Filmed a cool video? We are willing to pay you for it

Content Manager · #1 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 11:09 AM

I came across your forum and I wanted to let you know that Metacafe is offering to pay you money for your videos. If you have an original video clip that you think others would like to see, please email me at contentmanager@metacafe.com and I will give you more details about our rewards program.

We have recently passed an important milestone in our company, and we now have over 1,000,000 unique users each day. Given that each visitor views several clips at our site, we are currently streaming over 300 million videos every month. In parallel with this steady increase in traffic, we have just completed a second round of funding which raised $15 million from Accel Partners and Benchmark. We are currently searching for high-quality user-generated content, which is why I am approaching you now.

We are currently beta-testing our new rewards program where video submitters would be paid for uploading their original content to our site. We can take that content and present it to the global audience that we already have in place. The most successful items at Metacafe are seen over a million times (our current record is 4.4 million views) which is more than the nightly audience for most cable channels. I believe our rewards program is unlike any other you have seen and will provide you with a larger audience for your work and a healthy reward for your efforts.

We contacted the forum administrator and got permission to post a message on this forum, but we do not want to spam the forum by turning the message into a contact form, which is the reason I asked that you contact me directly by email.

Talia Klein
Content Manager - Metacafe LTD.
Email: ContentManager@Metacafe.com
http://www.metacafe.com

komatoast · #2 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 11:26 AM

i take it this is only open US residents?

Content Manager · #3 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 12:50 PM

Hello all
It is open Worldwide

Marc Peters · #4 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 01:00 PM

This is what I dislike about these video upload sites:

By transmitting and/or submitting any Data through or in connection with any of the Sites you automatically grant to Metacafe a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, sub-licensable, assignable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, redistribute, transmit, perform and display such Data (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed; and to allow third parties to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, redistribute, transmit, perform and display such Data (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed.

These types of sites are littered with copyright content, and whilst I admit that copyright in media is a whole debate in itself, for the end user it means Metacafe could attempt to profit from openly available content posted to their servers by a third party. How does the phrase "royalty-free" fit into the idea of paying for uploads, and do you not agree that the proliferation of copyright material sits ill at ease with the notion of paying for content?

Content Manager · #5 (**permalink**) 07-31-2006, 03:48 PM

Wow, you raised a lot of interesting points.

I'll try to address as many of them as I can, although I don't want to get drawn into an argument over any one thing.

I'm happy that you reproduced part of our Terms & Conditions to explain Metacafe's position regarding uploaded content. But you stopped short of reprinting a later section on copyright infringement.

Metacafe is committed to protecting the rights of copyright (and other Intellectual Property Rights) holders and seeks to comply with all applicable laws and regulations regarding the protection of intellectual property. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

I would like also to answer your next question:

How does the phrase "royalty-free" fit into the idea of paying for uploads?

Our standard Ts & Cs refer to non-exclusive rights. By submitting your content to Metacafe you allow Metacafe to do what it wants with that content at any time, but you remain free to do the same. This is not unusual. Check any other video site or online poetry submission group and you will find similar wording. Our rewards program, on the other hand, seeks to reward 'content-generating-users' and to encourage them to generate further content through such rewards. Qualification for the rewards program requires, among other things, proof of ownership to remove any shadow of copyright infringement.

I hope that answers some of your concerns. We want our rewards program to be as transparent as possible to those who take advantage of it, but we are still a little wary of discussing it in an open forum. If you have some killer content that you would like to showcase before a critical audience of millions, then drop us a line at ContentManager@Metacafe.com and we will try to make it happen and pay you if it does.

I look forward to hearing from as many people as possible.