Real LAWYER Reacts to Filmora Controversy 

🔴 UPDATE! My Copyright Strike ▶ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lDAKFyCqJNQ.html

After all the talk about lifetime vs perpetual, upgrade or update, or if the purchaser bought version 9, it was clear I wasn't going to be one of those people to whom Filmora would make version 12, subscription free... to me. But I was wrong. I wrote a note that said I was a serious hobbyist, not a pro, and will not be purchasing subscriptions to any creator software. I also mentioned that as a senior, I am really not looking forward to learning a new program. I got a wonderful surprise. Filmora gave me the Filmora 12 upgrade with no subscription fee, and was told I would continue to get updates or upgrades at no charge. I am very happy, and Daniel, thank you for priming the pump. And thanks to Filmora for having a heart.

I always feel like contracts and agreements only matter for the company’s well being. It does nothing for the consumer. They can break and change contracts whenever they want and then say too bad if we don’t like it. It’s not like I can disagree to the contract and negotiate it- if I disagree I can’t use the software. Corporations can do whatever they want and contracts mean nothing (to the consumer)

Thanks to Ian for the legal perspective on the Filmora saga! Enjoyed the conversation

I found this extremely informative and helpful - thanks Daniel for having Mr. Corzine on this question-and-answer video; and for all that you do.

This entire series is an eye opener. Thanks for standing up to the corporate heavy.

Daniel, thank you for rallying the community and having the fortitude to stand up for what is right. Your research was on point, and you have been so objective and professional in your presentation. It would have been easier to get mad and put them on blast, but you took the high road. You, sir, are a class act.

thanks for this, Daniel! in the past, I spoke out against a company in my field of work, speaking from my own experience using their product daily for over 1 year AND my professional opinion as an educator in the field, and they also threatened me with a cease & desist. it was terrifying. i didn't have anyone professional to turn to for any legal advice. so, i completely stopped talking about it publicly, sadly. so, i just want you to know -- I know how scary it can be to be in your position and how intimidating the company can feel. but you're RIGHT! and it seems like you have support from the community and access to counsel. i wish you all the best. trust your gut and do what you need to do. we appreciate you!

I enjoy listening to a lawyer explaining complicated situations like this one.

Daniel, your the man bro. Thanks for doing this. I myself, got the lifetime watching your channel back when Filmora 8 was out. Stay blessed brother

Thanks Daniel. Actually Filmora at first never thought that the software would be all this popular and surprisingly the Editor become so popular so Life Time license would not have been put on their website. They have to face the problem and overcome this problem.

This discussion makes me think that it would be good to have a Print button next to the Accept button so the user can review a hard copy of the agreement before obligating themself to the terms of the agreement. Perhaps even better, it would be good for the program website to have a copy of the agreement available for review before purchasing or downloading the software.

Your content has been super helpful Daniel! Thanks for putting so much time into these videos so that we understand what's going on.

Most excellent conversation and summary of the legal quagmire. Certainly a cautionary tale. In my opinion, this is one reason why Open Source solutions to software needs have often popped up to deliver a solution devoid of this aspect of the challenges. Sadly, other challenges can plague any human endeavor, but knowing the status of your legal use is often supremely clear in Open Source.

I like to think this is a war exercise off the coast of filmora to show that we are not a paper tiger or without legal advise or that we will back down from their misguided actions against us their customers. They really only hurt themselves through all this. I appreciate Daniel fir raising the alarm in this situation. I feel that filmora will do better at this in the future as they have learned from this mistake and we as customers will not prevail like this. All the more reason to migrate to another software. Thank you again Daniel for this video.

awesome video man, a lot of excellent information.....keep up the good work my man

This was great Daniel! Very eye-opening in legal areas I was almost clueless about and fully clueless about. I recommend people to earmark this video for future reference. When Filmora made good on with us who qualified for the lifetime license, AND when they stopped goading you about copyright strikes.., I moved forward All was good again. But yeah legal education here is important and most likely beneficial for Filmora too.

It is interesting to me, as someone who streams TTRPG game content, how similar the Filmora issue and the Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragon OGL issue are similar. Seeking to ignore or revoke a prior agreement in a money grab that raised a very loud outcry from the people who funded their current success.

By bringing attention to this, when they tried to bribe you and you said you can’t be bought and you wanted the lifetime licence you paid for! It does resonate. We all hate being bullied by corporations constantly and to see them treat THEIR FIRST BRAND AMBASSADOR like that, as consumers we know we deserve better

In some business schools it is educated that there is a threshold of about 15k to 20k subscribers at which a shitstorm goes viral. Like a snowball: to small and it gets slower and slower. Large enough and it size accumulates until it becomes an avalanche.

I'm definitely going to read the fine print as I start my channel. Great advice!

Daniel thanks for your time and effort digging deep into this. I just learned a lot as Iam sure others have too. Great work again thank you for sharing 👍🥰🎩

You're Rock Star status, man! You seem like a very approachable guy at the same time you don't seem like a person who's easily intimidated. Respect, bro. Loving your videos!

Great vid! I would like to add that when most people think free speech they first think of the first amendment. However, the constitution only prohibits government censorship, not private censorship. This is why consumer advocacy and enacting legislative guardrails on the power of giant corporations to squash free speech is so important.

Great video guys! I appreciate ALL that you have done and I'm sure, will continue to do. My take on the Lifetime thing is this: yes, the original base "donated" to a company so they could grow. In return, we were given the ability to grow with them. I wouldn't have been opposed to them being transparent as you said. Hey, I would have been fine with "here is the base upgraded program with some add-ons for being Lifetime member. If you want more of the add-ons, we are going to ask for extra support". I believe I saw this happen with v10 or 11. There were "extras" that you had to pay for. The bottom line here as you stated was transparency...and there was NONE. I hope they figure it out and anyone who wants to use them now and going forward doesn't get shafted.

Those corporate decisions that don't consider the consumer just reminds me of the Coke decision to change the recipe ... which then had so much public outcry that they re introduced it as Coke Classic! Never under estimate the power of the consumer/customer!

Great topic. Thank you!

Thanks for the info bro. Hello from Romania 🙏

Thank you so much. I have learn a lot. Some questions I had were answer and now I have a better understanding of EULA and how it works. Again thank you for your hard work.

I have Filmora 9 and yet I have not update or upgrade 12 version, in your advise which one I choice it. Thank you Daniel.

EULA always matters! I'm guilty of just clicking through. However, when it is tied to money, property, or other people's information, you really do need to read it! Probably the worst I've seen was looking at client management software where in their EULA they stated they were able to take your client data and use it as they saw fit including selling your client information or reaching out to your clients for their own purposes.

Wow! Thanks for bringing Mr. Corzine, and his channel, to our attention. I will be checking him out more as I hope he will be a real asset to me as a creator.

Great content, thanks for getting it out, so that everybody can understand these topics! 🙏

WOW Daniel, you found one! A unicorn! This is the only lawyer that gets asked a question and only gives one answer to it. This was very insightful and interesting to find out what can be done in regards to large companies when they mess around with their agreements to their customers. This could and would apply to a wide variety of companies with a variety of different products or services. I'm glad he mentioned how difficult it is to file a class action law suit, and that it takes a long time to get through the process, because otherwise, you know the sue-happy society that we live in today will try to get a million bucks out of any company they stub their toe on.

Thanks for this. I'd never heard of you before the Filmora saga. Congratulations on winning. I'm fairly certain that at some point in the future, Wondershare will bring out a different video product that is essentially filmora but isn't - and that will be bound to an entirely different set of licensing. I actually love the Filmora software (more than the other video editors I've used) but I stopped using it in certain circumstances because there were a few unsettling things in their terms (yes I did read them as I installed). For that reason, I never ugraded even though I had the lifetime license. Great and enlightening discussion. Thanks. Also, one more thing regarding piracy.. in fact, probably my biggest point about software piracy. It's hard enough to feel safe with software coming from certain countries. If you've got execution rights on someone's PC, you can often do things other that what your software is programmed for. It's another thing entirely to obtain software from a "known to be dangerous" place, such as a pirate site. Doing this exposes your computer and data to all kinds of malware. It's not worth it.

Great interview!! I would love to see you host more interviews. And call it "No Rock Stars Allowed"

Thank you for another great video there, Daniel! I think the law behind software licenses makes for a very fascinating topic, so I'm glad it was discussed in depth with Ian, who is a lawyer.

I use Filmora and stumbled across your video, which helped me a lot figure out how to do things that I knew it could do but couldn't find in the menus in the software. Thank you very much for your efforts. It is really helpful. Do you still use the software? I also think you are very very well spoken and I really respect how you handled the entire situation. I have subscribed and look forward to your future content. I also plan on watching more of your older content since I understand that this Filmora incident was 11 months ago. Thanks for your content and your voice.

18:52 This approach is what Wyze did. They sold home cameras with free 14-day cloud storage but it turned into a big cost years later. They offered loyal customers to continue this or choose how much to pay per month for the service. This means that people who did choose to pay wouldn't be angry about it, and people who wanted the free service as offered could get it.

Thanks man for everything. I have filmore lifetime now. I just do basic editing and I was happy with it… now I can upgrade for life. Thanks to you ❤

Fantastic video Daniel, And I actually thank Wondershare as without this issue I may not have found your channel when I did 👍 I had just had a refund off wondershare for a multi platform version of filmora that they couldn't get working on my android. I'm now a happy Davinci resolve user and have your great channel to watch .... So win win 😀👍

I never used filmora but I became a subbscriber of your channel for the kind way you handle all this situation, you are a great person Daniel, greetings from Greece.

I’m staying away from any Wondershare products.

I got an ad for a wondershare product at the 26 minute ad break 😂

Thank you Daniel! Because of you alerting us to Filmora's little scam, I received all my money back because I had forgotten, that I bought a Lifetime license in 2017! They were very compliant and gave me no hassle for the refund. You da man!

Thank you for these videos, I too own a lifetime license and I didn't know that they did this. Keep up the excellent work. As Always, Be Smart and Stay Safe.

Excellent follow up interview to the filmora issue! Thank you!

Great interview. Thank you !

Captivating discussion! I admittedly didn't know much of what Ian discussed here.

I'm really glad you and other creators brought this problem to light and held Wondershare's feet to the fire. I don't think you could have gotten a better result with a lawsuit.

Well spoken, both of you. Thanks for info.

One thing i would have liked to see addressed in this video is what his opinion was on whether or not filmoras reaction was based on fear of a lawsuit and whether they likely would have lost in court regarding the EULA via misleading and not making clear to consumers what would happen. Regardless of the legality of the uela change itself, the fact a court would agree that filmora had a duty to inform its customers that 'if you update, you wont be getting free updates anymore'. Personally, i think filmora knew they were screwed and rather then waste money on a lawsuit they cant win when they are short on cash, they just begrudgingly did the right thing.

Good information, thanks for putting it out there.

Great job Daniel and thank you Ian! Rock On my friend 🎸

So is there an update? I used filmora back a few years ago their year subscription but is the lifetime license still an issue?

Thank you Daniel, You are the best!

Hi Daniel... I need litle advice. Which video card for video editing you recomend ?!!! not expensive under 300eu. Thank you.

Thanks for this discussion Daniel and Ian. Very informative. Filmora is the gift that keeps on giving.

So they backed down. I am a lifetime licence holder from filmora 9. I am currently on 11. I want to upgrade to 12 but have they fixed this now so that I can without charge? The upgrade prompt still has the original red warning of possible fees - I just want to know if this still applies or is just the old warning they haven't removed. Cheers

Are lifetime users currently upgrading to ver 12? I originally read that it might take them 2 weeks to update their computers and I read the other day where one user said he upgraded and then got charged. Is it OK now for me to upgrade from 11 to 12?

Love your work Man 🤘

Muy de acuerdo con todos los comentarios y con la revisión honesta de esta situación con FILMORA. *Gracias a los dos.* Por mi parte, estoy contento, porque todo termino con un buen desenlace para muchos de nosotros, *Gracias también a Filmora por honrar nuestras licencias de por vida.* Strongly agree with all the comments and honest review of this situation with FILMORA. *Thank you both.* For my part, I am happy, because everything ended with a good outcome for many of us, *Thanks also to Filmora for honoring our lifetime licenses.*

I just noticed that my lifetime license is gone and now I have a $22 monthly recurring charge for effects and stuff (which I was not aware of). So when I first “upgraded” to Filmora 12 back in December (that’s an interesting story too, below if you are interested to give a read), I could only read that additional ~$30 (don’t exactly remember) was needed as a 1 time fee for the major “upgrades”. Now Thanks to your video, just logged into my Filmora account and my mind shed a couple of tears. *Subscription cancelled, not because Filmora charged me more for the upgrade but for the silent changes that happened in the background, and I am just stating it out “it is not an influenced decision, rather an action based on information of recent events”. Thank you so much for all your efforts in researching and crafting such beautifully informational videos, you are a true artist. A little bit on the aforementioned upgrade story: It was normal day, as usual I was sipping some tea and double clicked on Filmora to see a pop up, “Filmora 12 major upgrades, give more money but u can try for free”. Well, of course I chose to try for free (wanted to see what the fuss of major upgrades for more money was all about). So I upgraded, everything looked better and slightly more polished in 12. So I spent a good 6 hours editing an entire vlog. Comes the time to export and “BOOM” another pop up saying “you have to buy to export”. Whaaaaaa! Was the free trial of 30 days only to scribble on the timeline and not export even 1 video? As a common poor man’s practice, I rolled back to Filmora 11 instantly, and then magic happened with another “BOOM”, 11 couldn’t recognise the project file saved on 12. That project could only be detected in 12 (I reinstalled 12 and checked that it worked on 12). 7 hours down the drain is a tough choice for me alongside my corporate job. So in the interest of time, I paid the whatever $30 to get my video exported. Punch is, now that I had paid, I started using the 12 and never rolled back to 11. Just today watched your video and it was another “BOOM” which made me figure that license is gone (okay) and a monthly recurring charge of $22 has been started since December. I had no idea about this (may be I am super stupid to not ready carefully but it was upgrade, WTH was this for?) Well, I am a small content creator who just edits for passion and for a digital diary kinda thing. A recurring $20 just makes no sense as I have literally no returns from this investment. It does hurt that policy changed over time and charges were put without proper communication. Anywho, if you are still reading (thank you if you are), could I ask for one small favour? Please could you suggest a video editor that I can use in my iPad as well as MacBook? Just want to be able to transfer the project across devices based on whichever is more convenient to usein places. Corporate job isn’t letting me have a lot of time for myself, everything is on the go, everything is a hustle. Probably less hustle than brilliant creators like you but gotta keep it moving. Thanks in advance and thanks again for the amazing breakdown of the issue, really helped put things into perspective. Hope you become one of the biggest creators on RU-vid, honestly world needs less reel slo mos and more fact diggers like you. 😊

After this saga, what would you recommend as a go-to video editing software/app for new video content creator? I like Filmora's effects for online video-editing, but wonder if there is any alternative. Thanks.

Good consumer advocate points were brought out in this conversation!

I agree that in general a lifetime license can't be sustained by a company long term. But here are a few considerations where the overall revenue impact might be less significant than bad feelings on not honoring it as it was understood: How many lifetime license holders are there compared to recurring revenue (subscriptions & periodic perpetual license upgrades)? If small, is the backlash worth the revenue loss? What is the percentage of that product's use vs all products the company sells? If say only 5% of that product vs all of their other products, again, worth the repercussions of the fight? I'm sure Filmora is Wondershare's main product, but I tend to doubt the lifetime license holder base was large enough of a share to justify Wondershare's action, especially when they already phased out lifetime purchases for some time already, thus diluting the lifetime holder impact compared to total volume of license holders. They picked the wrong battle and nearly lost the war doing son

What if I do not Update the Software? I got the offer and ALT+F4 the programm... Can I keep the Version 11 with the "old" EULA?

all they had to do was " older customers will keep their life time licenses, the new customers would have to abide to the new ruiles" simple as that.

You're guest, Ian is awesome! Thanks for sharing and for the valuable information. Cheers

Great info!!! Thanks!

Legal Eagle would be a great person to get insight from, as his specialty is corporate law

i have always considered a lifetime guarantee and lifetime licences unless that time is defined clearly , as being 25 years in the uk its often seen as its considered a generational period of time you can restrict down in time by defining it but not below what's defined by law in the country your selling to but forcing compliance can be difficult

21:35 I love that example. To make it even simpler … If you were an individual investor, who invested $80 million into a startup, you’d probably expect on going return for your investment. Even to the point of making that money back after 10 years (e.g. the company actually owes YOU something).

I absolutely read the EULA (and all the subsequent updates) for any paid software or place that I would create, store, or provide content. I'm the son of an attorney and I learned early on that contracts matter and we can, and should, have a voice in those contracts. In the event that they (the provider) make a change that we're unhappy with, we should be providing feedback, or vote with our dollars by moving to something else.

Sheesh, if we all read every single EULA for software and OS's we use, there would be no time to actually use the software.

From what I've heard, the Anchor podcast and Epidemic Sound platforms also have rather shady reputations. Breakup of trust between company & customer can only lead to a crash-and-burn business. I'm a lifetime license holder, but I will always have a mark against Filmora

16:25 This is a great point here, too many software companies keep changing the rules on us everyday. This kind of back lash will let ANY company know we are frustrated with this changing of the rules. I've lived too long to watch companies eventually go back on their word and change the rules. 17:35 On your point here, I purchased this software because it's not adobe and not subscriptions. I think wondershare's plan all along was subscription models, especially since this was already the case with special effects, music, fonts and stock footage. When I saw subscriptions based on extras I knew it would not be long before wondershare would be charging me again for the main product.

I know abslutely nothing about Filmora or you but I've watched every video following this saga tonight. This is better than Judge Judy:) Kudos to you for standing your ground and spreading awareness. A software I use "Bitwig" tried to pull something similar a few months ago with their licenses. Wont go into the details but they buckled under pressure and walked everything back. Groups of customers are powerful especially when revenue is involved.

Did anyone else receive a notice that they were signed up for automatic renewal of the "free" addons pack? I had already purchased the new version on a company account, and didn't want to go through the hassle of a reimbursement. So, I let it go and received my 1 year of free effects. A couple days later, I received another vague email stating that this would auto renew in 1 year, with my card on file. How many people do you think will forget about this, and Wondershare will rake in a ton of unintentional renewals in 12mo?

This applies so much to the Dungeons and Dragons fiasco as well.

Great video, Daniel! I've watched Ian explain Fair Use and he is great at explaining the complex in easy to understand way.

Just a question, but if a company wants to make business in US, they are supposed to have a address or a representative in US soil to answer for their business and also be under US jurisdiction, or am I wrong ?

Even if you read the EULA, and don't like some of the terms and conditions, there is often little opportunity to challenge them! If you want to use the software, you basically have to agree to their terms and conditions because they're "one size fits all" and they won't negotiate with each individual. The piracy point is interesting, from a legal standpoint. Filmora hide behind the Chinese courts with regard to licensing issues, so would they then try and take legal action against a pirate using the US legal system?

Another great video very interesting, I'm not a filmmora user but after watching this video I will be paying more attention to the main software I use to create content with and not just tick the box for the most part anyway. 🙂

Fun note... Davinci Resolve now available on ipad, this is the free version and probably missing a lot of tools. Hope they make an android version.

Ooh this is gonna be good.

How can I stop the filmora 11 lifetime plan subscription? they have deducted 2months ($24.14/month) consecutive from our credit card

My answer for ANY companies not to resolve issues that may affect personal injuries with the consumers is to stop supporting them, don’t buy their products. I didn’t have or experience a Filmora license agreement, it was the over pricing to add the extra packages to use with the editing software. So, I stop using them. And I sponsor others not to use them. Ending the relationship with Filmora hits their bottom profit. Ending the relationship with Filmora or any companies is the best remedy.

This whole Filmora license ordeal, even got some coverage on the LTT LanShow podcast a few weeks back..

Interesting talk. I'll have to start reading the TOS of the programs I use and pay for.

Thank you from the creative family.

I remember once going through the terms and condition of, I believe it was a Steam game... There was wording in there that suggested how having content files stored on your computer could be subject to legal action... So I called them... apperantly, they ysed a generic T&C and never read the thing themselves.

I appreciated the "investment" analogy. Imagine if you bought stock in a company at one price, with the belief that it would go up in value, only to have the company revoke your stock once that value did increase. Or they insisted that you had to reimburse them the difference between what you paid and its current value or else you end up with nothing.

Great conversations, fellas!

Brother you have been doing a fantastic job creating all these content that have wide range of issues especially on the issue of Filmora lifetime license though it's got resolved, but brother am still a beginner / ok level stage when it comes to editing, though at the moment I am using a free editing software (capcut) so how do you manage to pull that zooming transition you frequently used in your video, can I manage to pull that type of zooming transition using capcut.

Awesome information here, and much respect to Ian and also a little because he watches Family Guy but this is a great video, thank you Daniel and Ian.

Hi Daniel, Nice video. Hopefully, they understand customer are king. Without that, they don't have business, I myself own 4 different product licences of their software I would consider me stop purchasing any more software from them I enjoy using filmora, because watching your video how you demonstrated to use it, thank you.. its a shame you're not doing any more videos on filmora Peace ✌️

Thanks Daniel and Ian! The big guys always want to squeeze the little guys. It seems they want their taste and your taste too.

Nice info well said.

I feel ashamed. I caved in and upgraded to Filmora 12 and paid the AUD50. My version 11 was playing up, I then switched over to DaVinci but really battled as I'm not a smart man, my rendering in that suit was a massive stutter. So sorry Daniel for letting the team down.