Vimeo To Begin Removing Source Files

IAC-owned online video hosting service Vimeo has announced that they will begin to remove source video files. The removal will take place beginning on August 1st. The source files will be stored for a week and then removed. Apparently storing huge video files costs money – can you believe it?!?

If you upgrade to a Vimeo Plus account, the source files will be stored as long as you are a pro member. Vimeo notes that they will continue to store the MP4 file that is used in the video player. A Vimeo Plus subscription is $60/year.

From the Vimeo announcement, “Please understand that this is not a devious scheme to force you to upgrade to Plus. This was a hard decision to make, but we make these changes to ensure Vimeo’s longevity so that you *can* use it for free.”

I wanted to see what the policy is regarding storing source files at another popular video hosting service so I spoke with Viddler’s technology evangelist Colin Devroe. Colin noted, “Our current and past policy has always been to keep original sources for as long as an account is active. We’ve recently begun to either delete, or archive, videos from accounts that haven’t had any activity in as long as a year – to help reduce costs. Although our policy may change in the future, we’re confident that we can keep original sources for as long as an account is active rather than for a specific duration after upload.”