Should I watermark my stock footage

[Brody_B]

Hi Jake - using a google reverse image search can work, but not always. Take a full screen screenshot from a video and upload it to google. That can *sometimes* show you where the image appears online, even within another video, even if it's been graded for a very different look. I suspected one of our media company's content suppliers of stacking his "reel" with other people's work and used google's reverse image search tool to prove it. Then again, we've tried this with other material we knew was online and nothing came up. Worth a try anyway if you're worried about unauthorized usage.

Very cool, I am surprised that I didnt know this existed. I wonder if Vimeo has the same feature?

Thanks Brody. Yeh love Tony Andersons music and yes licensed through Musicbed.com

Right on man, Music bed is pretty cool too.

 

[Owen Rennie]

There was a thread here a while back where a guy had posted images of horses, slow motion, really nice stuff, dusty backlit stuff.

Then a while later these shots show up in a thread with a Music video by another user.

Turns out the user had purchased the shots legitimately from pond five.

Someone had downloaded his video, chopped it up and posted it for sale on pond five and Just by chance another user bought those shots for his video, like 8 months later. I don't even want to post to vimeo anymore for this reason.

David

Haha wow...

 

[Zeb B]

Even Getty watermarks their images . . . and they have real good lawyers ;-)

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Yes. Theft prevention is always way better than trying to prove up damages in our jacked-up legal system. Suing is a very last resort since it can take years to resolve and carries risk since you have to pay legal fees to prosecute the case. Once you "win" . . . then you have to collect. Tom's case is unique and it seems he had the resources and time to pursue that course against legit companies who could pay once losing in court. I also don't post reel's etc since there is no way prevent illegal downloads and theft. Then again, Getty's T&C / payouts are a different form of artistic theft ;-)

Think of it like unwanted pregnancy: a whole lot easier to prevent than to remedy

That is why you get together with thousands of others for a real regal team and sue them big and ask the Judge to impose a ban on them doing the n future with big fines for non compliance on. A good brhavour, so, it always turns up before the same judge.. I don't w if such a thing is possible, but it would be great.

 

[Wayne Morellini]

Wow haha what a weird cluster fuk. I hope the creator got his justice.

He will, in the coming judgement day.

 

[Zeb B]

That is why you get together with thousands of others for a real regal team and sue them big and ask the Judge to impose a ban on them doing the n future with big fines for non compliance on. A good brhavour, so, it always turns up before the same judge.. I don't w if such a thing is possible, but it would be great.

I gave $38K to a lens broker 2+ years ago for a vintage lens set. He did not deliver. He wrote me a hot check. He does not dispute the facts of the matter. I've spent $20K+ in legal fees. Still have yet to get in front of the Perry Mason style Judge, you who have not experienced our legal system, seem to believe exists. In the last California budget crisis they cut back on the legal system staffing to where it used to take months to be heard it now takes years

Stop watching TV which leads you to believe you will find Justice in Court. It does not exist. The law serves those with vast resources which can fund lawsuits or defenses / settlements. One look at Wall Street crime should make that obvious.

Prevent the crime from happening is a way better strategy than thinking you are going to "smoke them in court"

Oh and that lens broker . . . he reads this forum. I will have justice and you will pay for the expensive journey getting there my friend.

 

[Sabovic Adis]

People worry way too much about watermarking and policing every minor misuse of their images or footage. They are making a mistake. We released my film "TimeScapes" as a Cineform 4K 4:4:4 AVI with no watermarks or protection. We ignored people making little mashup videos with their church music on youtube (who cares??... a couple hundred views, how does that damage anyone?). What we did instead is sit back and wait for major companies that should have known better who took our footage and started using it at trade shows and even in online ads, and we sued the hell out of them and made a truckload of money.

When it comes to protecting your content, use your brain, not your emotions.

So, You first let them use Your footage then You sue them? :rofl:

 

[Brody_B]

I gave $38K to a lens broker 2+ years ago for a vintage lens set. He did not deliver. He wrote me a hot check. He does not dispute the facts of the matter. I've spent $20K+ in legal fees. Still have yet to get in front of the Perry Mason style Judge, you who have not experienced our legal system, seem to believe exists. In the last California budget crisis they cut back on the legal system staffing to where it used to take months to be heard it now takes years

Stop watching TV which leads you to believe you will find Justice in Court. It does not exist. The law serves those with vast resources which can fund lawsuits or defenses / settlements. One look at Wall Street crime should make that obvious.

Prevent the crime from happening is a way better strategy than thinking you are going to "smoke them in court"

Oh and that lens broker . . . he reads this forum. I will have justice and you will pay for the expensive journey getting there my friend.

Sorry to hear that bud. I haven't had anyone use my videos without license, but for music copyright infringement my company was able to get a decent settlement from a pretty large corporation. Maybe it was luck that it worked out so easily in our favor, but I guess it depends on the circumstances. Sometimes you get the money sometimes you don't.

 

[David Battistella]

Wow haha what a weird cluster fuk. I hope the creator got his justice.

Yup.

It's a true story. A bit of a problem is with sites like Pond 5 who don't really care if someone has stolen what they are presenting as their own. It's more of a waring that if you post nice 1080 footage with no watermark, someone somewhere will download it, cut it up and start selling it on ten different sites, if you are not careful.\
David

 

[Wayne Morellini]

I gave $38K to a lens broker 2+ years ago for a vintage lens set. He did not deliver. He wrote me a hot check. He does not dispute the facts of the matter. I've spent $20K+ in legal fees. Still have yet to get in front of the Perry Mason style Judge, you who have not experienced our legal system, seem to believe exists. In the last California budget crisis they cut back on the legal system staffing to where it used to take months to be heard it now takes years

Stop watching TV which leads you to believe you will find Justice in Court. It does not exist. The law serves those with vast resources which can fund lawsuits or defenses / settlements. One look at Wall Street crime should make that obvious.

Prevent the crime from happening is a way better strategy than thinking you are going to "smoke them in court"

Oh and that lens broker . . . he reads this forum. I will have justice and you will pay for the expensive journey getting there my friend.

Woo, woo, you are not my "friend" not reading my posts and answering like that. Do you know how class action works, everybody can spilt the cheque by getting together in a legal action. Corrupt companies rely on people being legally intimidated by the cost to make unwinnable cases go away. This is real world, you have to make justice
Now over here the companies are likely to cave if they keep getting such actions, because it is only affordable to ignore unwinnable cases if you don't loose them. Now, I always get basically only people that don't properly read my ..... posts before dumping on them. I have grave difficulty a lot of the time reading posts and conversation I respond to, but I still do. If its good enough for me its good enough for everybody else. And you can go on about a $20k case, but I have two groups I should have taken to court for $200 million, but like you, that is just me I'm not part of a group that can afford a class action, and patent action is extra hard and expensive. Over here you can get a judge determination on an self written injunction request free. Turning up with the filled out form apparently is rather effective and cheap without a lawyer. I know a guy that does this and runs a community law information site, but have yet to get through the site to know how you should write it without going overboard. I won't bother getting the site out, it probably is very different over there. Peace.