Sports Industry is the weirdest when it comes to copyright
Now its my turn to push the buttons on ignorance in the world. Today we will cover the sports industry and its weird thoughts on spectator sports. Check this post out and you will understand. We got this from over at techdirt.com and we had to write out about it. Read below this for my personal thoughts on it. (they are harsh)
A couple years ago, law professor Wendy Seltzer used the NFL as an example of sports leagues performing copyfraud, by claiming copyright control beyond what is allowed by law. Specifically, she was talking about the warning mentioned at some point during every game. For the NFL it was: “This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of this telecast or of any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL’s consent, is prohibited.” In Seltzer’s case, amazingly, the NFL sent a DMCA takedown of her posting that clip to YouTube — giving her another “teachable moment” on copyright abuse.
And yet, sports leagues still continue the copyfraud. One of the fine folks over at Consumerist, Phil Villarreal, found the wording of Major League Baseball’s warning quite questionable:
“Any rebroadcast, retransmission, or account of this game, without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, is prohibited,”
Unlike the NFL one, at least it didn’t say “descriptions,” but “account” is pretty close. So, Villarreal contacted MLB to request “express written consent” to provide an “account” of the game he had watched to a friend. To its credit, MLB responded and asked him to call someone in its business development department… who (perhaps reasonably) thought it was a joke and did not provide the written consent (and stopped responding to calls and emails).
Now, obviously, this is a bit of a joke (and a funny one), but it does highlight a rather serious problem. Copyright holders are pretty regularly claiming significantly more rights than they actually hold over content, and many people simply assume that they can do this. This leads to them to think that they don’t have basic rights concerning not just “fair use” but stuff that is obviously not covered by copyright, such as an “account of this game.” There really should be sanctions against such copyfraud.
Alright you idiots first thing is first. Its a spectator sport, no wonder why you idiots in the NFL, NBA, MLB, and all others are slipping and people quit watching and enjoying a game when you asses want to push this type of crap. Im gonna make it simple for you. We pay the salary for the overpriced players to run around the field and give us a show.
What that means is you as a industry should be kissing our asses and not trying to screw us over so you can figure a way to keep a few more bucks in your pocket. Who is gonna pay your millions when we quit shelling out the bucks for court side seats, box seats, and all the goodies that you hock. This site is a site that has no issue in saying what is on our mind and if you try to shut us up be prepared to endure.
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