has anyone used mdistribute.com?

[Ron Lindeboom]

I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole when I read in their contract that:

“(a) Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, the Rightsholder hereby grants You a non-exclusive, royalty-free, non-transferable, perpetual, worldwide license to access, download, and use the Work for one or more of the Permitted Uses. For clarity, this License includes the rights to create and use, solely as described in the Permitted Uses, works based on or incorporating the Work.“

I wouldn’t give them anything.

So, if you think those terms are not onerous, please feel free to sign up…but I won’t be.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
CEO, CreativeCOW.net

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
– Gandhi

Better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure than to rank with the poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much because they live in a gray twilight that knows no victory or defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

[Ryan Austine]

Hi, I’m the Content Director at mDistribute and we actually agree with you. We have received this complaint from multiple filmmakers, and as such we have updated our Licensing Agreement to remove the line you highlighted.

Our background is in mobile technology, not films — so we are trying our best to learn the needs of the filmmaker community. 😉

Thanks,

Ryan Austine
Content Director
mDistribute.com

[Matthew Geiger]

Ryan-
I am happy to see that efforts are being made to review and create a less binding license for the filmmakers who use your service. It is easy to see that your site is in its infancy, and it sounds like there are plenty of upgrades, updates, and revisions to the terms forthcoming. I have signed up recently, but have yet to upload any content as right now I am watching to see these changes implemented.

Another feature I would like to see as part of the site is the ability for filmmakers to see both the other content hosted on the site and how many licenses of each are sold, so they can judge the market they are working in fairly, and if need be fine tune their product for the market. On the Envato marketplaces (a similar service catering the web/video/design community) this transparency allows creators to be competitive, and make smarter decisions about content creation. Thus a better product line results.

[Robert Knafo]

We recently signed up with mdistribute to offer NewArtTV content. (We produce short videos on contemporary art).

Ryan, perhaps you won’t be surprised if I say that it has been a mixed experience to date (we have been in recent email contact about our issues).

On the one hand, two weeks into our involvement we have already made sales on our content, and support staff has been responsive and helpful re our various inquiries. On the other hand, like Matthew I feel that the lack of transparency is a problem. Specifically we have asked to be able to see how our videos are presented to buyers, and to know who has bought our videos. So far the answers are respectively – no, and – maybe, if asked on an individual case basis. We have duly made a request to know who has bought our videos and are awaiting a response. I am curious to know if others providers on this forum who use mdistribute have similar concerns.

Ryan, I am encouraged by what you say about being on a learning curve re the film community and I hope that this leads to a policy of greater transparency.

[Ryan Austine]

Hi Robert and Matthew. I’m happy to hear that you are getting content sales on our platform, however I am also very concerned to hear multiple users complaining about “lack of transparency.”

In order to address this concern, we have decided to allow 2-way messaging between buyers and sellers on our platform, with the caveat that we will monitor these messages and reserve the right to permanently suspend accounts who appear to be circumventing us to do direct deals with buyers. Our plan is to roll this feature out by Tuesday or earlier. We have decided to not directly reveal buyer details except for the username of the buyer. Seller’s may contact buyer’s who have contacted them or who have purchased their films.

I hope everyone understands that, coming from the web/mobile world where sites like Sedo.com and Flippa.com enforce strict buyer anonymity, we had assumed this was the natural choice here too. We stand corrected — the approach doesn’t work well with this particular marketplace for the reasons outlined by you all.

Thanks again for the detailed feedback! 😉

Sincerely,

Ryan Austine
Content Director
https://www.mDistribute.com/

[Ryan Austine]

Hi, I realized I forgot to address another major concern being voiced, which is the lack of ability to see the content and pricing of other filmmakers. We are currently pondering our options on this one, but due to the high number of requests on this issue we do plan to address it in the near future.

We hope to have a solution for this within a week or two but again we are not fully decided on the implementation approach. In the meantime, we have added a sidebar called “Most Recent Films” which is constantly updating with the latest films approved for sale on the platform.

Sincerely,

Ryan Austine
Content Director
https://www.mDistribute.com

[Nick Ligonis]

Thanks for engaging the community in this thread Ryan. mDistribute looks likes a really interesting opportunity for filmmakers, but I too am weary. Especially after some confusing online chats with your online chat reps. Here’s the text from a recent chat that left me scratching my head, and it seems the reps are somewhat vague in their responses, not particularly well-versed in your business model, and prone to using canned answers.

Here’s a transcript of my last chat with an mDistribute rep to see what I mean:

Please wait for a site operator to respond.

You are now chatting with ‘Andy’

you: hi andy
Andy: Welcome to our livechat support. How may I help you?
you: quick question…can the same clip be purchased by multiple buyers?
Andy: edgar will help
Please wait while I transfer the chat to ‘Edgar’.

You are now chatting with ‘Edgar’

Edgar: Welcome to our live chat service! How may I help you?
you: quick question…can the same clip be purchased by multiple buyers?
Edgar: yes
you: ok cool, how many buyers do you currently work with?
Edgar: we have innumerable buyers
Edgar: buyers from over 40 countries were represented on our site
you: can you just give me an estimate? dozens? hundreds?
Edgar: Hot Buyer Markets are mostly from North America (~50% sales), Western Europe, Brazil, India, South Africa, and Australia.
Edgar: Every person or company that purchases your film has the right to redistribute your film. You are allowed to sell the same film to as many people as you can
Edgar: Get a mDistribute account FREE by clicking on the below given link. Registration is entirely risk-free – you can delete your account and remove your content at any time.
Edgar: https://www.mdistribute.com/register.php
you: that wasn’t exactly my question, I was trying to get an idea of how many buyers are currently registered and buying content from mDistribute, just to get a sense–also, when you say “Every person or company that purchases your film has the right to redistribute your film”, does that mean they can sell my film to others?
Edgar: Please hold a moment, I am checking to see what best can be done.
Edgar: Once you upload a film to our system, it is still yours to use. By adding it to our site and licensing it to Buyers, you are just giving them permission to use and distribute your film.
Edgar: Once you upload your film to our system, you give us the right to distribute your film. You are not selling us your film out right, just giving us the chance to distribute it.
you: ok, but the buyers cannot buy my film and then turn around and sell it or license to someone else can they?
Edgar: the film will remain your property only
Edgar: The buyers can only re distribute it to others
Edgar: for eg
Edgar: like original software
Edgar: and copied one
Edgar: are both same ?
you: eg??
you: let me try to make this clearer, after a buyer licenses my uploaded film, can they accept money from a third party in exchange for the right to distribute my film. In other words, can they re-license it to someone else?
Edgar: No they cannot accept money
Edgar: through mdistribute
Edgar: Once you have the copyright
Edgar: over it
you: Ok, not through mDistribute, but what’s to stop them from accepting money on their own to license my film?
Edgar: Please send the details of your problem for further assistance to support@mdistribute.com

[Ryan Austine]

Hi Nick, thanks for your feedback. I hate to be a “yes man” here LOL, but I also agree with your comments. We decided to add the customer service chat as an extra but have been overrun by chats and we retained an Indian BPO firm to handle this load for us. We are unpleased with the results, and our decision is to entirely discontinue the chat at this time.

We thought it was a critical step during our beta phase, however at this point we will focus on improving our FAQ and keeping our standard e-mail support responses low.

Sincerely,

Ryan Austine
Content Director
https://www.mDistribute.com/

[Todd Terry]

[Ryan Austine] “we retained an Indian BPO firm to handle this load for us. We are unpleased with the results”

Really?

Those usually seem to work so flawlessly, staffed by knowledgable people who, despite less than a rudimentary command of the English language, always seem to be named “Jason” or “Jennifer.”

In this age of technology, why hasn’t someone developed a sarcasm font? 🙂

Seriously, I think that shows growing pains. Ditching off-shore customer service would be a good start.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Robert Knafo]

Ryan I appreciate your responses and the planned steps that you outlined in your posts. One thing I didn’t see addressed is the ability of filmmakers to see how their productions are being presented on your site. I think that would go hand in hand with being able to see other producers’ listings. Looking forward to greater transparency. Thanks again.
Robert