Best Practices for Online Media Aggregation

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I. What’s the Point?

• Media aggregators (“MA”) want content to draw an audience.

• Content owners (“CO”) want to grow their audiences.

• Audiences want online media for free.

• If MA and CO work together, they and the viewing public will benefit.

RSS technology, which is the basis for audio and video podcasting, allows others to easily subscribe to your content. It also allows others to “scrape” your content feed and re-purpose it on their websites. This can be done to benefit only the re-poster, or to mutually benefit both the content owner and the re-poster, aka the “aggregator.” This document examines the best practices of media aggregation. This document covers both audio and video media.

II. Our Goals

1. To interact with aggregators in a fair, professional, and responsible way.

2. To educate the public about reputable and disreputable practices, so we can use the marketplace to support those aggregators who respect and value independent media producers.

3. To encourage business models that acknowledge and compensate the contributions of both the hosting platform and the content owners.

4. To support independent media producers, aka original content owners.

III. Caveats: Please Read This First!

• We have organized the best practices into two categories. “First Priority” items are considered by the majority of CO’s to be essential, as they relate directly to how the CO can track all users of CO’s original content. “Second Priority” items are more relevant to the give and take relationship between the MA and the CO.

• All items here can be modified when there is direct agreement negotiated between MA and CO. These practices apply to the “bulk” use of RSS feeds when there is no prior business relationship between MA and CO.

• CO’s agree to use standards-compliant RSS feeds that include the applicable copyright license, show graphics, contact information, permalinks, etc. to enable responsible MA practices.

IV. First Priority Best Practices

1. CO retains full ownership of her/his content and is responsible for the originality of her/his content. This is regardless of where it is distributed. MA does not write a Terms of Service (TOS) that attempts to claim ownership of content in exchange for services. CO respects the copy-protection licenses of any content it includes in its shows

2. MA delivers the CO’s original feed. MA does not grab content and re-host on its servers. MA does not transcode or repost content in its own media player. MA does not generate its own RSS feed using re-hosted content. MA does not cache media on its servers. These practices give playback metrics to the MA, not the CO.

3. MA provides easy and direct access to CO’s website. There is a prominent link back to CO’s website. There is a prominent link to the CO’s original RSS feed. MA uses CO’s show graphic, provided they are correctly included in CO’s RSS feed. MA provides the CO’s links, show name, and info on every page where CO’s media is displayed. MA makes it clear to visitors that CO’s content is being aggregated from the original source. If the MA is offering visitors the ability to mashup various CO feeds, those links are clearly distinguished from CO’s original feed links.

4. MA does not alter CO’s content. MA does not insert its own or remove or disable CO’s advertisements in the original content. MA does not watermark or otherwise insert its own brand into the playback experience. MA does not insert pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll advertising of any kind without direct approval from the CO.

5. MA honors all licenses attached to CO’s original content. MA displays the copyright license applied to each piece of media when it is included in the RSS feed. MA does not promote or encourage its visitors to violate copyright. This includes full copyright as well as the various Creative Commons licenses.

6. MA shares site revenue with CO. In many cases, both the MA and the CO want to make the CO’s content available to the site visitor for free. This does not imply that CO is making the content available for free to the MA. When revenue is generated (typically from advertising related to page views) then that advertising revenue should be distributed to both MA (for building the platform) and to the CO (for providing the content that draws visitors.)

V. Second Priority Best Practices

1. MA enables CO to create an account on the MA site and “claim her/his feed.” This assures accuracy in the information presented and builds a collaborative relationship.

2. MA enables CO to opt-out of being listed on MA’s site.

3. MA provides playback statistics to CO.

4. MA does not use frames or other programming to embed CO’s web site pages directly within MA’s site.

5. MA notifies CO when her/his feed has been re-distributed on MA’s site.

6. If MA provides reviews or ratings of CO’s content, those reviews are clearly explained and attributed.

7. MA uses good judgment and does not co-mingle adult-oriented ads with CO’s G-rated content.

8. Revlogging: Please contact the CO whose media you are using and invite the into the discussion. Please remember that in most cases with Creative Commons, the copyright license travels with the sampled media.

VI. Take the Next Steps!

Let us know how we can improve and clarify these practices.

Sign on as a supporter of these Best Practices for Online Media Aggregation. Go to

Spread the word so others know about it: blog it, podcast it, email it.

Start conversations with the aggregators you know personally so we can grow together.

Tell us the aggregators you know about; we are starting a master list.

Visit www.itvguild.com to learn more and act now.

VII. Contributors:

The very insightful and passionate discussion on the Videoblogging List at Yahoo.

videoblogging.yahoo.com

Mike Hudack, co-founder of blip.tv

http://videovertigo.org/information/aggregation/

Todd Cochrane - host of geeknewscentral.com

http://www.geeknewscentral.com/archives/007014.html

Roxanne Darling - co-producer and host of Beach Walks with Rox
http://www.barefeetstudios.com and http://www.beachwalks.tv

http://www.itvguild.com