Did The FCC 'Rebroadcast Or Retransmit An Account' Of MLB Game On Twitter?
from the bogus-copyright-claims dept
You all know the routine. Towards the end of the sporting event you're watching, one of the announcers will remind the audience that the sports league in question holds the copyright, and you can't do a damn thing about it. It's slightly different per league, but the NFL one reads: "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." We wrote about that a few years back when law professor Wendy Seltzer posted a clip of just that NFL warning to show how the NFL was exaggerating its rights... and got a takedown notice. The MLB one is a bit different. It reads: "Any rebroadcast, retransmission, or account of this game, without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, is prohibited." We wrote about that one because one guy asked MLB for permission to describe a game to his friend, and MLB wouldn't give it. The FTC has been asked to stop sports leagues from making such overly broad (and legally misleading) claims, but hasn't done anything.I'm reminded about all of this because, as a part of the silly retransmission fight between Fox and Cablevision, where some viewers were blocked from seeing some of the MLB postseason games airing on Fox, apparently the FCC decided to make something of a statement on the issue by tweeting an ongoing account of one of the blacked out games, along with a link to its own consumer alert about the retransmission fight. Here's an example tweet from the FCC's official Twitter account:
Matt Cain relieved after 7 strong, 2 H, 0 ER. Giants scored on two singles, throwing error. SF up 3-0 top 9Of course, this has some questioning whether or not the FCC just did a rebroadcast or retransmission of an account of the game without (one assumes) express written consent of Major League Baseball. Of course, MLB's random attempts to enforce its bogus claims of ownership on data have all failed, and I'm sure it knows better than to take on the FCC in a losing cause, but it does a nice job of highlighting just how ridiculous the "warning" is from the MLB, and makes you wonder why the FTC doesn't crack down on what appears to be copyfraud.
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Filed Under: baseball, copyfraud, copyright, rebroadcast
Companies: fcc, mlb
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Well, those are just facts
Oh wait, the big sports federations in all their greed, have tried to declare facts copyrightable.
In any case, you got a fair point Mike.
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FFMPEG, VLC and MPLayer are just some of those.
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Re: Well, those are just facts
Plus, bus schedules are works of fiction, also copyrightable.
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scrips
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Stunt
Secondly, the FCC shouldn't care if some sporting events are blacked out as part of a contract negotiation. The only reason that it's an issue in the first place is that we don't have real competition in that space. If the FCC really wanted to help, they'd promote a system where people could just get their shows from another source instead of being held hostage to the single source.
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Re: Re: Well, those are just facts
Screenplay for a baseball match:
TEAM A at TEAM B's stadium
Player X is on bat
Pitcher Y throws a fast ball
Player X misses
Referee: "STRIKE!"
[crowd boos]
Pitcher Y throws a curve ball.
Referee: "BALL!"
Pitcher Y throws another fast ball.
Player X connects and sends it flying out the park
[Crowd cheers]
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"why the FTC doesn't crack down"?
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Re: Re: Re: Well, those are just facts
Please Google Tim Donaghy for an example of why this isn't so far fetched....
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Re: scrips
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Hmmm...
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Re: "why the FTC doesn't crack down"?
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Obligatory Simpsons Quote
- Homer Simpson
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Re: Re: Re: Well, those are just facts
Maybe that's why soccer doesn't want instant replay, so that people don't find out about the scripts.
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Are they facts or news?
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