Vimeo is the latest service to become embroiled in a brouhaha over its Terms of Service (ToS). The specific language that upsets people is here:
By submitting your Submission to VIMEO, you hereby grant VIMEO and its affiliates, successors and assigns a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable (through multiple tiers) and transferable license (with a right to create derivative works) to use, copy, transmit or otherwise distribute, perform, modify, incorporate into other works, publicly perform and display your Submission or any portion thereof, in or through any medium, whether now known or hereafter created. VIMEO shall be entitled to unrestricted use of any Submission for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation to the submitter.
Vimeo, for its part, points out that they have been around for four years and have never abused a user’s content. The problem, of course, is not that they have abused it, but that they could.
It’s entirely possible to envision a future where some user creates a web clip or series that goes viral; Vimeo gets in a spot of financial trouble, and some advertising agency or TV producer comes along and offers millions of dollars for the rights to the video. Under the current terms of service, the user would have no recourse, since they’ve effectively given up all rights under Vimeo’s draconian ToS.
Vimeo further compounded their problems by responding on their forum:
Be assured that the carefully chosen language used in Vimeo’s Terms of Service, including the content license, is only as broad as is necessary to facilitate content for Vimeo.com and to protect the reasonable business interests of Vimeo, LLC.
Most readers immediately said, “Bullshit.” If this is only as broad as is necessary, then how is it that YouTube, Yahoo!, and other web services find it perfectly acceptable to allow user-generated content without claiming a full unrestricted license forever?
It’s obvious that an over-zealous lawyer once again tries to “do the right thing” for his or her client, only to cause the business to lose immense value in the process. Vimeo, frankly, has lots thousands of potential customers, and it will take years to win them back.
Vimeo has stated that they are “working on clarifying [their] TOS right now.” Hopefully, they’ll get their act together because Vimeo is one of the premier sites for hosting video (especially HD video).
Talking About My Desk from Glen Campbell on Vimeo.
