What is PeerDeal?
With over 4 billion camera enabled consumer devices out on market,
everyone has become a prospective copyright owner for original content
they capture or create. Our focus is to make IP (intellectual property)
Rights Management, or the ability to legitimately license copyrights,
and the process of trading license rights as easy as using eBay(tm). We
believe the tools for IP rights licensing, rights clearances and rights
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, profit, and licensing history over time. Similar to a calendar program, PeerDeal helps independent content owners to keep track of licenses that can often be held by multiple Licensees with different expiration dates.
In addition to
reaping the benefits of a centralized information resource, Licensees
(buyers) don't need to worry about filing legal documents, the cost of
valuable legal staff resources, or tracking information about a
license. Particularly since licensing agreements tend to be dynamic:
new terms can be added, changed or new Licensees might purchase
additional rights in the future.
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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 (regardless of
resolution), and some types of audio programming. Other than musical
ring tones and sound FX, we're not able to manage music rights at this
time (e.g. recorded songs, albums, orchestrated music, etc.).
We’re also
planning to offer more varieties of pre-packaged license categories (we
currently support three, commonly used general categories:
Internet/Online, Film/TV, Print/Publishing) along with support for
other types of media soon. We want to hear from you as we test the
market.
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Do you offer
Digital Rights Management (DRM), image watermarking or other methods to
secure my media asset?
We currently do not offer DRM or image-processing watermark services.
However, if you want to post a preview of your media somewhere online
and worried about content piracy, you may want to watermark your photo
or video yourself, lower the preview 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.
Tip: If you edit
the preview content in a manner listed above, make sure to mention in
the "Content Description" or "Special Instructions to Licensees"
section in the "Register New Media Asset" page that a better quality
file would be delivered after a licensing deal closes.
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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. See our Terms of Use for more information on our policy.
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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.
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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 more flexible
for the average person who sells content rights.
However, we’re
interested in hearing from customers about this. Please send us your
comments to support@peerdeal.com.
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Will you be adding more
licensing packages or other licensing combinations in the future?
We certainly hope so, based on customer feedback. Send us your comments
to support@peerdeal.com.
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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. We will be adding a "perpetuity" option soon.
back to topMedia is a very
difficult product to appraise. For example, unlike tangible items on
eBay, where someone can set a reasonable price based on the going rate
of a collectible product, the value of a media asset can change from
any given hour, day, week, month, or year. A video of someone today may
not garner any interest, but after a news event, the same video may
suddenly command increasingly higher prices from different parties.
Offers are a
very flexible pricing model that can share the beneficial qualities of
a fixed price model and an auction models. However, we may plan to
include fixed price and auction transaction models in later versions,
based on customer feedback.
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.
Our fee
structure is very competitive to other stock photography or video
houses that can deduct between 40% and 70% of a licensing sale! We
strive to keep the overhead costs low so the content owner can derive
maximum profit value from their content.
Similar to eBay,
the same person or account holder can be a Seller or Buyer (Licensor or
Licensee) in PeerDeal.
A Licensor
(seller) may accept or decline the terms of a Licensee’s deal offer. If
the seller declines the offer, the buyer can make a new, revised offer
while the media asset is available.
Final payment for every licensing deal gets sent through PayPal
after the appropriate PeerDeal fee is deducted (see Fees and
Charges).
Note: If a
seller accepts any offers that include exclusive options,
those categories 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 Film/TV, for three months, which
you subsequently accept. If another Licensee comes along and wants to
offer you any amount for EXCLUSIVE or even NON-EXCLUSIVE licensing
rights for the same video for Film/TV, their offer won't be processed
in the system. The vide clip won’t be available for licensing until
after the current three month license has expired.
Similar to eBay,
the same person can be a Licensor (seller) and a Licensee (buyer)
through the same PeerDeal account.
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How do Licensees (buyers) find and
license content?
We strive to 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.
Buyers can find
assets through any search engine (e.g., Google search, YouTube, blog or
personal website, etc.) as wells as by accessing the PeerDeal site
directly.
If the media
asset and its rights owner is registered with PeerDeal, there will be a
reference link that takes you directly to the listing on PeerDeal. If
not, simply send the rights owner a note asking them to join
PeerDeal.com.
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 (the default maximum is 30 days).
For example, you may need to get the rights to use the asset for a
piece before the six o’clock news tonight. Simply set the offer
calendar to expire with today's date and a time before 6 pm.
We also 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 through PeerDeal over time, just like
appointments in a calendar! That's why it's important to only use
PeerDeal to license a media asset.
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 when they first register, but it’s always difficult for any
online service to confirm legitimate content ownership unless someone
else legally challenges it. Fundamentally, we believe most people are
fundamentally honest and want to participate in a legal and beneficial
trading environment when it comes to licensing copyrights.
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.
What
is the difference between PeerDeal and a stock video or stock
photography house?
We focus on managing the information about your media asset
rather than content storage, preview and delivery. This saves our
community of users money and maximizes the real value of media content.
For example, stock photo houses (including stock video and microstock
agencies) run expensive content management systems to store and display
the media or stream the video. Some even handle licensing agreements
manually with a team of lawyers in the background. Although this might
be suitable for some content creators, both Licensees and Licensors
ultimately pay for these substantial overhead costs. PeerDeal leverages
the Cloud storage that everyone has from online services for free or
through subscription. Otherwise, this is a redundant cost for all
parties.
Some stock
photography/video agencies take a percentage ownership of a content
owner's IP. After being accepted into their collection, they
essentially become a copyright holder’s exclusive “agent” to other
Licensees (buyers). In addition, some take ownership in the copyright
as a “publisher” of the content. Either way, they expect to get a set
percentage of every license deal in the future, thereby reducing the
amount a copyright owner gets paid. PeerDeal NEVER takes partial
ownership of your copyright. We simply offer a trading place for buyers
and sellers to come together and cut a deal, then we serve as a tool
for tracking that information over time.
Stock
photography/video agencies are known to 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.
Lastly, 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
non-professional content that the UGC community offers.
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 ad revenue sharing based on the amount of traffic your media
asset draws to their site. Since this is based on a micro-payment,
“per-eyeball” model, it amounts to zero up-front payments to the
Licensor and only a few cents for every thousand or more clicks.
Although some popular videos make a good return, licensing content to
other Licensees can bring in diverse revenue channels more efficiently
than through a single website.
Lastly, online
media distribution sites generally use non-exclusive permissions to
show your content, but you have the right to sell and license to other
websites, broadcasters, publishers, etc. and get compensated fairly.
PeerDeal also offers EXCLUSIVE rights agreements which can demand
premium revenue potential, especially if the content is extremely
popular or very rare.
Why was my
media asset listing deleted from the system?
It may have contained content that violated our Terms of Use.
You should get an email notification of the reasons.
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 famous public
figure at a family gathering and had all rights necessary and authority
to license such videos, this would have obvious potential value to the
outside market. However, a video of Average Joe and his family likely
has no 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 that your listing was deleted in error, please
fill out the form on the Dispute
Resolution page.
However, be
aware that the CC license is irrevocable. In other words, once you make
your content “CC” (in any of their categories), it will be more
challenging to guarantee an exclusive license to another party in the
future (since it may lack a subjective sense of exclusivity). In some
cases, you may never be able to legally license that media asset
exclusively (although you can license it non-exclusively), depending on
the terms.
More
importantly, the value of your media asset might not be as high in the
market 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 monetary value.
Make thoughtful business decisions about how you license your media
content.
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.
NOTE: If you
license something under an EXCLUSIVE PeerDeal option, generally you may
be asked to REMOVE (or turn a YouTube file security to “private”) your
posting from YouTube, your personal website, etc., in order to abide by
any exclusive license agreement. For example, an exclusive license for
a blogger to use my video on his website means that I shouldn't have
the same video posted on another site, personal or otherwise.
You can re-post
(or switch YouTube file security to “public”) the media asset after an
exclusive license has expired.
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" (also known as
"talent releases") from individuals appearing in the video or photo.
Many of these forms are available online for free.
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.
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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.
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How do
I stay updated with breaking new license postings?
See the Help
section on Twitter subscription and saved search subscriptions.
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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?
No. Doing so can risk overlapping licenses. Think of tracking
a license similar to an appointment in a calendar program. If you put
the same appointment on two or more different calendars or services
that are not in synch, you risk overlapping appointments, among other
problems.
To comply with a
legal PeerDeal licensing agreement, you must use only one company's
service to track the current and future licensing history of each media
asset you plan to license.
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Can I be both a Licensor and
Licensee?
YES!
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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.
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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.
© 2010 PeerDeal.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved