As a creator, I was pleasantly surprised by ATTN:
Few of us are on YouTube to get rich, and while there’s a notable few exceptions who have made millions out of social media videography, the reality for the vast majority is that YouTube is a passion which maybe pays something as a side hustle.
Part of the reason for this paucity of income is content theft. This has been a problem since people began scratching on slates, but these days it’s very easy to have AI inhale a video, get all the text and words, rewrite it just enough to be ‘different’, then publish a new version with stock footage. Won’t be as good, won’t have the months, maybe years of research of the original, but doesn’t matter, almost zero cost to produce. Creators who research and make original content are particularly vulnerable to content theft – the pouting selfie crowd don’t generally have much worth stealing and they don’t have months of research at risk.
Respect for copyright and content effort is also decreasing. Have a read of my account of UNILAD’s legalised theft as an example. If content is stolen off a small creator, well everyone knows we don’t have the time or money to go after the thief, it’s just not worth it. So, large companies can steal without consequence…but as of late, I think those in charge of large corporations maybe have consequences on their mind a little more than previously.
So when a note landed in my inbox asking to licence content from one of my videos, I was sceptical. I’d not heard of ATTN: before, but after visiting their website it seemed like they might be okay to deal with, so I responded with a tentative yes. I ended up surprised, and pleased because:
- the terms were negotiated quickly and fairly, no “this is standard, we can’t change it”. Any time you hear that, it means the terms are NOT in your favour, and they CAN be changed, they just don’t want to. The terms also and did not start with a demand to assign copyright, just a non-exclusive licence. Again take a look at UNILAD’s definition of copyright which must have been the winning entry in the Lawyer Cockwomble Of The Year competition.
- payment was fair
- Once terms agreed, payment was quick via PayPal.
Accordingly, I was happy to licence the content as requested and threw in some extra clips as well. And now I will tell everyone ATTN: is one of the few good guys. Just like I told everyone LADBIBLE is not to be trusted.
