Honestly - and this is not going to be a plug for any of the several entities doing this these days - the agreement/licensing angle on selling footage is complex enough that unless you are willing to pay an attorney to draft a set of licenses for different circumstances, and then educate yourself on how to negotiate, and then feel willing to pull off successful negotiations with the media every time you have video to bring to market, you're better off finding someone with experience in this to represent you. They will get more money for you in the long run than if you try to do it yourself, even after paying commissions.
Speaking from the chaser perspective, I want to see tornadoes and get pictures of them. I don't have the time or inclination to mess around with all the other stuff, and I've worked in the legal field since 1992, helping draft who knows how many agreements at this point. It is totally worth it to locate and use an agent to market this with you, and fortunately there are several chasers who understand the whole agent thing.
I'm not selling video at all these days, so I'm not signed with anyone. I've taken a couple years where I'm just enjoying chasing again (and you can tell the quality of my video, which has pretty much regressed back to sucky - or maybe it was never anything but). Anyway, if you really want to sell video, I still feel like it's a good idea to find trustworthy representation to market it for you - it's a big load off.
This will automatically mean that you'll have to start paying closer attention to quality, though. If you're really into the news angle, you would also have to pay attention to time, which was my least favorite aspect of the gig. It used to force people to leave a chase early to try and scoop the other chasers. Now, with the media market being dead, it's more about producing a quality product. The best video has a better chance of being purchased later. I don't think you even have to worry so much anymore about having ten different angles on every storm. Production companies may want more than one angle anyway.
By the way - even though YouTube is the leader, a person can post video to Vimeo in true HD (once you learn the export settings) ... and you can lock it down so it cannot be downloaded by other people. There are still ways of capturing it, but it lessens the risk. Also - don't forget to plaster your videos with your copyright - and preferably a website name that people can go to if they want to find the real deal. I personally am seeing the copyright thing a little differently than I used to. I think that file sharing is HERE TO STAY. It is NOT going away. People will always figure out ways of doing it ... so as an industry, we would be better off finding ways of working with the new market than against it. But that's just me.
