My column on how web video producers are being exploited by broadcast media
by on August 7th, 2007
My first Guardian Unlimited column just went live. It’s called “Give us credit” and it’s about the contracts that we receive from broadcast media to license our content for television. I wrote about this because I haven’t seen anyone writing about it before and because I feel it’s important to anyone publishing their own videos on the internet.
Now that the excitement over reality TV is dying down, a new budget-saving television revolution is upon us: internet video reruns. Later this year, many stations across America will be launching shows featuring some of the most popular web videos you’ve already seen. They’ll also be screwing the producers of those videos – people like me – out of royalties, recognition and more.
Kudos Casey on a very well written article.
Am I the only one to note that the photo they used isn’t credited?
The photo was shot by Lan Bui (http://lanbui.com) but is a promotional photo now owned by me. So, who are they supposed to credit? They could credit Lan Bui as the photographer, but not the copyright… so I’m not sure what the protocol is. If Lan Bui is wronged by getting no credit, than it’s my fault for giving them the photo without telling them who originally took it and touched it up.
Okay… I’ve just called and left Lan Bui a message to clarify the protocol. I’ll post the outcome of the discussion here, so you can follow up.
Excellent article! I was just thinking about these issues as I saw some new show/feature of Net content being advertised on ABC. I agree that it will get crazy in the coming months. I wonder who these shows are geared for? People who do not have access to the Net. I will never watch this stuff on TV since I already caught these videos the first time around months/years ago. Am I in the minority? I suppose the traditional TV networks are betting on it.
Thanks Seska! Yeah… I’d only watch these shows if there were NOTHING else on!
Regarding the photo in question, Lan Bui has confirmed that I have no obligation to credit him at all. This is part of the business agreement that we made when I paid him for my headshots, so there is no need for alarm.
[...] Montreal web-media darling Casey McKinnon has an opinion in the Guardian (yeah, that Guardian) about mainstream media trying to screw over independent web producers. With all sorts of TV shows popping up that are basically just collections of popular YouTube videos, it’s rather a propos. [...]
Casey, I was joking about the photo thing.
Great article, Casey!
I advised a national network last year trying to develop a cheap web video startup. It was just an internal pilot, but I made sure they knew that vloggers sure wouldn’t mind getting paid, and that the network should not demand exclusivity.
@Fagstein: Well, I felt the need to reply with all the hubbub over PodTech… also, I got a call from Steve Garfield yesterday asking the same thing!
@Chuck: Well done! I think it’s important for video bloggers to get paid at least enough to cover the cost of consulting a lawyer!