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TOC: Vimeo Own's Our Videos?!
dalas verdugo Staff locked this topic on Mar 23, 2009 because the Terms exist for legal reasons and technical realities.
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Paul Wesson
I'm a Vimeo Plus user. I pay for this service but I never noticed that wording in the TOC before.
"VIMEO shall be entitled to unrestricted use of any Submission for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation to the submitter."
vimeo.com/terms
When did this get into the Terms of Service?
I not only use Vimeo as a way to show off my videos to friends but I also use it as my off-site backup so I don't have to keep my vids on my hard drive.
Question is now, should I start downloading all my videos and start looking for a new service?
What does everyone else think of this?
dalas verdugo Staff
For legal reasons and technical realities, we need to keep the language broad in our Terms & Conditions; however, that being said, we do not generally commericialize any members' videos, and if you are making your posts private, it is very unlikely we ever would.
Please also note this section:
"For any Submission that is a video, the licenses granted by you herein shall terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete such Submission from the Site."
You do, therefore, always have the right to take down any video submission, and Vimeo's license (and therefore ability to make any use of the video) ceases.
dalas verdugo Staff
Here's more to further clarify our position, hopefully:
At Vimeo, our intent is to nurture creative talent. We strive to provide a forum where users can showcase their creative talents, share their original ideas, and comment on each other's works. All of these elements combine to create a robust creative community enhanced by users submitting comments, feedback and suggestions, as well as their video content. Thus, Vimeo's licensing policy regarding "Submissions" must be broad enough to encompass the varying types of communications, contributions, comments, and submissions received.
As you will note, Vimeo's policy clearly states that "Except as otherwise provided herein, any and all comments, suggestions, ideas, graphics, videos, content, data and other information that you transmit to VIMEO through the Services (each, a "Submission") shall remain your sole and exclusive property. By submitting your Submission to VIMEO, you hereby grant VIMEO and its affiliates, successors and assigns a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable (through multiple tiers) and transferable license (with a right to create derivative works) to use, copy, transmit or otherwise distribute, perform, modify, incorporate into other works, publicly perform and display your Submission or any portion thereof, in or through any medium, whether now known or hereafter created. VIMEO shall be entitled to unrestricted use of any Submission for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation to the submitter."
Vimeo respects the intellectual property rights of others, especially its users. The realities of the legal system necessitate that Vimeo procure a non-exclusive license which is both limited in scope, but still broad enough to allow Vimeo to properly reformat, transmit and distribute user Submissions via the Vimeo.com site, and accommodate changes in Vimeo's structure, business model or services. In particular, such license is necessary to avoid running afoul of submitter intellectual property rights and to protect Vimeo from frivolous lawsuits.
Finally, any discussion of Vimeo's content license as it relates to video submissions would not be complete or accurate without referencing the specific additional limitation/user termination right included in the license. According to the Vimeo Terms of Service - "For any Submission that is a video, the licenses granted by you herein shall terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete such Submission from the Site." Thus, a short time after a submitter removes his/her video from Vimeo.com, Vimeo's rights in this material effectively cease.
Be assured that the carefully chosen language used in Vimeo's Terms of Service, including the content license, is only as broad as is necessary to facilitate content for Vimeo.com and to protect the reasonable business interests of Vimeo, LLC.
Scott Bourne
I won't be posting any more videos on VIMEO due to their license. Any service that claims right to license MY content to someone else isn't going to work for me. What bothers me most is that I am paying for their premium service so why do they need to retain sub-licensing rates?
dalas verdugo Staff
For legal reasons and technical realities, we need to keep the language broad in our Terms & Conditions; however, that being said, we do not generally commericialize any members' videos, and if you are making your posts private, it is very unlikely we ever would.
Please also note this section:
"For any Submission that is a video, the licenses granted by you herein shall terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete such Submission from the Site."
You do, therefore, always have the right to take down any video submission, and Vimeo's license (and therefore ability to make any use of the video) ceases.
planetMitch Plus
Wow-Scott - thanks for tweeting this issue!
Teymur Plus
wow, thats bad.
hope you guys at vimeo change that real quickly...
TommyW
What I didn't like was their ban on use of commercial video on the free side of things, something which wouldn't work for a lot of creative artists. That struck me as odd. Then in combination with this... Not very business friendly all round.
Dave Aiello
I am using Vimeo today because they are the only service I can find that lets me easily share my HD videos with friends. I pay $59.95 per year for the premium service called Vimeo Plus. THERE IS NO WAY that the sublicense provision should apply to me or anybody else who pays to be a Vimeo Plus member.
dalas verdugo Staff
For legal reasons and technical realities, we need to keep the language broad in our Terms & Conditions; however, that being said, we do not generally commericialize any members' videos, and if you are making your posts private, it is very unlikely we ever would.
Please also note this section:
"For any Submission that is a video, the licenses granted by you herein shall terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete such Submission from the Site."
You do, therefore, always have the right to take down any video submission, and Vimeo's license (and therefore ability to make any use of the video) ceases.
Doug
Here's to hoping it's just boilerplate and they correct this misstep.
Juan Pons Plus
I wonder how much of this is just liberal and lazy legal language as was the case recently with Facebook in order for Vimeo to cover their butts. Not that I am condoning it, just giving them the benefit of the doubt for now. I would like to hear a response from them VERY shortly on this issue otherwise I may pull my content off Vimeo also.
-J
dalas verdugo Staff
For legal reasons and technical realities, we need to keep the language broad in our Terms & Conditions; however, that being said, we do not generally commericialize any members' videos, and if you are making your posts private, it is very unlikely we ever would.
Please also note this section:
"For any Submission that is a video, the licenses granted by you herein shall terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete such Submission from the Site."
You do, therefore, always have the right to take down any video submission, and Vimeo's license (and therefore ability to make any use of the video) ceases.
Joshua Karjala-Svendsen
I was pretty set on moving videos for my new art&advertising venture to Vimeo - but this is unacceptable.
Scott Bourne
@Dave are you giving us legal advice and if so what Bar are you a member of? I went to law school and the way I read that language, the TOS sub-license provision applies to me and I AM a Vimeo Plus member. Please let me know what you're relying on to base your opinion. I'd REALLY love to be wrong on this one because moving my video somewhere else is going to be a hassle - but I'll do it as long as that clause remains there.
Tom Parker Plus
Scott, as I read Dave's statement (see "should") he's saying that he thinks it's crazy inappropriate that it applies to you Plus users, who have already paid to use Vimeo. Not that the clause in the ToS does not, legally, apply to Plus users.
Nicole Young
This is a real disappointment. I really like Vimeo but they should have no rights to license any of my content, especially if I am paying for premium service. If this doesn't change soon then I will no longer be using Vimeo.
dalas verdugo Staff
For legal reasons and technical realities, we need to keep the language broad in our Terms & Conditions; however, that being said, we do not generally commericialize any members' videos, and if you are making your posts private, it is very unlikely we ever would.
Please also note this section:
"For any Submission that is a video, the licenses granted by you herein shall terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete such Submission from the Site."
You do, therefore, always have the right to take down any video submission, and Vimeo's license (and therefore ability to make any use of the video) ceases.
Eero Kuusisto
Just upgraded to Plus. Wouldn't have done it if I'd seen this before. Hopefully they change it soon.
dalas verdugo Staff
For legal reasons and technical realities, we need to keep the language broad in our Terms & Conditions; however, that being said, we do not generally commericialize any members' videos, and if you are making your posts private, it is very unlikely we ever would.
Please also note this section:
"For any Submission that is a video, the licenses granted by you herein shall terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete such Submission from the Site."
You do, therefore, always have the right to take down any video submission, and Vimeo's license (and therefore ability to make any use of the video) ceases.
Leoraúl Torres Plus
Will hold off on Plus until something change...
Lou Yardley
I'm interested in upgrading to Plus (once I can sort out a way to pay for it!), but I'm going to put it on hold until I see the outcome for this.
Gurnam Bedi
@Scott Bourne: I don't think Dave is saying it doesn't apply to plus members. All he is saying is what you all are saying: it shouldn't!
Brian Reilly
It seems like every video and photo sharing site has this same feature in their TOS -- do they all buy the same boilerplate legal document?
@Scott Bourne -- is this The Bourne Ultimatum? :-)