AI Law Guy

Good article from Reel SEO about legal issues related to video marketing. Mark Rosenberg was recently published in Affiliate Summit’s FeedFront magazine with his article titled “Video Marketing and the Law.” We have the article for you to read here and Mark shares with us the basic proactive measures that all video marketers should be aware to to avoid common legal pitfalls, including: right of publicity issues, copyrights, licensing, contracts, and receiving proper consent. Videos can be a very effective Internet marketing tool. Yet, this tool comes with several hidden legal issues. These pitfalls can be avoided if the video marketer is aware of them and takes proactive measures. Right of Publicity issues with online video The most overlooked issue in video marketing is the right of publicity. This right relates to a person’s ability to control whether and how his or her name, likeness and voice are used. In order to avoid right of publicity disputes, affiliate marketers should have all persons appearing in their videos sign a release granting the marketer the right to use that person’s name, likeness, image, etc. in connection with the recording, display and distribution of the video. Get consents in writing These consents must be in writing. That is because some states do not recognize oral consents even if the consent is recorded on video. Everyone appearing in the video should sign a release, regardless of whether the person is an employee, family or a friend. That way, if an actor has a change of heart after the video is taped or after it begins to be displayed, the marketer is protected. Otherwise, the actor could potentially bring a lawsuit for a monetary award and an injunction prohibiting the use of the video. Copyright issues with online video Copyright law also plays a major role in video marketing. Preliminarily, in almost all cases, using video images copied from YouTube or from a television network’s or a show’s Web site without consent is a copyright violation. While the basics of copyright infringement are usually obvious, the concept of copyright ownership is not. As a result, affiliate marketers are often not aware that just because they pay someone to create a video, they do not necessarily own the copyright in that work. In many cases, the person who actually creates the video is considered the work’s author and the owner of its copyright. In fact, everyone involved in the creation of the video, including the script writer, the director and the production crew may own a portion of the copyright in the finished video and possess the legal right to determine whether and how the video can be used. This issue can be avoided by having all persons involved in the creation of the video sign a work-for-hire agreement before production commences. These agreements are written contracts which specify that entity which commissions the video owns the entire copyright in it. Background music is an additional copyright issue in video marketing. This issue is often overlooked. Unless the video uses only original music created by the affiliate marketer, the marketer must obtain consent to use the music. Otherwise, there is a potential infringement issue. By employing these basic measures, you can avoid many of the legal issues raised by video marketing. Read More

These 5 basic tips for video SEO are a good starting point for marketers looking to improve the “searchability” of their videos. 1. Optimize with keywords. Just like any type of text-based content, video SEO involves optimizing with target relevant keywords — both for search engines and for user experience. Use keywords in: File name Title Tags URL Link text Beyond that, include a paragraph of optimized text that provides a brief description of the video. Again, the benefits are twofold: You’ll improve the user experience and your search rankings. 2. Distribute videos on video-sharing sites. In addition to posting videos on your own site, video-sharing sites are effective tools for gaining visibility and additional links. Remember these few points to maximize results: Don’t forget that videos hosted on YouTube and other video-sharing sites should be optimized for keywords YouTube channel pages — and those of other video-sharing sites — should be optimized, as well Use a video distribution service like TubeMogul to deploy your videos to the top sharing sites 3. Implement a linking strategy. Video is judged by the same linking standards as all other forms of digital content. So building both internal and external links is crucial for video SEO. Ideas for a linking strategy include: Cross-linking to other videos Linking to videos from relevant web pages Linking to videos in blog posts Tweeting the video Linking to videos from social media pages Bookmarking the video 4. Encourage viewers to share your videos. First thing is first — if you want users to share your videos, you must create content worth sharing. If your video isn’t interesting, relevant, entertaining or informative, users aren’t likely to share it, let alone view it. From there: Allow and encourage users to comment on the video Make it easy for users to share your video on You Tube, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace Offer video content in multiple formats so users can choose the one that best suited to their platform and connectivity speed 5. Re-purpose your videos. As with text content, the more optimized video, the better. Get creative in order to re-purpose videos across the web: Embed videos in blog posts Break up long videos and create multiple shorter ones Use transcriptions of videos to create blog posts or content for web pages Take screen shots from videos and post them to Flickr and other image-sharing sites Turn offline content, such as training videos or videos of a conference keynote speech, into optimized digital assets for your website source All of these are good tips to get your video more exposure in the video search engines.