Dani Girl
Member
Sorry this is long but there is lots to share. I wanted to share my recent experiences with a viral video that I hope you find helpful. Also myself and some other youtubers noticed an issue with licensing that I wanted to let people know and get feedback on because its another way content creators are getting screwed.
Myself and Davison (LOLPervs) had a couple of viral videos get really big.
Mine hit hit 2 million in 2 days
Hers was something like 7 million in 4 days
**I was going to link to them but it wont let me. You can google MENTOS BIKINI and DOGS REACTION TO CANCER RESULTS if you want to see the videos
They were the kind of videos everyone picked up everywhere (talk shows news etc) so for several days we got tons of emails requesting to use the video or get licenses. It gets crazy when that happens, and if you aren't with an MCN you are on your own to deal with negotiations and take downs.
ANYWAY, it became really obvious that some shady stuff goes on and the media has found yet another way to screw content creators and here is how.
First here is a breakdown of what goes down when you get a viral video:
MCNS: You get overwhelmed with offers to join MCNs. Some I have never heard of before. Some of theme are so laughable, they are clearly trying to screw you. I got one where the guy offered me $50 for exclusive rights on my video. Sadly people actually fall for this. Some will offer sign up bonuses, all kinds of things.
BUSINESS OFFERS: You will get random people from random business dot com wanting to buy your video or somehow get rights to your video.
TV MEDIA: TV media are really good about doing things right, if they want to use your video, they do it the right way by paying a license fee. The challenge is negotiations and most of them will major low ball you. This is the one situation where having an MCN is a good thing because they deal with all that.
NEWS: Talk show or news program that don't pay, they will at least contact you and ask and they will credit you how you want and usually embed your video on their site and share it on their social media. I haven't had any bad experiences yet with the news or talk shows, they are actually really good to work with.
WEB Media: Here is where it gets dicey. Most places are good and just embed your video. They might contact you to ask you for an interview. Some will contact you and ask for information and if they can use your video. You have to be careful with this because some of them are sneaky and they ask if they can share your video, and if you don't specify EMBED ONLY they go ahead and rip your video and put it in their own monetized players off youtube/away from content ID. I first discovered it when I saw it pop up in my news feed being shared by a big site. SO I started googling and discovered multiple sites doing this INCLUDING Yahoo homepage, HuffPost (not the news but the viral content they do), and several other big places that should know better.
DailyMail was one of the ONLY ones who paid a license fee to share my video in their own player. Everyone else did it with no permission or credit of any kind.
SO when that happens you have to issue a takedown. My takedowns say, either replace it with an embed or remove it. Problem is it takes days for them to respond, so meanwhile they are making money on your video. All of them complied because they have to by law. All of them took the video down but after a week of racking them up hundreds of thousands of views for their advertisers.
I talked to a lawyer about this. Basically the bigger places do this because they know how to abuse the DMCA takedown laws. They know that as long as they comply you can't really do anything to them.
In other words, there is no reason for anyone to license your video other than that they don't want to be hassled or have to remove it if you catch them. The bank on that most of the time people don't notice so they just get away with it and they know if you do notice you have to get a lawyer and spend a lot of money to recover and the truth is its nearly impossible to do.
So the worst that will happen to them is they have to take your video down. They have already made money on you at that point.
Curious to know if any of you have noticed this?
We were thinking that its going to have to take us watermarking across our videos like World Star does which looks ridiculous OR we all have to start getting really agressive about going after them. I also think it would benefit to have a sticky that lists media who do things ethically and who don't. It is easy enough to prove by sharing the stolen content or screenshots. I know I have all of that stored.
Myself and Davison (LOLPervs) had a couple of viral videos get really big.
Mine hit hit 2 million in 2 days
Hers was something like 7 million in 4 days
**I was going to link to them but it wont let me. You can google MENTOS BIKINI and DOGS REACTION TO CANCER RESULTS if you want to see the videos
They were the kind of videos everyone picked up everywhere (talk shows news etc) so for several days we got tons of emails requesting to use the video or get licenses. It gets crazy when that happens, and if you aren't with an MCN you are on your own to deal with negotiations and take downs.
ANYWAY, it became really obvious that some shady stuff goes on and the media has found yet another way to screw content creators and here is how.
First here is a breakdown of what goes down when you get a viral video:
MCNS: You get overwhelmed with offers to join MCNs. Some I have never heard of before. Some of theme are so laughable, they are clearly trying to screw you. I got one where the guy offered me $50 for exclusive rights on my video. Sadly people actually fall for this. Some will offer sign up bonuses, all kinds of things.
BUSINESS OFFERS: You will get random people from random business dot com wanting to buy your video or somehow get rights to your video.
TV MEDIA: TV media are really good about doing things right, if they want to use your video, they do it the right way by paying a license fee. The challenge is negotiations and most of them will major low ball you. This is the one situation where having an MCN is a good thing because they deal with all that.
NEWS: Talk show or news program that don't pay, they will at least contact you and ask and they will credit you how you want and usually embed your video on their site and share it on their social media. I haven't had any bad experiences yet with the news or talk shows, they are actually really good to work with.
WEB Media: Here is where it gets dicey. Most places are good and just embed your video. They might contact you to ask you for an interview. Some will contact you and ask for information and if they can use your video. You have to be careful with this because some of them are sneaky and they ask if they can share your video, and if you don't specify EMBED ONLY they go ahead and rip your video and put it in their own monetized players off youtube/away from content ID. I first discovered it when I saw it pop up in my news feed being shared by a big site. SO I started googling and discovered multiple sites doing this INCLUDING Yahoo homepage, HuffPost (not the news but the viral content they do), and several other big places that should know better.
DailyMail was one of the ONLY ones who paid a license fee to share my video in their own player. Everyone else did it with no permission or credit of any kind.
SO when that happens you have to issue a takedown. My takedowns say, either replace it with an embed or remove it. Problem is it takes days for them to respond, so meanwhile they are making money on your video. All of them complied because they have to by law. All of them took the video down but after a week of racking them up hundreds of thousands of views for their advertisers.
I talked to a lawyer about this. Basically the bigger places do this because they know how to abuse the DMCA takedown laws. They know that as long as they comply you can't really do anything to them.
In other words, there is no reason for anyone to license your video other than that they don't want to be hassled or have to remove it if you catch them. The bank on that most of the time people don't notice so they just get away with it and they know if you do notice you have to get a lawyer and spend a lot of money to recover and the truth is its nearly impossible to do.
So the worst that will happen to them is they have to take your video down. They have already made money on you at that point.
Curious to know if any of you have noticed this?
We were thinking that its going to have to take us watermarking across our videos like World Star does which looks ridiculous OR we all have to start getting really agressive about going after them. I also think it would benefit to have a sticky that lists media who do things ethically and who don't. It is easy enough to prove by sharing the stolen content or screenshots. I know I have all of that stored.
