> Recently a fellow filmmaker contacted me about 5min.com. He had concerns about them putting his videos on other sites like Bukisa.com and Watchdoit, something that wasn't discussed when he gave permission for 5min's to use his vids. > There are only two sites that I would recommend to video producers with regard to ad revenue. Youtube and blinkx. Other sites (like blip.tv) despite running ads in my videos, have never returned one cent! > As an Australian, dealing with these online video sites (based in locations as diverse as Israel and the US) what legal recourse to I >have to checking a video sites accounting practices, and withdrawing my content?
These are good questions. I imagine it's all about reputation. Since this practice of ad revenue/sharing on videos is relatively new, I imagine that people will start talking as they experience each service. Like you're doing now. Shady services will wither quickly. We was just recently invited by Youtube to put ads on some of our videos (I guess your video must hit a certain viewer threshold first). As an experiment, we went through the process. Funny enough, they sent us an email saying we had to prove we owned the video/audio....wanting us to fax signed releases. So by accepting their offer for ads, we've put our videos existence in jeopardy. Because we haven't been able to confirm that you have the necessary rights, including publicity rights, to commercially use all the video material and music, we ask that you provide written documentation substantiating your claim. Please email us or fax us this information at 650-362-9648. The document should either be a written contract between yourself and the rights owner, or a letter from the rights owner stating that you are permitted to use their content commercially. Please provide a signature along with contact information for the rights owner. A faxed hard copy of the document is preferable, but you may also email us the information with an electronic signature attached. We ask that the document also includes the url for the video(s) and your channel name. Please note that we reserve the right to make the final determination on whether to enable revenue sharing for a video. You must also respond within 7 business days of receiving this letter, or the video may be removed from the YouTube site. If you need more time to acquire the proper documents, you may consider disabling revenue sharing yourself. For instructions on disabling revenue sharing on a video, please visit our Help Center article at http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=94522. Please note that disabling revenue sharing will NOT remove your video from the YouTube site. Sincerely, Olga The YouTube Team We emailed back that we shot the video and used CC-licensed music (which is listed in the credits). Sent them links to the audio and the license. Have not heard back. Hopefully they dont take down our video. They are putting quite a few I'm really skeptical of advertising in videos. Not out of moral issues....I just cant believe it's an effective payback for sponsors. Is any one here making any kind of money at all from ads on their videos? Jay [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
