting on Vimeo. irrevocable and forever. And give them the right to make new films out of your stuff.

I have also noticed that a few DPs use Vimeo to host their showreels. Essentially you have given Vimeo the right to make new films out of your showreel - and I doubt that your clients gave you authority for that.

Fellow filmmakers: your creative work is your captial. Be careful what you do with it.

I for one will not be publishing anything on Vimeo under these terms.

 

[Anthony Gratl]

Unbelievable. Nice work martin. You get a free beer when you visit canada. At the border. A memo has already been sent. And if you visit British Columbia, I'll buy you a few more.
Cheers

 

[Shawn Nelson]

Sheesh! Thanks man, I was going to host some things there too...no longer!

 

[Alexis Hanawalt]

It sounds like they're just covering their ass should they want to use materials for promotional purposes, etc. - and I don't think they would attempt to brazenly exercise the rights stipulated there without additional clearance from a filmmaker because the ensuing litigation would be very expensive for them.

However, it gives me serious pause about posting there. Does YouTube make similar legal claim?

 

[Craig Bowman]

1. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
2. If something looks too good to be true, it is.
3. ...

There are a zillion of these wise old sayings. They've been around a very long time. However, there's always a fresh crop of morons in each generation who think they know better. The only thing which has lasted through the ages are the wise old sayings.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

They (Vimeo) is indeed covering their ass. IIRC, YouTube's terms are pretty much the same.

 

[Jason Ramsey]

it is is "non-exclusive", so you aren't giving it over to them and giving up your rights to do whatever you want with it. But, you are giving them non-exclusive rights to it to do whatever they want and make money off of it too.

but, I'm no lawyer.

Later,
Jason

 

[Ed Watkins]

The worrying part of that is the "irrevocable"
On most other sites their rights are terminated when you remove your video from their servers.

I doubt they would ever exercise those rights but still...

 

[Wayne D]

i don't know how they can make this stand as most of the clips are commercials, film clips ect... and the "postee" would not have copyright ownership of the material / artist..........again - not a lawyer

yet again into the copyright fog

 

[Stefan Scherperel]

For $8 a month I have a server with 150GB that I use for my website as well as for posting video clips for clients and promotional purposes. And the best thing is, I own all the rights to all of my content on that server. I honestly don't know how I would function as a business person without my own web space. I've never even considered posting client sensitive material on any public site, your just asking for way too many legal problems.

 

[Jason Francois]

Same type of wording was in the ON THE LOT tv show if I remember right. I believe, as everybody has mentioned, that they are covering there butts, but it does give them the right to do whatever they want.

With ON THE LOT if found it very offensive that thousands of people could send in shorts and if they got the idea to turn it into a Dreamworks feature they had the right to do so...and that was even if you weren't selected as a finalist.

Vimeo sure looks good, though.

 

[jbeale]

YouTube is similar, although not quite the same: http://www.youtube.com/t/terms

[...]
C. For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your User Submissions. However, by submitting User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the YouTube Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of the YouTube Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such User Submissions as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms of Service. The above licenses granted by you in User Videos terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete your User Videos from the YouTube Service. You understand and agree, however, that YouTube may retain, but not display, distribute, or perform, server copies of User Submissions that have been removed or deleted. The above licenses granted by you in User Comments are perpetual and irrevocable. [...]

 

[Joseph Hutson]

Whether Vimeo(as well as YouTube)themselves use your video, people at ANY time can download your video for their own use, or gain. Not very hard to do.

 

[ericyoung]

Whether Vimeo(as well as YouTube)themselves use your video, people at ANY time can download your video for their own use, or gain. Not very hard to do.

But not legally. Enforcement though is another can of worms...

 

[Sean]

What about the part further on that reads:

The licenses granted by you in this paragraph in a Submission that is a video terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete such Submission from the Website.

 

[Friedrich Moser]

For $8 a month I have a server with 150GB that I use for my website as well as for posting video clips for clients and promotional purposes.

Hi Stefan, can you give me a link? Would need to have that, too.

Thanks, Fritz

 

[NateWeaver]

i don't know how they can make this stand as most of the clips are commercials, film clips ect... and the "postee" would not have copyright ownership of the material / artist...

Right. Most of my work technically is owned by somebody else, unfortunately.

So if I post it on Vimeo (and I have), and it gets used somewhere else, it would be up to the copyright holder to exercise their rights. Just because I was dumb enough to post something there doesn't mean that Vimeo gets it free and clear.

In other words, it was never mine to give...so copyright holder would win in any dispute.

 

[Wayne D]

For $8 a month I have a server with 150GB that I use for my website as well as for posting video clips for clients and promotional purposes. And the best thing is, I own all the rights to all of my content on that server. I honestly don't know how I would function as a business person without my own web space. I've never even considered posting client sensitive material on any public site, your just asking for way too many legal problems.

I think this is a great solution....maybe we could have a sticky on RED to let everyone know about new work with a link.

i know people do this already as but it might be nice to have it all in location.

thoughts?

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Stefan. You're on 1Blu.de too...

 

[Stefan Scherperel]

I use www.ixwebhosting.com for my server. It looks like now I have bee upgraded to unlimited web space, so you really can't beat that for 8 bucks a month.