Storm Highway by Dan Robinson
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                   Sunday, June 1, 2025

An open letter to Reddit's r/tornado (and other similar online communities) about chaser video and photo reposts

By DAN ROBINSON
Editor/Photographer
Important Message 30 Years of Storm Chasing & Photography Dan's YouTube Video Channel Dan's RSS/XML feed

Update June 3: the moderators of r/tornado reached out to me and informed that they are implementing new rules to help with the native photo/video repost issues. Their positive response to this is a sign of an upstanding community and I am greatly appreciative of their support, as will be all storm chasers!

I don't like making posts like this, but it's really become a significant problem that I have to address. Reddit's r/tornado is a wildly popular forum (subreddit) on the Reddit platform, with 322,000 subscribers as of June 2025. The subreddit allows posting of links, but also allows native uploads of photos and videos that are directly hosted on Reddit. These native reuploads of chaser photos and videos is rampant on r/tornado and many other Reddit communities. Some may not understand the effect that these have on the originals (both videos and still photos), which is why I am taking the time to write and publish this article. This is my best effort to convince users of Reddit's r/tornado (and other online communities) to support the storm chasers they follow by posting links to original photos or videos instead of reposting separate (Reddit-hosted) copies.

First, I'll illustrate what I'm talking about. This screen capture shows two recent posts of my videos on the r/tornado subreddit:


Above: Two posts of my videos on Reddit's r/tornado: the first was ripped and re-uploaded natively. The second was a link to my Youtube original.

The bad: The first post (of my Bennington, Kansas tornado video) was downloaded from my Youtube channel (using a third-party app, this functionality is not a part of Youtube and is against their terms of service), then uploaded natively to Reddit as a separate copy independent from my original. When someone watches this copy, they watch it apart from my Youtube channel. I lose out on the viewers, engagement, revenue and growth on my official channel. On the contrary, Reddit gets the viral benefit from that copy and earns advertising revenue on it. I see absolutely zero benefit from posts like these, in fact it's taking money and potential success directly away from me.

The good: Contrast that with the second post about my El Reno tornado video. That post is a link to my Youtube channel's original copy. In that second post, the viewers go to my official channel where I get the views, engagement and revenue when it is watched. I am greatly appreciative of these types of posts, as they play a role in helping me be able to continue chasing and produce new videos.

So, let's move on to more detail about the effect that these types of native reuploads (like the first example above) has on a storm chaser:

1.) Giving credit on a repost does not benefit a chaser.

It is an unfortunate yet widespread myth that "giving credit" on a repost brings any tangible benefit to a chaser (or any photographer or content creator). Think of the last time you did anything that could benefit a chaser as a result of a credit, even if it was something as simple as visiting that chaser's official channels or social media accounts. The vast majority of online users are just like you. Most people simply watch and engage with what is in their feed, then just keep scrolling. Few visit the chaser's original or follow their official channel or social media pages as a result of a credit or even a direct link included as part of a credit.

There is also nothing in copyright law (17 U.S. Code § 107) that makes "giving credit" a defense, exception or mitigating factor in cases of infringement.

2.) Chasers depend on revenue from both licensing and monetized online views of their original videos to keep operating.

There are two main ways a chaser funds their operation (outside of those who are independently wealthy enough to not need it): Licensing, which means getting paid a fee in exchange for the rights to use the photos or videos in things like commercial productions; and monetized online views, which comes from advertising shown alongside, before, during and/or after a video. Monetized online video or live stream revenue is directly related to the number of viewers that video gets on the original upload.

Reposting a native copy of a video to Reddit (or Facebook, Tiktok or on a different Youtube channel) takes views and revenue directly from the chaser's monetized originals. It also deprives that chaser of the subscriber and follower growth they would normally get if those viewers came to their official channels. The "exposure" does not help the chaser's originals, it harms it in every way. A chaser only benefits when their videos are viewed on their official channels.
Illustration of the finite nature of online video viewersIllustration of the finite nature of online video viewers
Stolen copies of a video compete with the original for viewers. The 'exposure' doesn't help the original, it always harms it by permanently removing those viewers from the available pool.

Below is just one example of what often happens when competing copies of a chaser's viral video are posted:


Above: Youtube video traffic data from a viral original without competing copies (bottom) and another (top) with a competing copy posted soon after the original.

I recently made a video showing evidence of how a viral repost did significant damage to my original and my income:

3.) Google search ranks Reddit posts and images higher than chasers' original images.

Google currently ranks Reddit posts higher than a chaser's own web sites, social media pages and Youtube channels. That means when one of a chaser's photos is reposted natively to Reddit, that post will then outrank the chaser's original. Sometimes this causes the chaser's original to not show up at all in search results:


Above: This example is illustrative of how reposts outrank my originals and sometimes even bump them from results altogether. This repost of my Greensburg tornado photo on Reddit was 10th in Google Images, while my original no longer appears in the results at all.

My web site has suffered a dramatic drop in traffic in recent years, partially as a result of reposts that replace my originals in search results. I have to continually send takedowns to combat this, and it is difficult to keep up.

4.) Native Reddit posts are used to train commercial AI systems.

Reddit has agreements with AI companies to train on videos and photos natively posted to the plaftorm. Many chasers do not want their work to be used to train AI models without permission.

5.) Native reposts earn money for the platform that is directly taken from what the chaser would have earned on their original.

All big social media companies earn advertising revenue from native reposts, even if the poster themselves is not monetized. Online viewers are finite: a view on Reddit is a view permanently diverted from the chaser's original.

2024 Q1 revenue of social media and television media outlets
2024 Q1 revenue of social media and television media outlets

6.) It takes extra steps to repost a native copy than it does to post a link to the original.

Downloading a chaser's original video (from Youtube, for example) takes a lot of extra work compared to just posting the link to the original. It requires using third-party tools that circumvent the platform's TOS to download a copy to the user's device, then more time to edit/re-upload the video natively to Reddit.

7.) Native reposts are the biggest problem affecting most chasers trying to continue operating.

Reposts of my videos and photos on Reddit, Facebook and Tiktok collectively divert between 80 to 90 percent of the total online views of my videos from my monetized copies. I do all of the work, bear all of the costs and take all of the risks to capture valuable content, then the vast majority of the fruits of my labor and dedication is being stolen from me. Nearly every chaser is suffering from this type of infringement to some degree, to the point that many of us have joined together as a coalition to attempt to combat it.

8.) Fair use does not qualify in the majority of cases where it is asserted.

Contrary to the many myths about copyright and fair use often repeated on the internet, Federal law (read 17 U.S. Code § 107) specifies that four factors are used to evaluate all uses of copyrighted material. That means that unlicensed uses with commentary, editing, news reporting, educational purposes (including documentaries), etc must still pass those four factors to be judged as fair use. Reposting the entirety of, or the best parts of, a video to Tiktok, Facebook or in a documentary does not pass the four factors test, even if things like commentary and editing are done. You can read more about fair use at the US Copyright Office's Fair Use Index, a site that breaks down how fair use is determined along with a database of actual court decisions that you can read.

I take no pleasure in having to send takedowns and/or legal action in cases of reposts and other infringements. But there is no other way to try to stem the tide of copyright infringement that is decimating my operation. I wouldn't be taking the time to write all of this if it wasn't a serious problem for me and my colleagues. To those who share the original links to my videos, I offer my sincere thanks - those do make a difference.

I have a longer page with many more details about the impact that copyright infringement is having on my operation here. Thank you for reading!

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