FAQ

Version 3.1

1.What is PeerDeal?
2.Do you also support other media types: documents, books, manuscripts, business reports, music, audio clips, ring tones, etc.
3.Do you offer Digital Rights Management (DRM), watermarking or other methods to secure my media asset?
4.What is a “media asset”?
5.What are “intellectual property” rights (IP rights)?
6.Why don’t you recognize individual geographical territories?
7.Will you be adding more licensing packages or combinations in the future?
8.What is a “license duration”?
9.What is a “license option”?
10.What is “make an offer”? Why can’t I sell or buy licenses at a fixed price or auction model?
11.How much does PeerDeal’s service cost?
12.What is a “Licensor” (seller)?
13.How do Licensors (sellers) register and list media?
14.What is a “Licensee” (buyer)?
15.How do Licensees (buyers) find and license content?
16.Can you protect my identity and can I stay anonymous for specific kinds of assets or transactions.
17.How can a Licensee (buyer) be sure that the content owner is the true copyright owner?
18.What is the difference between PeerDeal and a stock video or stock photography house?
19.I post my content on my own website or on YouTube (or another media distribution channel). Why do I also need to use PeerDeal.com ?
20.Why was my media asset listing deleted from the system?
21.I have inserted a Creative Commons (CC) attribution into my original video or photo before registering (and uploading) on PeerDeal. Is it okay to keep it listed on PeerDeal?
22.Do you support Creative Commons attributions?
23.Can someone claim “fair use” and use my content without permission or compensation?
24.Do I have to report income taxes on my earnings as a Licensor (seller)?
25.I downloaded the iPhone App. Can I only license stuff from my iPhone?
26.I’m a “YouTube Content Partner”. Can I still participate?
27.Can I sell an audio, video or photograph that I captured during a paid concert, sports or other live event? What if there’s a newsworthy story that occurs DURING the event?
28.Do you offer non-commercial and/or Creative Commons agreements?
29.How do I stay updated with breaking new license postings?
30.Can I register my media asset on another website that sells commercial licenses? E.g., the same photo or video on PeerDeal and on Getty Images?
31.Can I be both a Licensor and Licensee?
32.Can I sell a sub-license of a license?
33.Multiple content rights owners: Can more than one person / account manage and get paid for an individual media asset license?

1.What is PeerDeal?

•Our focus is to make IP (intellectual property) Rights Management and the process of trading licensing rights as easy as eBay.

•We believe the tools for IP rights licensing, clearances and tracking should be accessible to the everyday person as well as the experienced media company.

•Licensors (sellers) can manage one or many licenses in one place and track their progress and licensing history over time.

•In addition to reaping the benefits of a centralized information resource, Licensees (buyers) don't need to worry about filing internal docs, spending valuable legal staff resources, and tracking files about a license that can quickly become outdated.

2.Do you also support other media types: documents, books, manuscripts, business reports, music, audio clips, ring tones, etc.

•For now, we focus on short-form digital video (generally under 20 minutes), digital photos / graphic illustrations, and some types of audio programming.

•We’re planning to offer more varieties of pre-packaged licenses along with support for other types of media soon. We want to hear from you as we test the market.

3.Do you offer Digital Rights Management (DRM), watermarking or other methods to secure my media asset?

•We currently do not offer image-processing services.

•However, if you want to post a preview of your media somewhere online, you may want to instead watermark a photo, lower the resolution or edit/shorten the preview length of a video clip yourself before posting so you can preserve the value of your media asset. There are several off-the-shelf and shareware applications that you can use.

4.What is a “media asset”?

•A media asset is any individual piece of content (including a different version or a derivative work) that has monetary value to you and another party.

•In order to license or sell rights to a media asset, you must have legal ownership of its copyright and related proprietary rights.

5.What are “intellectual property” rights (IP rights)?

•A good start is to see the standard Wiki definition here.

•Same as a media asset but applies to a broader, legal definition of property that can be sold or licensed. For example, a video or photo is intellectual property (IP) with IP rights that can be licensed and traded. However a patent or trademark is also IP with IP rights that can be licensed and traded.

6.Why don’t you recognize individual geographical territories?

•Our licensing options are worldwide and are not broken up into geographical territories. This makes it much easier and flexible for the average person who sells content rights.

•However, we’re interested in hearing from customers about this. Please send us your comments.

7.Will you be adding more licensing packages or combinations in the future?

•We certainly hope so, based on customer feedback. Send us your comments.

8.What is a “license duration”?

•License duration, or term, refers to how long a licensing deal lasts. The Licensee (buyer) will select this before making an offer.

•To keep things simple and intuitive, we provide duration options based on fixed 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months.

9.What is a “license option”?

•License options make up the final terms that are incorporated into a licensing agreement.

•The PeerDeal options are made to be simple and flexible. They include: 1) exclusive or non-exclusive rights, 2) the type of use - Internet/Online, Film/TV or Print/Publishing, 3) the duration of the license (1, 3, 6, 9 or 12 months), and 4) Your offer price (minimum $1.99).

10.What is “make an offer”? Why can’t I sell or buy licenses at a fixed price or auction model?

•An open-ended offer leaves it up to the marketplace to determine how much something is worth based on various events and circumstances. For example, a photo of a notable person may not be worth much today, but it may be worth more tomorrow if this person is suddenly in the news.

•Media is very difficult product to appraise. Unlike tangible items on eBay, for example, where someone can set a price based on the going rate of a collectible toy, the value of a media asset can change from any given day. A video of someone today may not garner any interest, but after a news event, the same video can suddenly command increasingly higher prices from different parties.

•Offers are a very flexible pricing model that can share the beneficial qualities of fixed price models and auctions models. However, we may plan to include fixed price and auction transaction models in later versions, based on customer feedback.

11.How much does PeerDeal’s service cost?

•Registering a media asset is FREE. Tracking and managing media asset licenses are FREE. Searching and browsing content is FREE.

•PeerDeal only deducts a fee after a successful licensing deal closes.

•Fees are basically 20% of every non-exclusive transaction and 25% for every exclusive transaction.

12.What is a “Licensor” (seller)?

•A Licensor can be anyone who owns the copyright and other proprietary rights of a photo, video, art illustration, etc. (i.e., of a media asset).

•Similar to eBay, the same person or account holder can be a Licensor (seller) and a Licensee (buyer).

13.How do Licensors (sellers) register and list media?

•When you list your media content on PeerDeal, Licensees (buyers) can simply “make an offer” to legally license and use your content based on the options they’ve selected (see “license options” description above).

•A Licensor may review, accept or decline the terms of a Licensee’s deal offer, or simply respond with a counter offer for a different price.

•Final payment for every licensing deal gets sent to you through PayPal after the appropriate PeerDeal fee is deducted (see Fees and Charges).

•Note: If a Licensor accepts any offers that include exclusive options, those same options will not be available to other Licensees until they become available again. For example, suppose a Licensee offers you $50 to license your video EXCLUSIVELY for three months, for Film/TV, which you subsequently accept. If another Licensee comes along and wants to offer you $60 for EXCLUSIVE or even NON-EXCLUSIVE licensing rights for the same video for Film/TV, these rights options won’t be available until after those three months have expired.

14.What is a “Licensee” (buyer)?

•A Licensee is anyone who buys the rights to use a Licensor’s (seller’s) media content. This can be any revenue generating web publisher, established blogger, TV network, or producer. It can be an individual or a company.

•Similar to eBay, the same person can be a Licensor (seller) and a Licensee (buyer).

15.How do Licensees (buyers) find and license content?

•We make it fast and easy to find the authorized Licensor (seller) of a media asset and we provide an efficient platform to reach a licensing deal.

•Find the media asset you want on anywhere (e.g., Google search, YouTube, blog or personal website, etc.).

•If the media asset and its rights owner are registered with PeerDeal, there will be a reference link that takes you directly to the listing. If not, simply send the rights owner a note asking them to join.

•Once you find the listing on Peerdeal, a few clicks will allow you to make an offer to the Licensor, which they can review, decline or counter offer.

•You can also set a time for how long your offer stands (between 1 and 48 hours). For example, you may need to get the rights to use the asset for a piece before the six o’clock news tonight.

•We then track the ongoing history of a license, including what options might be in the agreement and for how long.

•Both parties can track every media asset license over time, just like timelines in a project calendar!

16.Can you protect my identity and can I stay anonymous for specific kinds of assets or transactions.

•Yes. There are a number of reasons why we support anonymity: capturing content, especially newsworthy, can sometimes risk political or social reprisals against the content owner. We believe this should not prevent someone from exercising his or her copyright and other rights.

•However, it does make it more difficult to validate authenticity of the content and valid ownership of the media asset. Licensees, particularly mainstream news organizations, typically need to trust that the subject matter and the rights owner are valid to ensure an actual event is not a fabrication, a misrepresentation or a hoax.

•We’re evaluating a method to better regulate this, but will provide users with the ability to post content under a user name or their real name.

•PeerDeal requires valid user information when registering. If, however, an account holder is found to be misrepresenting, defrauding, or abusing this in any way, PeerDeal reserves the right to immediately suspend the account and may elect to ban the user from using the site in the future.

17.How can a Licensee (buyer) be sure that the content owner is the true copyright owner?

•We try to validate new users by collecting their contact information, but it’s difficult for any online service to corroborate content ownership unless someone else legally challenges it.

•PeerDeal makes every attempt to enforce copyright practices as outlined in our Terms of Use. In addition, the user community is self-regulated and we encourage all members to report any suspected violations. If anyone is found violating our Terms of Use, we will attempt to investigate and if appropriate, terminate the user’s account.

18.What is the difference between PeerDeal and a stock video or stock photography house?

•We don’t attempt to deliver or display content on your behalf, or embed advertising or other information. We focus on managing the information about your media asset and its license, which saves you money and maximizes value of your content. For example, stock photo houses run costly content management systems to store and display the media or stream the video. Some even handle licensing agreements manually with a team of people. Both the Licensee and Licensor ultimately pay for this administrative overhead.

•PeerDeal doesn’t take partial ownership of your copyright. After being accepted into their collection some stock photography houses essentially become a copyright holder’s exclusive “agent” to other Licensors (buyers). In addition, some take ownership in the copyright as a “publisher” of the content and they expect to get a set percentage of every license deal in the future.

•Stock houses take between 40% to 70% of each transaction in order to cover their expensive overhead costs, leaving the content owner with much less share of revenue while raising the cost to the Licensees.

•PeerDeal has a very simple fee structure that allows the maximum amount of freedom and flexibility for both Licensors and Licensees. See the Fees and Charges section for more info.

•Stock photography, microstock and similar video B-roll services are better suited for semi-pro to professional “beauty shots” and they are less efficient at licensing “up-to-the-minute” news content or less professionally produced content that the UGC community offers.

19.I post my content on my own website or on YouTube (or another media distribution channel). Why do I also need to use PeerDeal.com ?

•PeerDeal manages and tracks rights information, regardless of what distribution channel the media asset appears on. YouTube and similar sites do not track or help you license content to other online (or offline) services since they only make revenue off of their own network channel.

•Most of these sites don’t reimburse you since they’re displaying your content for free. In exchange they make money off advertising based on the traffic to their website. The visitor traffic they attract is thanks in part to your content.

•Other sites offer revenue sharing based on the amount of traffic your media asset draw traffic to their website. Since this is based on a micro-payment, “pay-as-you-click” model, it amounts to very zero up-front payments to the Licensor and only a few cents for every thousand or more clicks.

•Lastly, online media distribution sites use non-exclusive permission to show your content, so you have the right to sell and license to other websites, broadcasters, publishers, etc. and get compensated fairly… especially if you or your content is extremely popular or rare—which is why you should register your asset on and use PeerDeal!

20.Why was my media asset listing deleted from the system?

•It may have contained content that violated our Terms of Use.

•In some cases, we may believe your listing has little or no value to the outside market. PeerDeal isn’t the place to register videos of the family vacation unless it has some potential of generating revenue from other parties. For example, if you owned home videos of a notable public figure and had all rights necessary and authority to license such videos, this would have obvious potential value to the outside market.

•We strive to make sure all the content registered on PeerDeal has some value that makes it “licensable” to other parties. PeerDeal reserves the right to make this decision on a case-by-case basis. See our Terms of Use for more information.

•If you still feel your listing was deleted in error, please fill out the form on the Dispute Resolution page.

21.I have inserted a Creative Commons (CC) attribution into my original video or photo before registering (and uploading) on PeerDeal. Is it okay to keep it listed on PeerDeal?

•Creative Commons attribution does not prevent you from opting to commercially license your content to others, so it’s perfectly okay to list it on PeerDeal.

•However, be aware that the CC license is irrevocable. In other words, once you make your content “CC” (in any of their categories), it may be more challenging to guarantee an exclusive license to another party in the future (since it may lack a subjective sense of exclusivity).

•More importantly, the value of your media asset might not be as high in exclusive markets if it’s already CC licensed. For example, if the media asset has already been used on thousands of websites under a free CC license, it simply may not be worth as much to a commercial Licensee who wants to show your content exclusively on their ad-driven website, TV broadcast, etc.

•Remember, your media assets are your original “property” with potential value. Make thoughtful business decisions about how you license your media content.

22.Do you support Creative Commons attributions?

•We hope to in a future update of our service. Our first priority is to incentivize licensable content for commercial use by making the process simpler and more accessible to everyone. Please send us your comments.

23.Can someone claim “fair use” and use my content without permission or compensation?

•Maybe. That gets into legal interpretations and why lawyers are often involved with content licenses. Click here for sites on the subject. Based on our research, mainstream media companies including people from rights and clearances departments in network news would rather pay a reasonable licensing fee for the legitimate and specific rights to use someone’s content rather than “assume” fair use.

•PeerDeal’s aim is to create a platform where people can easily compensate a Licensor (seller) fairly, legally and economically. Relying on the fair use doctrine to use someone else’s content should be an option considered carefully with a professional legal advisor.

24.Do I have to report income taxes on my earnings as a Licensor (seller)?

•Taxes on your earnings from licensing content may apply depending on the country where you receive the PayPal payments. Licensors are responsible for reporting appropriate taxes based on earnings made through PeerDeal. Please consult with a professional tax advisor for more information if this applies to you.

25.I downloaded the iPhone App. Can I only license stuff from my iPhone?

•No. If you captured media on any photo or video device, simply transfer the files to your hard drive. You can license content through any Internet enabled computer via the PeerDeal.com website.

26.I’m a “YouTube Content Partner”. Can I still participate?

•Yes. YouTube’s “Partner” program terms are NON-EXCLUSIVE, meaning you can sell, license and post your content on other services. See this link for more info: http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=72855

•NOTE: If you license something under an EXCLUSIVE option, you MUST REMOVE (or turn a media posting to “Private”) your posting from YouTube, your personal website, etc., in order to abide by any exclusive license agreement.

•You can re-post (or switch file view to “Public”) the media asset after an exclusive license has expired.

27.Can I sell an audio, video or photograph that I captured during a paid concert, sports or other live event? What if there’s a newsworthy story that occurs DURING the event?

•Recording a video or photo of any private event or performance like a concert, sports event (even high school), etc. without permission from the producers or owners of the venue and other rightsholders can be a copyright violation. It’s really up to the event producers.

•However, filming a “newsworthy event” that happens to occur during a private performance may be legal and, depending on the situation, you may hold the copyright of the video or photo in that situation. You may also have to acquire other proprietary and like rights to the content. For example, you may have to acquire depiction releases from individuals appearing in the video or photo.

•PeerDeal does not provide legal advice. Use common sense and good judgment. Do your own research online on how similar situations were handled in the past or you may have to ask a legal professional for guidance.

28.Do you offer non-commercial and/or Creative Commons agreements?

•Not at this time. We want to help the UGC community maximize the value of certain types of original content through commercial licenses.

29.How do I stay updated with breaking new license postings?

•See the Help section on Twitter subscription and saved search subscriptions.

30.Can I register my media asset on another website that sells commercial licenses? E.g., the same photo or video on PeerDeal and on Getty Images?

•It’s not advisable. Doing so can risk overlapping licenses. Think of a license as an appointment in an appointment calendar. If you put an appointment on two or more different calendars, you risk overlapping appointments that will no longer be in sync.

•It is wise to use only one service to track the ongoing licensing history of each media asset you plan to license.

31.Can I be both a Licensor and Licensee?

•YES!

32.Can I sell a sub-license of a license?

•No. Buying someone’s license and turning around to re-sell the same license (either on PeerDeal or elsewhere) is against PeerDeal’s Terms of Use.

33.Multiple content rights owners: Can more than one person / account manage and get paid for an individual media asset license?

•Not at this time, although we hope to add this in a future version.

NOTE: PeerDeal.com provides the contents of this section for informational purposes only. PeerDeal.com does not provide legal advice or services. Please seek the advice of a qualified attorney with any questions or concerns regarding legal matters.