Please guide me TIB!

[The_rocking]

TIB:

This commotion about copyright or ilegal stuff is getting a very tense don't you think?

Please tell me what to do?!
I'm getting realing confusing about this stuff.

Can you please tell me what to do?
I respect everyone's opinion including yours, but i'm between the sword and the wall. Don't know where to move.
You know I'm a reasonable person and accept direct critics.
But your opinion here is the most important to me, because you're in the tickling producing mood.

If you want to guide me here or send me an email and talk about it like; it would be fine.

This is an open forum, but everything has a limit, you know.
Your advise is very important to me. At this point I wish to get everyone happy, including me.

 

[fro617]

I know you didn't ask me, but . . .

Rocking-

I know you directed this toward TIB, but since I'm trying to develop a clip-posting site much like yours and have talked to many of the producers on the TMF, let me throw my two cents in. In TIB's case, I was asked to simply e-mail him with what clips i wanted to post, and as much info (file name, file size, length, what type of tickling) as I could, and he would e-mail me back with a yes or no as to whether I had permission to post the clips. So, for TC Video clips, that's the procedure . . .

Of course (and no disrespect intended, TIB; it's just a fact), he is the exception. Overall, 99% of the producers had four basic rules to follow:

1)Only post clips that are known to be the free preview clips released. Now, for the most part, this is fairly easy to figure out. My rule of thumb has always been that if it's anything less than 90 seconds, it is guaranteed to be a preview clip. I have yet to find any producers that sell clips that short (and, as an aside, who would buy those anyway? 🙂 ). Admittedly, you tend to post clips much longer than that, of which we are all greatful for. In that case, it's a matter of remembering whether or not that clip was a preview clip. When in doubt, e-mail the company and ask; I sincerely doubt that any producer is going to jump down your throat because you're trying to protect their investments.

2)Don't edit the clips in any way, shape, or form. Seems silly to say, since most of us don't have that kind of technology before, but I saw edited preview clips floating around on Kazaa, ones where people cut out the company information, price of video, etc. It makes sense though that they'd ask for this, right? The whole point of preview clips is to get their product out there, and it's somewhat pointless if their clips don't ID which company it is.

3)Provide a link to their site somewhere near the clip. You've clearly gone way above and beyond with that enormous set of links to all the sites.

4)If the company finds that 1 or 2 are violated, or they otherwise have an issue with clips of theirs that you post, get them offline as soon as you're made aware of them. Then again, as we saw with that other TC Video clip, you're already more than willing to do that.

Thing is, provided those rules are met, the producers are more than friendly to you. They have no reason not to be, since you're increasing their visibility, and I'm sure they don't mind the extra traffic coming their way, however light it might be, from people who download one of their clips from your site, watch it, and say, "Wow, I really like this clip! I want to buy the video/pay clips now!" I know this whole copyright issue has become the topic of post upon post, and some of the anger about it all has been directed (wrongly, in my opinion) toward you, because you're so visible with what you do. But, seriously, if you go by those guidelines, and ask specific producers when you have a question about a clip, you'll be fine.

Hope this helps! 🙂