Newscasters Reenact Final Four Moments Rather Than Wait For Game Highlight Rights To Clear

from the much-more-enjoyable-than-defending-fair-use-in-court dept

Wed, Apr 2nd 2014 5:35am — Tim Cushing

Pervasive and extensive copyright law is damage. Route around it. This team of newcasters did (even though it really didn't need to), resulting in something much more entertaining than the content being withheld.

WCJB TV20 in Gainesville, Fla., couldn't legally show highlights of the University of Florida Gators' win over the University of Dayton on March 29. Instead of waiting for footage rights to recap the game, sports anchor Zach Aldridge recruited his coworkers to recreate the game's biggest moments in an office conference room.

Here are the highlights, as recreated using only classically-trained newscasters, a small hoop and a ball. Even the game-ending tears of a Florida Gators player are reenacted for posterity.

In his introduction, Aldridge claims the station would be unable to play the highlights until the following day unless it "broke a whole bunch of laws." Clearly, the use of highlight clips would be covered under fair use (hello, criticism, commentary and NEWS REPORTING).

But you know what? Screw the restrictive IP climate that surrounds every major sporting event. Why play by those rules? Route around it while highlighting the restrictive stupidity that prevents you from showing viewers what they came to watch. Have that clip go viral (388,000 views and counting), rather than the NCAA-approved clips handed out to local broadcasters like gifts from a begrudging God.

I guess this is what maximalists mean when they say strict IP enforcement encourages creativity and innovation.

(Oh, and don't even think about drinking your beverages in anything but an NCAA-approved sponsor's cups.)

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Filed Under: basketball, copyright, fair use, march madness, reenactment, sports

16 Comments

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silverscarcat (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 2:54am

It probably is...
But not in the way they imagined it.
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NoahVail (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 5:59am

A story about sportball that's more interesting than sportball.

Well played.
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- ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 6:40am
  
  Re:
  Even if you're a sportsball fan, this is more entertaining than a generic highlight reel.
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  - Rocco Maglio (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 5:04pm
    
    Re: Re:
    They did a really good job with the highlights. If you saw the actual game those were the highlights.
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anon, 2 Apr 2014 @ 6:06am

Funding
I suspect that if all school heads got together and started charging for access to their players and the games and making billions in profit for the schools themselves the players would be doing much more for their schools in that they could pay for everyone education, it annoys me that big business is making a fortune from school sport yet most kids are leavign school in debt, well other than the lucky few that are atheletes.
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scotts13 (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 6:06am

I'm not a sports fan
I'm not a sports fan, but I'd probably watch the re-enactment. Almost certainly as humorous as the "artists impression" drawings of courtroom events they're not allowed to photograph.
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TG, 2 Apr 2014 @ 6:35am

This reminds me of the UK radio station Talk Sport, which circumvented 'rights' restrictions on football matches by playing stock recordings of crowds cheering alongside its commentary.

http://www.swanturton.com/ebulletins/archive/NBBTalksport.aspx?template=articlesprinter.a spx
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John Fenderson (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 6:54am

NCAA approved cups
I wonder if they'd object to covering the sponsor's logo with tape?
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BentFranklin (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 7:08am

Doesn't this fall under "other accounts" of the game? Still illegal (if you believe fair use clips are illegal).
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- PRMan, 2 Apr 2014 @ 8:51am
  
  Re:
  No, it's legal. But did you see that guy at the end? If they show the clips, they'll pull his press credential.
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  - mudlock (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 5:51pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Yes, that's what this is actually about: not copyright, but contracts. The station has a deal with the NCAA, and if they break the deal, they lose their passes.
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- ltlw0lf (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 10:43am
  
  Re:
  Doesn't this fall under "other accounts" of the game? Still illegal (if you believe fair use clips are illegal).
  
  Every time I hear that said during a broadcast of a MLB game, I laugh. Talk about fraud...facts cannot be copyrighted (though there are a few judges that have disagreed,) and thus reporting accounts of the game should not be actionable.
  
  According to their statement, me saying the Padres lost yesterday (opening day) 3 to 2 against the Dodgers would leave me in a world of hurt, along with Techdirt (though I doubt MLB would try to pursue it,) even though all I am saying is facts about an event (that shouldn't be copyrightable.)
  
  And at least MLB pays their athletes. Not a single dime goes to the NCAA athletes.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2014 @ 7:35am

These people are stealing from those poor poor basketball players by reenacting the game and copying them. This is just another loophole in the law that the tech industry is taking advantage of. We need another law to prevent people from using up loopholes to steal.

In fact, playing basketball is stealing. Every time you play basketball you are part of the tech industry stealing from poor poor sports players if you don't pay up.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Apr 2014 @ 7:46am

This is what it sounds like
When maximalists cry.
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Ninja (profile), 2 Apr 2014 @ 9:52am

I'd use dildos as bats and joke that it is a courtesy of copyright.
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- BeeAitch (profile), 3 Apr 2014 @ 4:26pm
  
  Re:
  Um, bats aren't used in basketball (though that might be funny if they were re-enacting a baseball game). :)
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