The Premier League is concerned that fans are threatening its earning power by recording content from matches on smart phone and other devices and sharing them on various sites. Vine, which is a short-form video sharing service is often used (it is owner by Twitter). The Times and The Sun pay a lot of money for exclusive rights to this sort of content.
The Premier League is concerned that fans are threatening its earning power by recording content from matches on smart phone and other devices and sharing them on various sites. Vine, which is a short-form video sharing service is often used (it is owner by Twitter). The Times and The Sun pay a lot of money for exclusive rights to this sort of content.
It was good to hear sports lawyer Daniel Geey give an authoritative view on the topic on Radio 5 this morning. He drew an analogy with the battle the Premier League launched against pubs streaming from overseas sites a few years ago.
There is no doubt that the Premier League holds rights to the intellectual property. One might think that it would be difficult to police the actions of hundreds of thousands of fans, but what you do is target the sites themselves and get material taken down. Geey pointed out that the Premier League reached an agreement of this kind with YouTube some time ago. The Premier League has technology it can provide to sites, although popular clips can spread like wildfire.
To judge from the interviews conducted by Radio 5, fans have no intention of changing their use of these devices at matches. However, some clubs are starting to crack down, Manchester United have banned tablets being brought into matches, ostensibly on the grounds of their size, but arguably to stop recordings taking place.
It’s possible that checking Twitter after a goal or an incident leads fans to miss a new incident, but that is their choice. Sharing material is clearly going to lead to some interesting legal battles.