MLB Follows NFL In Restricting How Reporters Can Report On Games Online

from the who-puts-up-with-this-stuff? dept

Thu, Feb 28th 2008 12:38pm — Mike Masnick

Brian writes in to let us know that Major League Baseball seems to be following the NFL's rules on how reporters are allowed to report on games. In the MLB's case, reporters can only post short video clips, can't post more than 7 photos per game and all non-text content must be removed after 72 hours. It's fairly amazing that news organizations agree to put up with these restrictions. The fact that news organizations caved into the NFL is what has allowed MLB to go down a similar path. Again, MLB has every right to set the terms by which it gives out press passes, but news organizations should push back against these policies, potentially buying tickets themselves, rather than getting team-approved press passes. It's also not at all clear why a news report shouldn't be allowed to post as many photos as they want on their site, or why they shouldn't be able to leave them online for more than a few days.

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Filed Under: mlb, reporters, rules
Companies: mlb

18 Comments

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Buzz, 28 Feb 2008 @ 1:22pm

joy
That day is coming! Someday I will be able to copyright my face, walk around in public, and sue everyone who looks at me! Oh, and I can Google my name and sue anyone who mentions me or something I have done. I'm going to sue my (future) children someday when they attempt to tell THEIR children the same bedtime stories I used to tell.

Welcome to 2008.
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Wrong Approach, 28 Feb 2008 @ 1:51pm

Right Idea
I don't think the media should push back against these asinine restrictions. Instead, they should simply refuse to cover the sport. The owners will quickly realize obscurity is far worse than a few pictures on a news blog.
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rman, 28 Feb 2008 @ 1:53pm

Another plan
Instead of the press not buying their own tickets, I think it would be great to simply provide ZERO coverage for a few games. Maybe then the MLB and NFL would get the point that the press is a good thing.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Feb 2008 @ 2:07pm

Why do they do this...
I'm not American and am not a fan of baseball or American Football, so obviously I don't follow after match reports etc... but why is it in the interests of the NFL or MLB to block images/clips of games appearing on other sites?

Do they sell them on their own sites or something?
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Cnile1, 28 Feb 2008 @ 2:25pm

What about the fans
Will fans then be required to forget what they saw or forbidden to speak of the game with friends.
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James, 28 Feb 2008 @ 2:35pm

Don't cover it
This is assinine.. no media coverage equals major league WHO?? I'd love it if they got no coverage over this, NFL as well.. serve them right for being idiots.
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GeneralEmergency (profile), 28 Feb 2008 @ 3:08pm

I started my own personal sports media blackout...
...several years ago.

I woke one day and realized that it was all very un-entertaining entertainment overloaded with advertising and lowest common denominator puffery, and there were much, much more interesting things to do with my leisure time.

Now if I could just come up with a way to block them completely out of all my news spaces, I'd be uber happy.
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John (profile), 28 Feb 2008 @ 3:12pm

Agree with post #2
I say we give in the NFL, MLB, and any other sports organization that wants to restrict reporting.

Ten years from now they'll be whining that no-one cares about the sport because no reporters are reporting on it anymore.

Maybe these organizations should read Tech Dirt's articles about "free": maybe if reporters posted free pictures of the games, the teams would get more publicity, and more people would *buy* tickets and support the sport.
Nah, that'll never work.
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NickFreno, 28 Feb 2008 @ 5:15pm

I'm thinking about putting a patent on my favorite seat on the Max Light Rail here in Portland Oregon. I am sick and tired of having to sit somewhere else after a hard day's work just because some nimrod saw an empty seat.

(FYI = I also put a patent on putting a patent)
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Alfred E. Neuman, 28 Feb 2008 @ 8:19pm

Wake up n smell the coffe
MLB is the organization that thinks they can copyright facts.
Now they want control over the dissemination of facts.

And they wonder why attendance is down, go figure.
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Mike (profile), 28 Feb 2008 @ 10:27pm

Re: Wake up n smell the coffe
And they wonder why attendance is down, go figure.

As much as I dislike MLB's actions, the statement above is not true.

They've set records for attendance 4 straight years:

http://washingtontimes.com/article/20070925/SPORTS/109250082/1005
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Juan Ponce de León, 29 Feb 2008 @ 5:39am

Re: Wake up n smell the coffe
Hey Alfred,

Sorry to do this, but they didn't have a grilled cheese sandwich for me at the Coffee place in Florida, and the coffee they had wasn't in a fountain. (Those Bastards!) I am still searching.

Are you still sending that sammich to me?

-J.P. DeLeon
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matt, 29 Feb 2008 @ 5:51am

pshaw
Methinks the media needs to grow a pair and stop covering MLB until they stop acting like legal a-holes.
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In related news, 29 Feb 2008 @ 6:51am

Re: Re: Wake up n smell the coffe
"Baseball executives cited a number of factors for the rise in attendance, including the addition of the wild card and interleague play, construction of new ballparks and increased competitive balance."

MLB has higher attendance this year because they increased the total number of games played ?
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Ted Kasten, 29 Feb 2008 @ 8:13am

Only Legal MLB Coverage
Apparently MLB would rather have us watch highlights of the Roger Clemens Grand Jury testimony than actual game highlights.

http://playersearch.com/Search.aspx?q=Roger%20Clemens

Ted
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Feb 2008 @ 9:26am

Don't watch MLB
I quit watching MLB baseball years ago. They have the most utterly absurd views on IP in all of America (they make the NFL, RIAA, MPAA and Microsoft seem rational by comparison). Steroids are a huge problem and the owners turned a blind eye to it. There are huge wealth discrepancies between teams and MLB leadership has no desire to change it (something that is not a problem in NFL, NHL and NBA). I suggest you all do the same. Don't watch their games.
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minorleagueGIANT, 4 Mar 2008 @ 12:45pm

RE: the inquiry from our foreign anonymous coward
MLB and the NFL are both hoping that they will draw more surfers to their own sites in an effort to squeeze every last possible dime out of the value of their product. It is a fascinating 21st-century answer to vertical monopolies.
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CN, 14 Mar 2008 @ 8:57pm

One more vote for no coverage
I'd love it if nobody covered it at all. Teach them a lesson. If nobody does anything about it, then they get away with the crap they're pulling.
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