TOS comparison

Terms of Service

We're using this wiki to provide the public with a comprehensive, trusted source of information about what video producers get when they upload their works to the various video hosting sites.

We'll begin filling this out, but we hope you'll join in and help us make this a rich public resource. Please add other sites, and suggest new ways of displaying the information.

Initial thoughts: Have a link to each site's TOS along with a bulleted list or table for a side-by-side comparison, with these items:

Ownership/licensing
Do they allow Creative Commons licenses?
Payment to producers?
Can you remove your work?
Can they sell or license your video?
Can they put ads on or around your video?
Can they share your data with third parties?
Can they send you unsolicited emails?
Bottom line:
what else? do we need to make a distinction between selling and licensing videos? is there any practical difference between the two?

Please dive in!

Ourmedia

Ourmedia's TOS (called Rules). Ourmedia hosts media files on the Internet Archive's servers in the Ourmedia collection. When you do, you're bound by Ourmedia's TOS. Key passage:

You own your own material. Ourmedia claims no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to our service.

Ownership/licensing: You own your work and must decide on a license when you upload it.
Creative Commons licenses?: Yes. Ourmedia's default license is a Creative Commons license, though members may choose from a wide palette of options.
Payment to producers?: Planned.
Can you remove your work?: Yes.
Can they sell or license your video?: Ourmedia does not do this. The site is restricted by the license chosen by the member.
Can they put ads on or around your video?: Yes. The site uses accompanying text ads.
Share your data with third parties?: No.
Unsolicited emails?: No.
Bottom line: With the Internet Archive serving as its media repository, Ourmedia remains a creator-friendly options for grassroots media producers. (But decide for yourself.)

Internet Archive

Archive's TOS. Key passage:

Because the content of the Collections comes from around the world and from many different sectors, the Collections may contain information that might be deemed offensive, disturbing, pornographic, racist, sexist, bizarre, misleading, fraudulent, or otherwise objectionable. The Archive does not endorse or sponsor any content in the Collections, nor does it guarantee or warrant that the content available in the Collections is accurate, complete, noninfringing, or legally accessible in your jurisdiction, and you agree that you are solely responsible for abiding by all laws and regulations that may be applicable to the viewing of the content. In addition, the Collections are provided to you on an as-is and as-available basis. You agree that your use of the Site and the Collections is at your sole risk.

Ownership/licensing: You own your work and grant the Archive the right to display and preserve it.
CC licenses?: Allowed.
Payment to producers?: No.
Can you remove your work?: Yes.
Can they sell or license your video?: The Archive does not do this.
Can they put ads on or around your video?: The Archive does not do this.
Share your data with third parties?: "The Collections are made available to researchers and may be ... provided to third parties [such as libraries], for any use, without limitation."
Unsolicited emails?: Users consent to being contacted but the Archive has sent out no such surveys in the past two years.
Bottom line: An artist-friendly repository that is more about long-term preservation than viewer-friendly video hosting.

Blip.tv

Blip's TOS. Key passage:

When you upload or post content to Blip.tv, that content become [sic] public content and will be searchable by and available to anyone who visits the Blip.tv site. Blip.tv does not claim ownership of the materials you post, upload, input or submit to the Blip.tv site. However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your content to Blip.tv, you are granting Blip.tv, its affiliated companies and partners, a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicensable license to use, reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, transfer, transmit, distribute and publish that content for the purposes of displaying that content on Blip.tv or for any other non-commercial use of that content.

Ownership/licensing: You own your work but grant Blip rights to display and distribute it. "We claim distribution rights only for the purpose of delivering the service while giving the user as much control as possible," CEO Mike Hudack says. For example, Blip makes the video available as an RSS feed, creates thumbnails and transcodes the video to Flash.
CC licenses?: Yes.
Payment to producers?: Blip gives video producers a 50-50 revenue split from ads (when users earn at least $25 per quarter).
Can you remove your work?: Yes.
Can they sell or license your video?: "Our interpretation of our TOS is that it allows us to syndicate the content, cross-post it and put it into RSS feeds, but that it doesn't allow us to sell the content to third parties without the permission of the creator," Hudack says.
Can they put ads on or around your video?: Yes, on the site, but the creator can opt out of that and would have to opt in to allow ads to be inserted into the video.
Share your data with third parties?: The site does not share user data with third parties except if it's necessary to provide a service to the Blip user, in which case the site holds the third party to the same standards as Blip itself.
Unsolicited emails?: The site never sends e-mail to users except in direct relation to an action they've taken, and they always have the opportunity for users to opt out of those e-mails.
Bottom line: Blip is perhaps the best solution for video producers who want free hosting for their works in a community setting. See their mission and principles statement.

Yahoo! Video

Yahoo! Video's TOS and Additional Terms of Service. Key passage:

You retain ownership to the Video Content You submit for inclusion into the Yahoo! Video Service. However, by submitting Your Video Content to Yahoo!, You hereby grant Yahoo! the following worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sublicensable and transferable rights and licenses:

a. to host, cache, store, archive, index, crawl, create algorithms based thereon, modify or transcode the Video Content to appropriate media formats, standards or mediums as part of the Yahoo! Video Service;

b. to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, remix, excerpt, adapt, prepare derivative works of, publicly perform and publicly display the Video Content on the Yahoo! Video Service or on any Yahoo! property, including in connection with any distribution or syndication arrangement thereof with third parties or third party sites, in any media format or medium and through any media channels

Ownership/licensing: You own your video but license to Yahoo! the right to use it in a wide variety of ways.
CC licenses?: No. CC licenses are not supported and appear to be inoperable on the commercial site.
Payment to producers?: None.
Can you remove your work?: Yes. Yahoo has 14 days to take it down.
Can they sell or license your video?: Yes. See Key passage, above.
Can they put ads on or around your video?: Yes.
Share your data with third parties?: Yes.
Unsolicited emails?: Yahoo requires you to accept unsolicited emails, though in practice doesn't spam you.
Bottom line: With millions of viewers and a large community of producers, Yahoo! Video is a good option for those looking for greater visibility, but don't be surprised if you see your video on partner sites as well.

Revver

Revver's TOS (Member Agreement). Key passage:

You permit Revver, as further described in Section 10, to:

host, index and cache Your Video Content;
tag Your Video Content with information that will be used by Revver to identity it as Your Video Content and assist Revver in properly tracking and calculating any revenue amounts that You may earn;
insert Revver's ad insertion software ("Ad Insertion Software") at the end of Your Video Content to enable Revver, if applicable and in Revver's discretion, to attach an Ad (as defined below) to Your Video Content;
distribute, or have distributed, Your Video Content in the Revver Syndication Network; and
engage in such further actions regarding Your Video Content as may be necessary or appropriate in order to effect the purposes of the Revver Partner Program.

Ownership/licensing: You own your own video and Revver distributes it with an ad attached.
CC licenses?: Yes.
Payment to producers?: Yes. Users earn 50 percent of revenue generated by ad on their video's page.
Can you remove your work?: Yes.
Can they sell or license your video?: No.
Can they put ads on or around your video?: Revver attaches an ad to the end of your video.
Share your data with third parties?: No.
Unsolicited emails?: Yes, but you can opt out of emails.
Bottom line: Revver is one of the most popular choices for video producers who want to go beyond the hobby stage and earn money for their work.

YouTube

YouTube's TOS. Key passage:

In connection with User Submissions, you affirm, represent, and/or warrant that: (i) you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use and authorize YouTube to use all patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights in and to any and all User Submissions to enable inclusion and use of the User Submissions in the manner contemplated by the Website and these Terms of Service; and (ii) you have the written consent, release, and/or permission of each and every identifiable individual person in the User Submission to use the name or likeness of each and every such identifiable individual person to enable inclusion and use of the User Submissions in the manner contemplated by the Website and these Terms of Service. For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your User Submissions. However, by submitting the User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube's (and its successor's) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the YouTube Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of the YouTube Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Submissions as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms of Service. The foregoing license granted by you terminates once you remove or delete a User Submission from the YouTube Website.

Ownership/licensing: You own your work but grant YouTube wide rights to reuse it.
CC licenses?: Not permitted -- one of the most glaring shortfalls of the site.
Payment to producers?: No.
Can you remove your work?: Yes.
Can they sell or license your video?: Yes.
Can they put ads on or around your video?: Yes.
Share your data with third parties?: No, though users may need to opt out.
Unsolicited emails?: No, though users may need to opt out.
Bottom line: YouTube is the 800-lb. gorilla of video hosting sites. Most people are there to gain visibility rather than income for their works; it remains to be seen how they'll react if their work is sold to a third party without compensation to them.

Google Video

Google Video's TOS. Key passage:

By entering into this Agreement and uploading, sending or otherwise making available Your Authorized Content to Google, you are directing and authorizing Google to, and granting Google a royalty-free, non-exclusive right and license to, host, cache, route, transmit, store, copy, modify, distribute, perform, display, reformat, excerpt, facilitate the sale or rental of copies of, analyze, and create algorithms based on the Authorized Content in order to (i) host the
Authorized Content on Google's servers, (ii) index the Authorized Content; (iii) display, perform and distribute the Authorized Content, in whole or in part, in the territory(ies) designated in the Metadata Form, in connection with Google products and services now existing or hereafter developed, including without limitation for syndication on third party sites; and in connection with each of the uses, if any, of the Authorized Content authorized in the video information page (the "Video Information Page") which will be made available to You no sooner than at the time Google enables any of the features designated on the Video Information Page This license gives
Google the right to display Your Authorized Content via streaming and/or downloading technologies, and to display limited excerpts of Your Authorized Content for no fee to the end user. Google may in its sole discretion display a link or links to the website You designate (subject to Google's
approval) in the Metadata Form in connection with any display of Your Authorized Content, and to display links to third party commercial retailer web sites where purchases of the Authorized
Content may be available, to the extent such third party commercial retailer web site serves as a distributor of the Authorized Content. ... Unless You specify otherwise in the Video Information Page, Google reserves the right to display advertisements ("Ads") in connection with any display of Your Authorized Content.

Ownership/licensing: You own your video but license to Google the right to use it in a wide variety of ways.
CC licenses?: No. CC licenses are not supported and appear to be inoperable on the commercial site.
Payment to producers?: Yes; Google takes 30 percent of revenues. (Do they still offer this option?)
Can you remove your work?: Yes.
Can they sell or license your video?: Yes.
Can they put ads on or around your video?: Yes.
Share your data with third parties?: Yes, under certain circumstances or with user consent.
Unsolicited emails?: No.
Bottom line: Google Video and sister site YouTube are good ways to get your video out there, assuming you don't expect much in return beyond visibility.

Metacafe

Metacafe's TOS. Key passage:

C. You retain all of your ownership rights in your User Submissions. However, by submitting the User Submissions to Metacafe, you hereby grant Metacafe, in addition to any other rights which it has pursuant to any other program established by Metacafe, a worldwide, non-exclusive and transferable license to use, copy, prepare derivative works of (including without limitation, to rename, edit, shorten, split the videos into different segments, and use the entire video or segments as part of compilations), display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the Website and Metacafe's (and its successor's) business, including without limitation to grant access to the Website to third parties to view the User Submission (and derivative works thereof). With regard to User Submissions submitted under the Producer Program or not submitted under any other special program, you may notify Metacafe to remove the User Submission from the Website, and Metacafe will do so within a reasonable time period, at which point the foregoing license to Metacafe will terminate.
D. You also hereby grant each user of the Website or other viewer of the User Submission a non-exclusive right to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Submissions, all for non-commercial and personal use.

Ownership/licensing: You grant the site a non-exclusive license to use your work in a wide variety of ways.
CC licenses?: The site's TOS makes no mention of CC licenses. But spokesman Mark Day told TechSoup: "We recognize Creative Commons licenses. As far as whether we will post a video with a Creative Commons license, the licenses can all be a little different and sometimes complex. We review each application to Producer Rewards and determine what makes sense in each case."
Payment to producers?: Yes. Producer Rewards program pays poster $5 per every 1,000 video views — one of the site's major attractions.
Can you remove your work?: Yes, unless content has been sub-licensed through Producer Rewards program.
Can they sell or license your video?: Only if user participates in Producer Rewards program
Can they put ads on or around your video?: The site uses advertising only sparingly.
Share your data with third parties?: Not without user permission.
Unsolicited emails?: Not in practice.
Bottom line: Metacafe is attractive to video producers who want to earn income for popular, viral videos.

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