Jump to content

I am leaving Vimeo over their scandalous DMCA policy


Andrew Reid
 Share

Recommended Posts

As usual this makes me wonder what makes Vimeo go this route. I believe this must be massively reducing their number of clients.

I guess it's quite hard (and expensive) for a smaller player to fight these legal battles regarding copy rights. But the lack of communication is an absolut downer.

I am still really fond of the whole Vimeo universe. I still love  that you can ask all these incredible artists direct questions regarding gear, lighting and techniques and the rate of replies is very high.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

EOSHD Pro Color 5 for Sony cameras EOSHD Z LOG for Nikon CamerasEOSHD C-LOG and Film Profiles for All Canon DSLRs
11 minutes ago, Chrille said:

As usual this makes me wonder what makes Vimeo go this route. I believe this must be massively reducing their number of clients.

I guess it's quite hard (and expensive) for a smaller player to fight these legal battles regarding copy rights. But the lack of communication is an absolut downer.

I am still really fond of the whole Vimeo universe. I still love  that you can ask all these incredible artists direct questions regarding gear, lighting and techniques and the rate of replies is very high.

Yeah I have seen a lot of people quit vimeo because of this on facebook.

Also the 10GB max on your free vimeo account is a joke as well (let alone the 500mb weekly upload).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe the majority of film makers are interested on a place to build their portfolio collection. So with the same money that Vimeo asks, you can share a dedicated server with 2-3 persons and build your portfolio there. Then you can enjoy many benefits like better speeds, reliability and a player of your choice. At least this what i 'll do. Vimeo sucks anyway and DMCA regulations are here to stay. It will only get worse from here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Dimitris Stasinos said:

I believe the majority of film makers are interested on a place to build their portfolio collection. So with the same money that Vimeo asks, you can share a dedicated server with 2-3 persons and build your portfolio there. Then you can enjoy many benefits like better speeds, reliability and a player of your choice. At least this what i 'll do. Vimeo sucks anyway and DMCA regulations are here to stay. It will only get worse from here.

What player are you using? Any recommendations?

I will miss the vimeo community though, which is by far my favorite and also the best way 2 find talented people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, gethin said:

i gave up on them in aus because even 1080 wuldn't play back without buffering.  Even with 30Mbit I still get buffering every now and then.  

Yeah I have seen numerous complaints about that, I have never had that issue with vimeo but I have with youtube though. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

What player are you using? Any recommendations?

I will miss the vimeo community though, which is by far my favorite and also the best way 2 find talented people.

There are plenty plugins for wordpress and joomla. Elite Video Player can stream videos directly from Google drive, which seems like a nice solution too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel your pain ... made same decision last winter. Even though my channel was not a popular one (a bit over 200.000 views on most watched video and about 700 followers) it is still sad to abandon the moral investment in the platform. Even though I was a PRO user for a couple of years their support couldn't resolve any of the issues with lost views & stats (same answer for years – "transferring to new engine"). DMCA strike handling and pricing switch was the last straw.

Btw, I have TWO strikes on the same video! Their policy says that if I file counter-claim I will either remove the strike forever or get sued in case I am actually violating. That turned out to be a lie – another party owning rights can still claim and you have exact same risks again. Some tracks have tens of different companies handling copyright for different regions, and any of those can put a separate claim, but only once ?

Now we're on YouTube and even though for one year we only gathered under 9000 views and 275 subscribers while invested heavily in the content – I am still happy with the move. I can proudly say that at least our most viewed video about Scotland from last winter has a view per pound spent on production ?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites


For me vimeo is just a portfolio for wedding videos.

I do use music that I do not own the rights for, and that was the main reason to use Vimeo as it could bypass facebook copyright algorithmic scan. Not anymore though... and for that reason, I'm no longer a premium account user.
 

15 hours ago, Lars Steenhoff said:
 

Is it expensive? having trouble creating an account

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"What gives Vimeo the right to delete not just the DMCA disputed video but YOUR ENTIRE ACCOUNT along with ALL your work, ALL your video, even with licensed soundtracks? What gives Vimeo the right to threaten their OWN PAYING CUSTOMERS with oblivion, based on a DMCA claim which might not even be legitimate? Which might be the result of a faulty automatic takedown process?"

The process is so asinine I do wonder if they're under serious legal threat from DMCA.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

56 minutes ago, Pedro said:


For me vimeo is just a portfolio for wedding videos.

I do use music that I do not own the rights for, and that was the main reason to use Vimeo as it could bypass facebook copyright algorithmic scan. Not anymore though... and for that reason, I'm no longer a premium account user.
 

Is it expensive? having trouble creating an account

It's free and takes about a week if you choose the free option.  

Otherwise you can do a small payment and you don't need to wait https://signup.steemit.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrators
1 hour ago, BenEricson said:

I’m surprised so many professionals use copyrighted songs... ?

It's not that simple dummy.

I won't bother repeating what I wrote in the article a second time. It was clearly lost on you the first time.

1 hour ago, BenEricson said:

I’m surprised so many professionals use copyrighted songs... ?

You probably haven't got the talent to match music to images so you'll probably not understand what's at stake. Like freedom of speech there is such a thing of freedom of artistic expression, if I wanted to set some cinematography to a Pink Floyd track in the privacy of my own edit suite at home, and not release it, I am free to do that. So yes, pros do use copyrighted songs. It is when sharing the results with friends and followers where the problem is, because in order to do that in the age of the internet some form of 'publishing' has to happen and anyone can view it. You are not using it commercially, it's just for fun. Other pros have done it all the time, like Philip Bloom before the music bed, it's been very common and you Ben seem to ignore all the other issues and grey areas as well in an attempt to vote against your own artistic freedom out of some dumb attempt to simplify the subject down to either right or wrong, black or white. You are an 8bit binary thinker. You are worse than a GIF. If you were a codec, you'd be AVCHD.

I was recruited by the DJ Paul Van Dyk once and he wanted to use my footage over his music. Boot on the other foot. I said yes. If artists don't share, they don't create anything. Not everything has to be about money or paying for a license.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As clueless as companies may seem when users are feeling real pain like this, behind the scenes I suspect they know full well what is going on and how their users are being effected.  I suspect that they have been forced to take up these measures by the MPAA / RIAA / copyright holding thugs and aren't doing more to handle it better because they can't afford it and are likely fighting to keep the doors open.

The internet is the first time in human history that we've had to deal with a situation where someone gaining something didn't mean someone else losing something, and it just doesn't fit with any of our previous understanding of ownership.  "You wouldn't steal a car" simply isn't the same as copying something.  At the heart of this whole mess is the record labels who are basically a dying industry.  We still have content producers and content consumers and in the past you needed a middle-man to connect these two, and that was the entire system of record labels and record shops, and because they had a monopoly over the situation they basically took all the profit (artists in the top ten used to get less than $0.50 per album sale and that was considered a good deal, I have no idea what it is like now, and bands that weren't in the charts would have to gig to put food on the table) but now thanks to the internet and social media we simply don't need them anymore and they're fighting to stay alive and unfortunately they're fighting to keep the industry from changing instead of moving with the times and they're using their vast resources (that they basically stole from artists) to bully governments and people like Vimeo into complete submission.  They're even in danger of violating one of the basic tenets of civilised society by changing the law from innocent-until-proven-guilty into guilty-until-proven-innocent.  This is why companies like Vimeo are experiencing this kind of thing.

Had they focused on enforcement through supporting legitimate use then we would have some kind of system where you'd buy a license for a song, get a code, put it in your video upload, and everyone would know you were legit.  That kind of thing is dead-easy to implement.  Unfortunately, they think that everyone is their enemy and will basically fight until they're on top, even if that makes them emperor of the ashes.

It's a tough situation regardless of how you look at it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrators

I know recording artists, I know musicians and I know what the vast majority of them want - they want people to hear their music. They want it to be used by fans. They want it to be uploaded to YouTube with equally artistic pictures and for it to bring in streaming revenue for them - like is the case with YouTube and Spotify. For whatever reason Vimeo could not arrange this, so they are not just failing their own users but the musicians as well... Vimeo are denying them (collectively) millions of dollars in streaming revenue.

"Made with ♡ in NYC!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is what gives them the right to do whatever they want!

https://vimeo.com/terms
 

Quote

TERMINATION FOR BREACH: Vimeo may suspend, disable, or delete your account (or any part thereof) or block or remove any content you submitted if Vimeo determines that you have violated any provision of this Agreement or that your conduct or content would tend to damage Vimeo's reputation and goodwill. If Vimeo deletes your account for the foregoing reasons, you may not re-register for the Vimeo Service. Vimeo may block your email address and Internet protocol address to prevent further registration.

 

Quote

7. Content Restrictions

You may not upload, post, or transmit (collectively, "submit") any video, image, text, audio recording, or other work (collectively, "content") that:

Infringes any third party's copyrights or other rights (e.g., trademark, privacy rights, etc.);

Quote

12. Third Party Copyrights and Other Rights

Vimeo respects the intellectual property rights of others. If you believe that your copyright has been infringed, please send us a notice as set forth in our Copyright and DMCA Policy, which is incorporated into this Agreement. For other intellectual property claims, please send us a notice at legal[at]vimeo[dot]com.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrators
3 hours ago, Pedro said:

For me vimeo is just a portfolio for wedding videos.

I do use music that I do not own the rights for

Let's be clear, if you use popular music for commercially paid work like wedding videos, that's another matter. You shouldn't do it. You got paid, and you owe the artist a percentage.

If you're just sharing non-commercial experiments and artistic cinematography with friends, then that is different, ethically at least.

6 minutes ago, Dan Sherman said:

This is what gives them the right to do whatever they want!

https://vimeo.com/terms

No shit Sherlock ?

The question here is whether it is good for their business and users to have a dumb 3-strikes DMCA policy when their main rivals don't.

If they end up with everyone leaving or banned, Vimeo will close down.

Nobody wants that, not even anti-social assholes like Dan Sherman.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • EOSHD Pro Color 5 for All Sony cameras
    EOSHD C-LOG and Film Profiles for All Canon DSLRs
    EOSHD Dynamic Range Enhancer for H.264/H.265
×
×
  • Create New...