Vid.me positions itself as bastion of Video Liberty after #YouTubeIsOverParty trends - is same shit, different name

Vid.me has responded to the current Youtube controversy with a timely video of their own "from the humans at Vid.me" after the YoutubeIsOverParty trended on Twitter. They're smart to do so, after all it was the content creators of Youtube that gave them a 50% year over year increase in viewership for the last three years, and if these creators are now unhappy with Youtube, Vid.me would love to get that content creating community on their side.

Vidme combined a nice helicopter shot of the statue of liberty with an electric guitar version of the star spangled banner, and ended with an overlay of the American flag. Playing up on the freedom of speech angle, the freedom to cuss and have opinions, in a humorous way.

However, the sudden arbitrary de-monetisation of youtube videos that aren't "advertiser friendly" isn't about cursing, as Melanie Murphy was demonetized for having hide acne makeup tutorials. Demonetisation is much like the sudden flagging of Adsense pages, completely arbitrary.
Like when Paypal banned us for this image, which you could buy as a poster on Ebay stores and pay for with Paypal. Do not ask for logic.

It's little wonder with rules seemingly enforced by half-blind puppies that people take de-monetisation personally, especially when some of the most frequently demonetized content is political opinion pieces. Youtube are not forthcoming with what exactly triggers a demonetisation, but have a flagging system for content which could play a role in drawing attention to certain videos. Meaning that anyone who does or says something that offends anyone else may get flagged "as offensive" which then attracts the Youtube bot that de-monetises the video. It's never a good combination to have human viewers flag and bots act on it, but this is how most of our current crop of popular social websites work these days.

Much like Youtube, Vidme offers creators the ability to earn money off their content via their “Creator Program” or “Publisher Program”. On their Vidme Terms page they state quite clearly that: "you agree that Company shall determine, in its sole and absolute discretion, the number of Views for which you shall be compensated." You see a million views and you get compensated for five thousand. Tough luck kid.
There is also the, by now standard, rights grabs further down:

However, by submitting User Content to the Services, you hereby grant Vidme a worldwide, non-exclusive, paid up and royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Content in connection with the Services and Vidme's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Services (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.

Making sure that the creators have gone through the right channels and ensured they have the rights to each piece of uploaded content is sorted a paragraph further down. They ask that your videos "will not contain third party copyrighted material." People will likely ignore this as "fair use" is still hugely misunderstood, but if your channel then gets disabled, you can't cry about it. I'll presume that the helicopter shot of the statue of Liberty and the music in their own clip followed this legal requirement.

You affirm, represent, and warrant that you own or have the necessary rights, licenses, permissions, and consents necessary to publish any User Content you submit. You further agree that all User Content you submit to the Services will not contain third party copyrighted material, or material that is subject to other third party proprietary or other rights, unless you have permission from the rightful owner of the material, or you are otherwise legally entitled to post the material and to grant Vidme all of the rights granted herein.

In the Prohibited Content sections, porn and underage porn is naturally handled, but also content that is "patently offensive, or promotes or condones racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;" which undermines the Vidme video above. There is still a large group of people in this world who agree that swearing is clearly offensive. "Patently offensive" is a subjective term, impossible to nail down which opens the door to having the same exact situation playing out at Vidme as we've seen on Youtube.

Washing their hands properly from any user generated content (that they will earn money from), Vidme states "have the right, but not the obligation to remove or modify User Content for any reason." To really make you feel safe in your choice of new video platform they tie the whole thing up with: We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change or modify portions of these Terms at any time. Standard stuff these days, which also means that when they do change - and they will when they get bigger with your help - you can't whine about it. You agreed to those terms. src="adland.tv/outubeisoverparty-trends-when-content-creators-discover-youtube-policies-are-enforced-seen">YoutubeIsOverParty trended on Twitter. They're smart to do so, after all it was the content creators of Youtube that gave them a 50% year over year increase in viewership for the last three years, and if these creators are now unhappy with Youtube, Vid.me would love to get that content creating community on their side.

Vidme combined a nice helicopter shot of the statue of liberty with an electric guitar version of the star spangled banner, and ended with an overlay of the American flag. Playing up on the freedom of speech angle, the freedom to cuss and have opinions, in a humorous way.

However, the sudden arbitrary de-monetisation of youtube videos that aren't "advertiser friendly" isn't about cursing, as Melanie Murphy was demonetized for having hide acne makeup tutorials. Demonetisation is much like the sudden flagging of Adsense pages, completely arbitrary.
Like when Paypal banned us for this image, which you could buy as a poster on Ebay stores and pay for with Paypal. Do not ask for logic.

It's little wonder with rules seemingly enforced by half-blind puppies that people take de-monetisation personally, especially when some of the most frequently demonetized content is political opinion pieces. Youtube are not forthcoming with what exactly triggers a demonetisation, but have a flagging system for content which could play a role in drawing attention to certain videos. Meaning that anyone who does or says something that offends anyone else may get flagged "as offensive" which then attracts the Youtube bot that de-monetises the video. It's never a good combination to have human viewers flag and bots act on it, but this is how most of our current crop of popular social websites work these days.

Much like Youtube, Vidme offers creators the ability to earn money off their content via their “Creator Program” or “Publisher Program”. On their Vidme Terms page they state quite clearly that: "you agree that Company shall determine, in its sole and absolute discretion, the number of Views for which you shall be compensated." You see a million views and you get compensated for five thousand. Tough luck kid.
There is also the, by now standard, rights grabs further down:

However, by submitting User Content to the Services, you hereby grant Vidme a worldwide, non-exclusive, paid up and royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Content in connection with the Services and Vidme's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Services (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.

Making sure that the creators have gone through the right channels and ensured they have the rights to each piece of uploaded content is sorted a paragraph further down. They ask that your videos "will not contain third party copyrighted material." People will likely ignore this as "fair use" is still hugely misunderstood, but if your channel then gets disabled, you can't cry about it. I'll presume that the helicopter shot of the statue of Liberty and the music in their own clip followed this legal requirement.

You affirm, represent, and warrant that you own or have the necessary rights, licenses, permissions, and consents necessary to publish any User Content you submit. You further agree that all User Content you submit to the Services will not contain third party copyrighted material, or material that is subject to other third party proprietary or other rights, unless you have permission from the rightful owner of the material, or you are otherwise legally entitled to post the material and to grant Vidme all of the rights granted herein.

In the Prohibited Content sections, porn and underage porn is naturally handled, but also content that is "patently offensive, or promotes or condones racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;" which undermines the Vidme video above. There is still a large group of people in this world who agree that swearing is clearly offensive. "Patently offensive" is a subjective term, impossible to nail down which opens the door to having the same exact situation playing out at Vidme as we've seen on Youtube.

Washing their hands properly from any user generated content (that they will earn money from), Vidme states "have the right, but not the obligation to remove or modify User Content for any reason." To really make you feel safe in your choice of new video platform they tie the whole thing up with: We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change or modify portions of these Terms at any time. Standard stuff these days, which also means that when they do change - and they will when they get bigger with your help - you can't whine about it. You agreed to those terms. src="adland.tv/aked-sophie-scores-even-more-free-pr">Paypal banned us for this image, which you could buy as a poster on Ebay stores and pay for with Paypal. Do not ask for logic.

It's little wonder with rules seemingly enforced by half-blind puppies that people take de-monetisation personally, especially when some of the most frequently demonetized content is political opinion pieces. Youtube are not forthcoming with what exactly triggers a demonetisation, but have a flagging system for content which could play a role in drawing attention to certain videos. Meaning that anyone who does or says something that offends anyone else may get flagged "as offensive" which then attracts the Youtube bot that de-monetises the video. It's never a good combination to have human viewers flag and bots act on it, but this is how most of our current crop of popular social websites work these days.

Much like Youtube, Vidme offers creators the ability to earn money off their content via their “Creator Program” or “Publisher Program”. On their Vidme Terms page they state quite clearly that: "you agree that Company shall determine, in its sole and absolute discretion, the number of Views for which you shall be compensated." You see a million views and you get compensated for five thousand. Tough luck kid.
There is also the, by now standard, rights grabs further down:

However, by submitting User Content to the Services, you hereby grant Vidme a worldwide, non-exclusive, paid up and royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Content in connection with the Services and Vidme's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Services (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.

Making sure that the creators have gone through the right channels and ensured they have the rights to each piece of uploaded content is sorted a paragraph further down. They ask that your videos "will not contain third party copyrighted material." People will likely ignore this as "fair use" is still hugely misunderstood, but if your channel then gets disabled, you can't cry about it. I'll presume that the helicopter shot of the statue of Liberty and the music in their own clip followed this legal requirement.

You affirm, represent, and warrant that you own or have the necessary rights, licenses, permissions, and consents necessary to publish any User Content you submit. You further agree that all User Content you submit to the Services will not contain third party copyrighted material, or material that is subject to other third party proprietary or other rights, unless you have permission from the rightful owner of the material, or you are otherwise legally entitled to post the material and to grant Vidme all of the rights granted herein.

In the Prohibited Content sections, porn and underage porn is naturally handled, but also content that is "patently offensive, or promotes or condones racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;" which undermines the Vidme video above. There is still a large group of people in this world who agree that swearing is clearly offensive. "Patently offensive" is a subjective term, impossible to nail down which opens the door to having the same exact situation playing out at Vidme as we've seen on Youtube.

Washing their hands properly from any user generated content (that they will earn money from), Vidme states "have the right, but not the obligation to remove or modify User Content for any reason." To really make you feel safe in your choice of new video platform they tie the whole thing up with: We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change or modify portions of these Terms at any time. Standard stuff these days, which also means that when they do change - and they will when they get bigger with your help - you can't whine about it. You agreed to those terms. src="adland.tv/outubeisoverparty-trends-when-content-creators-discover-youtube-policies-are-enforced-seen">YoutubeIsOverParty trended on Twitter. They're smart to do so, after all it was the content creators of Youtube that gave them a 50% year over year increase in viewership for the last three years, and if these creators are now unhappy with Youtube, Vid.me would love to get that content creating community on their side.

Vidme combined a nice helicopter shot of the statue of liberty with an electric guitar version of the star spangled banner, and ended with an overlay of the American flag. Playing up on the freedom of speech angle, the freedom to cuss and have opinions, in a humorous way.

However, the sudden arbitrary de-monetisation of youtube videos that aren't "advertiser friendly" isn't about cursing, as Melanie Murphy was demonetized for having hide acne makeup tutorials. Demonetisation is much like the sudden flagging of Adsense pages, completely arbitrary.
Like when Paypal banned us for this image, which you could buy as a poster on Ebay stores and pay for with Paypal. Do not ask for logic.

It's little wonder with rules seemingly enforced by half-blind puppies that people take de-monetisation personally, especially when some of the most frequently demonetized content is political opinion pieces. Youtube are not forthcoming with what exactly triggers a demonetisation, but have a flagging system for content which could play a role in drawing attention to certain videos. Meaning that anyone who does or says something that offends anyone else may get flagged "as offensive" which then attracts the Youtube bot that de-monetises the video. It's never a good combination to have human viewers flag and bots act on it, but this is how most of our current crop of popular social websites work these days.

Much like Youtube, Vidme offers creators the ability to earn money off their content via their “Creator Program” or “Publisher Program”. On their Vidme Terms page they state quite clearly that: "you agree that Company shall determine, in its sole and absolute discretion, the number of Views for which you shall be compensated." You see a million views and you get compensated for five thousand. Tough luck kid.
There is also the, by now standard, rights grabs further down:

However, by submitting User Content to the Services, you hereby grant Vidme a worldwide, non-exclusive, paid up and royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Content in connection with the Services and Vidme's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Services (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.

Making sure that the creators have gone through the right channels and ensured they have the rights to each piece of uploaded content is sorted a paragraph further down. They ask that your videos "will not contain third party copyrighted material." People will likely ignore this as "fair use" is still hugely misunderstood, but if your channel then gets disabled, you can't cry about it. I'll presume that the helicopter shot of the statue of Liberty and the music in their own clip followed this legal requirement.

You affirm, represent, and warrant that you own or have the necessary rights, licenses, permissions, and consents necessary to publish any User Content you submit. You further agree that all User Content you submit to the Services will not contain third party copyrighted material, or material that is subject to other third party proprietary or other rights, unless you have permission from the rightful owner of the material, or you are otherwise legally entitled to post the material and to grant Vidme all of the rights granted herein.

In the Prohibited Content sections, porn and underage porn is naturally handled, but also content that is "patently offensive, or promotes or condones racism, bigotry, hatred, or physical harm of any kind against any group or individual;" which undermines the Vidme video above. There is still a large group of people in this world who agree that swearing is clearly offensive. "Patently offensive" is a subjective term, impossible to nail down which opens the door to having the same exact situation playing out at Vidme as we've seen on Youtube.

Washing their hands properly from any user generated content (that they will earn money from), Vidme states "have the right, but not the obligation to remove or modify User Content for any reason." To really make you feel safe in your choice of new video platform they tie the whole thing up with: We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change or modify portions of these Terms at any time. Standard stuff these days, which also means that when they do change - and they will when they get bigger with your help - you can't whine about it. You agreed to those terms.

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Anonymous Adgrunt's picture
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Alexandra's picture

Good plan to jump on the current panic in order to attract more users, but as you say they are exactly the same.

Dabitch's picture

Not exactly. There's a ten minute limit at Vid. me, they have the same anti hate speech rules as youtube does and so on, but not the same almost unlimited filesize and time... Yet.

Grover K's picture

Nope, VidMe is no different. READ THE VIDME TERMS OF SERVICE. Performance is slow. And they have the nerve to turn away verified users when they are trying to build a community of content creators. Same BS. Don't believe their ad about being a home for freedom of expression, speech, or creativity.

Dabitch's picture

Why, it's as if you commented before you read the article. How novel.

Dabitch's picture

The irony that their embedded commercial is now lost in the dead internet dust because they had to shut down....