We're considering purchasing Plus, but are confused about your Terms & Conditions langauge around "non-commercial." We are a church organization and want to post a video viewable by people connected to our organization. We won't be "selling" anything, but will be encouraging people to stick with us through hard times. 1) Is this considered commercial use? 2) If it would be, do we fall under the exception, since we are a church organization? Thanks.

Reading the Ts and Cs:

"Businesses may not use Vimeo to externalize their hosting costs. Vimeo (including Vimeo Plus) is not a business service."

So hang on, if I wanted to pay Vimeo for the use of their service, I cannot in my capitalist and free country then try and make money back off of my paid for service and the hard work I put into the video? By way of creating a subscription service for people to sign up and view my copyrighted work on a protected website? Despite the fact it does not effect Vimeo either way?

I thought Vimeo was to help independent film makers, not severely restrict them? If they are stopping people from making money to recoup their own costs (let's face it, nobody is going to get rich) how do they expect people to keep on renewing their memberships, and fork out the costs for video production and editing.

They say you can embed your videos anywhere - well apparantly not?

Outrageous.

"Businesses may not use Vimeo to externalize their hosting costs. Vimeo (including Vimeo Plus) is not a business service."

as much as i love vimeo they do NOT hold this one accountable because if they did i can point out hundreds of users that do this..thats only if i am reading it correctly..this means if you have a website and are using vimeo as your video host then you are in violation? if so then yeah i've seen hundreds of people doing that.of course i am usually wrong.

It just restricts the options of self funded film makers.

So its OK for vimeo to make $$$$ from advertisers, but we the content creators can't? This needs to be addessed!

That's a huge cop out frankly, Dalas.

You ignored all of my points one by one.

Your justification being other people make more money from it, so you feel its wrong you wouldn't.

Just because these other people charge way over the odds (servers cost them a lot less - its how they have a huge proffit margin) doesn't mean it should be rule of thumb.

Again, see earlier points. You do NOT support growing film talent - you help restrict it. You encourage a culture of people having to put their work up for free - and the only person who makes money from that is YOU, via your advertisers. Is this the "Vimeo ecosystem" you speak of? The same system that would cost you LESS if the videos were private (less traffic / server usage) but you would also make less money (advertisements not being seen, growth of your own site)

The laughable thing is, you openly claim to be thinking about the above route. What are you doing? Waiting till' enough people pay you for Vimeo + (which you don't allow your paying customers the benifit of doing what ever they want with their content - FALSE ADVERTISING) and once you have enough money, start charging people $$$$ to "really" do what they want with their video? lol, what a joke.

This sickens me so much, I think I might write up a debate on Shooting Peple about this.

How about you do something noble in the meantime and answer every single one of my points, that should be a good laugh.

I'm not starting an argument - I'm stating facts.

This site goes against the virtues of indy film makers which it claims to help.

You encourage a culture where people give their work for free - and YOU make money from it. You don't allow the artist to make money - despite the fact it would make no difference to you. it comes down to greed. You feel like you would be missing out because others over charge for the same thing out there. These are facts.

Please don't try and blur the situation by trying to paint this all as my "entitled opinion". How noble of you...

Hi everybody,

I'm new to Vimeo and am considering using Vimeo Plus, not for reason of externalizing hosting costs, but because the Vimeo player seems pretty slick.

With that said, the Vimeo guidelines and this particular thread have me rather confused regarding Vimeo's definition of "commercial use".

I am an author of several computer books, and have more recently started bundling online video access with my books. Access to these videos is restricted to those who purchase the book, although occasionally I release an unrestricted video. My intent is to use Vimeo Plus to provide readers with an improved viewing experience.

Therefore the use would be for commercial purposes, however under the "No Commercial Use" of the Vimeo guidelines, it states the following exception:

"Exceptions: Independent production companies, authors, musicians, non profits, churches, artists, and actors may show or promote the work they have created, anyone else cannot."

I am actually both an author and an independent production company (of the publishing sort). So am I allowed to purchase Vimeo Plus and use it for the above-described purpose?

Thanks much for any clarification!

Jason

Ouch, that's really too bad, as Vimeo looks like a fine product. Thanks for the information. -Jason

Just a quick followup: can anybody recommend a solid commercial video host? Thank you! -Jason

LOL @ Dalas still trying to paint me as having an agenda. Not very professional, at all.

So, what constitutes as an "independent production company" in YOUR view? By the sounds of it, somebody with no hope of making it, and something that wont be seen by many people. Somebody who wants to put something up as "Joe Bloggs". Way to encourage reaching for the stars eh?

What if Joe Bloggs, taking his music seriously set up a LTD or LCC to copyright his material on his own company name. You know, a bit of professionalism. Is this now deemed too commercial for you to handle?

How do you draw the line? It must be a very qualified reasoning (rolls eyes). Something tells me it comes down to who you think WONT make money...

Well, I am an independent production company. By your T's and C's I am exempt. By your advertisment, I will embed videos where ever I want, and nothing is mentioned to say I can't make money. It falls within our capatilist LAW. If you take them down, I WILL take legal action to the full extent of the law. This will be for damages also.

Have a nice day, this is my last word on this disgusting matter.