So WTF Vimeo?
So this whole thing with vimeo has really annoyed me a bit. I decided to do a little investigative work as to what the HELL! they are doing on this site. I thought maybe since they had the no gameplay video rule; that maybe they were saying no to all machinima as well.
NOPE!
My hypothesis was proven wrong by one of the Vimeo admins Blake Whitman, who on July 21st, 2008 made a written statement regarding the no gameplay rule.
He ends his blog post by addressing the plan for machinima videos.
Which reads:
2) I make Machinima films! It’s not the same thing! Am I banned?
We currently do not feel that Machinima films fall under the category of gaming videos described above and, therefore, assuming compliance with our site�s general terms & conditions, we will continue to accept such videos on Vimeo. We are not, at this time, banning films that fall into the Machinima genre.
So again I ask the question…..WTF Vimeo?
you can read Blake’s entire blog post at this address:
Vimeo Blog
As for now, I’ll just continue to wait and see what happens and if they’ll ever respond to my emails.
May 25, 2009 at 02: 16 pm
Hum, maybe it’s your WoW piece that is considered “game footage”, since it doesn’t have a storyline. It seems like a weird association to me, as your video has nothing to do with game stategy or anything simillar, but it can’t be “mad people”, and it’s probably a recent piece of yours.
I find it incredible that they completly deleted your account :O Couldn’t they just remove the video they found unsuitable? Why did they had to go all the way? I though Vimeo was more open minded and open to discussion…
I think banning game walk-throughs from Vimeo is a great idea, but not if that politics is re-enforce with a sledge hammer and mods can’t see the difference between a strategy footage movie and a postcard from another world…
Have you send them a second mail? Maybe you could try contacting Blake Whitman via his profile if you don’t get a response from the staff in general…
May 25, 2009 at 02: 45 pm
I was thinking that was the case too, Claire, but also it was hard for me to see how it could have been labeled as game walk-through, or stragtegy footage. It would have been considerate if they had told me which video in question cost me my account.
I was holding off, but i think i will send a message to one of the admins.
I was hoping this site was more open minded as well, but it kind of seems more pretentious than anything else.
June 9, 2009 at 06: 41 pm
Awwww, so does this mean that the Vimeo Witchhunt” is off?
RATS!
I had my pitchfork and torch all ready to go….
…sigh…
…at least we’ll always have youtube to hate on:)
Honestly, I’m glad this worked out for you Bkiddo. I hope they stay off our collective asses about this in the future as well.
May 29, 2009 at 10: 49 pm
I am in the same boat. Not a word and the page is no longer there. Sad in many ways. I am just one of many Vimeo will do this too.
May 30, 2009 at 12: 19 am
well I got my vimeo page back, I’ve been meaning to post an update to the situation, but its been a busy week. It was misunderstanding on their part and they apologized. I sent a private message to one of the site administrators. and it that helped resolving the situation. I’m grateful i still have a place to showcase my videos. If you’re in the same boat as I the best way to solve the problem is to email on of the admins.
May 30, 2009 at 12: 39 am
Thank you for passing the info on. I can only hope my work is still there.
June 6, 2009 at 10: 44 am
Man…screw Vimeo…and screw youtube too!
I hate both those sites equally now.
They are not treating us fairly, and in most cases our machinima should fall under the “Fair Usage Act” since we are not profiting from it. It should be considered “Fan Art” and nothing more.
If I draw a picture of Robert Smith from “the Cure” and post it online, should I send his $10 because I used his likeness? No way, I drew the picture.
What about a cover band that plays someone else’s music in a bar? They profit from it by getting paid at the end of the night, so shouldn’t they be dealing with record labels breathing down their necks?
Better yet, do you think that the people that made the “Chad Vader” episodes have had to deal with this? It’s copyright infringement isn’t it?
The answer is “of course not because they are “blowing” youtube right now, and have been for some time. ”
It’s just plain wrong, and extremely unfair.
I’m sure that my little Gwen Stefani video has hurt her career beyond repair, and that she most have lost millions of dollars because of it. Poor gwen, she’ll never be able to afford the gold plated toilet seats, or that new leer jet this year.
Youtube and Vimeo both have taken the wrong approach with this and at this point, the “rats are jumping ship”. Soon there will be nothing but 12 year olds and “fred” left over there.
It’s just flat out wrong, and I’m sorry this has happened to you bkiddo.
“Youboob – its not about you anymore, it’s about them”
“themboobs” LOL!
June 9, 2009 at 05: 20 pm
Thanks for the support Darrin, and everyone else but after talking to the administrators at Vimeo, I don’t believe that my account was an attack against machinima. it was a simple misunderstanding. Partially my own fault for not tagging my videos or giving detailed descriptions, on some of my videos. I was able to get my vimeo page back in it’s original state. All I did was email Blake Whitman an admin at vimeo and explained the situation.
Vimeo is still a great service that when compared to youtube gives us a lot more freedom to post our content.
My frustration to this situation was due to the fact that i didn’t receive any response to this problem initially. And that the reason given for the deletion was absurd, if you had actually watched my video.
At the end of the day all is well because the problem is solved. I was simply told by the admins that i need to make sure I give more detail and tag tag tag tag! accordingly. Which gives me the impression that the way there system is set up is to systematically delete things which i am not 100% sure about but that a whole new bag of chips, that i won’t get into.
To my knowlege vimeo has no issue with machinima being uploaded to their system. They just don’t want people uploading walkthrough videos, or gameplay videos which don’t have any artistic reverence. I guess this is an effort to distance themselves from youtube which is video whore-ville compared to most of content you find on vimeo.
As i stated before if your account gets deleted for the same reason as mine was, I suggest contacting the site administrators directly and working it out with them.
As far as I’m concern I will continue to use vimeo.