Somebody stole my video.... in the Vimeo General Discussion Forum

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Andrew Curtis 6 days ago

Man this pisses me off, someone ripped my video off the site (I do not allow downloads) and posted it on ebaumsworld (the toilet of the internet). I'm guessing the person wasn't smart enough to strip my name from the end. Grrr.....

Mine:
vimeo.com/979938

Jerk's:
ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/392795/

I e-mailed the site asking them to remove it. Anything else I should do?
Be Well 5 days ago

Sorry to here about that Andrew, but it is a sad fact of life when someone unveils electronic media to the public - someone will at some point rip it off! However, you are protected by law under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 and you are granted the same rights as Hollywood Producers. I have posted a link to give you an idea on how to effectively post a Cease & Desist Notification to back up your copyright claim:

marketingdock.com/copyrights/dealing-with-copyright-infringement.php

There are also example letter formats within to assist you with the appropriate wording.

To protect your content in the future, and maybe benefit from those who do infringe your copyrights, try watermarking the video with a link to your website - this way you will gain maximum (positive) exposure. This is more effective if you place the watermark in random positions throughout the duration of the clip. Also, if you intend to sell on your works, then only post teasers of that work with a link referring back to yourself.

Once again I am sorry to hear of your misfortune and I hope it is resolved soon.
Stew 5 days ago

Man that sucks, its somthing that I have been wondering about. I am going to be careful about what I post from now on, don't want any of my material swiped.
Hope you get this all figured out.
Underground Planet 4 days ago

That would piss me off. At first glance I thought it was just embedded then I noticed that they actually posted it with their friggin logo! Wow, sorry man, that does suck. Please post if you find resolve. I did enjoy your post over there though.

Did you have it available for download before you noticed it was ripped off?

- Ray

P.S. I was going to add a comment but wasn't a member so I hit "Flag as inappropriate" and it changed to "Media already suspended", but apparently its not suspended cuz it's still there and it still plays.
Soxiam 4 days ago

looks like they pulled the video down.
Andrew Curtis 4 days ago

I just noticed as well that it's gone. I emailed the site and I left a nasty comment on the video for the thief. It was never available for download, their rip was really crappy quality.
Underground Planet 3 days ago

Glad it's down Andrew, still really galling, especially considering you didn't have download available. Amazing that they went to those lengths.

BTW, how did you find out?

- Ray
Andrew Curtis 3 days ago

The video got picked up by several blogs, I was searching for it on google and that one popped up.
Hook Recordings 3 days ago

Hi andrew,

can I ask you why it bothered you so much. If your a commercial film maker then of course I understand but if your not I'm not sure I get it. Lets say the people that used your video had asked for permission and given due credit would you have allowed them to use it?
Ralph Lindsen 3 days ago

But that's totally not the case. His vid just got ripped from vimeo. And he probably post his vids on vimeo because of the great quality (among other reasons i'm sure), and the version on ebaum is crappy.

Also, according to Andrew, ebaum in general is pretty crappy too (toilet of the internet)

And if people actually wanted to give due credit, why not just embed it? Instead they ripped it, put their logo on it, and pretended the video is theirs.

And personally, i would like to keep track of my vids, how many views, who refers to it, comments, stuff like that. Stuff you won't know if your video is ripped from the place you posted it.
Andrew Curtis 3 days ago

Hook, it bothered me because I didn't give permission. I can see why the person stole it, the ebaumsworld "system" is based on points you get for uploading videos that become popular, so this person was just looking for a popular video to steal, I'm assuming. They left the video whole in the sense that my name was still at the end, the watermark of ebaumsworld gets added automatically to everything that gets uploaded there.

If they asked for permission and gave me credit I would probably still say no just because they were using an inferior quality (stolen) version. I don't mind all of the blogs the video has been embedded on (36 according to technorati) because they all link back here.

What bothers me is having something that I invested my time and energy creating taken by someone and passed off as their own work.
Hook Recordings 3 days ago

Ralph, what part of my post is totally not the case? I don't follow what your saying there. Keep in mind I never saw the video posted on the other site or in what context it was posted. For all I knew they used a snippet of the video

I wasnt aware they simply took the video and stuck their own logo on it which of course is out out of order.

But my question remains. If they asked permission to use the video and gave due credit would he have given permission (Like a non exclusive licence). By credit I mean filmed and edited by the original maker, or if its an edit the usual credit would apply.
Andrew Curtis 3 days ago

In a way they did give me credit by leaving my name at the end of the video. The part about not asking permission was the last straw for me in this case.
Brian 3 days ago

I agree with you Andrew. I'd be up in fumes too.

Just a note, you've probably been embedded on aolvideo...and other search sites... someone else complained about that recently.