Slashdot Mirror
No Social Media In These College Stadiums
RawJoe writes "Today, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is expected to release a final version of its new media policy that, at the moment, can best be described as a ban on all social media usage at SEC games. Earlier this month, the conference informed its schools of the new policy, which says that ticketed fans can't 'produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event.' Translated, that means no Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, TwitPic, or any other service that could in any way compete with authorized media coverage of the event. In the case of the SEC, authorized media coverage rights belong to CBS, who has a $3B deal with the conference over the next 15 years, according to The St Petersburg Times." Good luck with that. To quote Clay Shirky, "The idea that people can't capture their own lived experience is a losing proposition."
So in other words, I am not allowed to tweet, "Haha, the Bengals lost again?"
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
Seriously, from the surrounding ambient noise to the wearers ear?
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
As long as everybody at the game just goes ahead and Tweets, it'll be OK. There's no way that the SEC can control thousands of people doing this at will. It will illustrate the ridiculousness of the whole policy.
It's times like this I wished I watched sports so I could boycott them. Oh well, guess I will continue not caring.
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Using Twitter and Facebook when you're at a game is distracting at best, narcissistic at worst. However, the assumption that they are using to fuel their ban - that personal accounts and expressions are somehow not admissible, that CBS has a monopoly on communication - is dangerous, and should be protested. You can laugh it off and say, "There's no way that this is Constitutional," but you should stand up for your rights. As lame as it may sound, they should organize a huge Twitter contingent to post at the same time, and see if they can get kicked out. That would show people how out of touch the SEC is, and that people's rights cannot be signed away, with OR without their consent.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
Wow, what idiot decided to do that? Signing away broadcast rights for 15 years for a measly 3 billion? That's 200 million a year, that really is not that much money.
Who knows what kind of tech we will get in those 15 years? It's going to be very difficult to control that over the long term.
That's nice. I'm releasing a new policy that anyone who says my name 3 times has to send me a $100 check.
So what if they release a policy? It's not like they have any sort of legal standing to enforce it. What are they going to do, stop selling you tickets?
Since schools are disseminators of knowledge, this policy to ban knowledge/information attacks the entire institution of education. What network TV has to do with the educational process beyond Cable In The Classroom is beyond understanding. Clearly these policies will need to change or colleges will no longer be an effective means of higher education.
As a longtime Gator I'm trying to imagine what kind of hell trying to police this will be. And that is from the prospective of being a Gator being that UF is pretty damn uptight when it comes to how they expect us to act at our home sporting events. Never freaking mind what happens at Ol'Miss or UT games.
Yeah, good luck with that SEC.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
Hope this sucks the money out of college sports so the schools go back to teaching.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
I WAS an SEC football fan. I'm not whether I'm allowed to be now. Can I not discuss the game with friends the next day now? Fuck that.
If you open your mind too wide, people will throw trash in it.
"The idea that people can't capture their own lived experience is a losing proposition."
Only if you don't have a bottomless supply of other people's money, and a dash of state power, to enforce the ban. Dirty hippie.
When the first SEC game is held, and 10,000 people all tweet (or post to Facebook, etc,) from their cell phone "Take that, SEC!", what will they do?
Not to mention, people who use pseudonyms. Will they actually take the time to track down people who are posting two pictures to TwitPic?
I can *MAYBE* understand them saying "no competing with our contracted partner", aka no having a running play-by-play via Twitter, with fifty+ accompanying pictures (think what lots of blogs do for Apple Keynote events...) But to say you can't post "I'm at the (xyz) game!" to Facebook is ridiculous.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
War Eagle to all, and I can't believe but totally understand the short-sightedness of this.
The SEC became the best conference in college football because fans are rabid. They live, eat, breath this stuff year round. They talk about it year round. Trying to control pics/video/texts from a SEC game is impossible from a practical standpoint and stupid from a marketing standpoint. You want more people talking about your sport, openly, and while there. That increases your brand penetration and desirablity.
Linux - Because Mommy taught me to Share.
Three billion dollars? That would pay for some competent journalists at news bureaus around the world. Whereupon there'd be more competition for Fox "News" and CNN. Meanwhile, those interested in sports could either go and see sports for themselves (higher ticket sales!) or via YouTube. Less publicity for the universities? Splendid: they'd have less of this dubious obsession with male musculature and could instead put more effort toward encouraging places for intellectual stimulation, soft drugs, (safe!) sex, and revolution.
Hundreds if not thousands of people streaming video of events from their phones over the AT&T 3G network, oooops, never mind :-)
How would they tie Seat 3F Section 110 to (phone number/Twitter User/etc.)? How could they tie it fast enough prior to the game ending and finding me? Cannot believed they think this might work.
I suppose that would include turning to the person sitting next to you and commenting on the game. Or even cheering in response. In fact, I would expect a stadium filled with people studiously following these restrictions to be utterly silent. Aren't sporting events fun? Don't answer that.
What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
There is another social medium, without which the whole event's existence can't even be proven: Good old fashioned direct human-to-human communication.
In other words: Does this contract rule (as opposed to a law) forbid people to memorize it and then tell it to other people (e.g. by talking to someone later)?
How would they expect to enforce or even check this? They can't control it. They would have to delete the memory inside the brain every time someone steps outside.
So if people can tell someone, then that other person can put in on a social medium site, because he/she never had a contract or anything with the SEC.
Which makes the rule pointless and by definition ineffective.
They have to face the fact, that the time of exclusive "big media" broadcast rights is over. Besides: Who watches it on "big media" anyway nowadays? I have no TV for nearly a decade now, and many friends of mine don't have one either. Or they only switch it on, to zap for some time, find that nothing is on, and switch it off again.
Is TV still that big in the USA? (Germany here.)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
But I was not a twitterterizer so I said nothing.
Then they banned anyone who fraternized with twitterizers, but I didn't know any twitterizers, so I still said nothing.
Eventually they came for everyone who ever heard of a twitterizer.
Dickheads won, 21-21.
Is the fact that these kids are bringing in BILLIONS in sales, merchandising and advertising for these schools, meanwhile, they aren't allowed so much as a free coffee at the local Starbucks without risking their career. Nowhere else in America is that acceptable.
Students are a mere adornment at these football institutions. Football for the students? What a quaint idea . . .
There was this ball game the other day...no, really! And since no one was paying attention, and no one was permitted to share in the reality, NOBODY SHOWED UP.
Are these the same boneheads who though the Federal government were smart enough to blow 20,000 to 30,000 times the "Cash for Clunkers" program, yet Clunkers was a dismal failure? (The fed is inept, period. No matter which country you talk about.)
These people smell like the RIAA...
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
Sounds like they need to be sent the message by having all their logos and posters covered with something like "Censored for due to communication of existence of teams and stadium - they don't exist".
That is just an idea thrown to the wind, if you decide to really do it is your choice.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Isn't this the same as what Major League Baseball and the NFL always say at the start of all their games? The only thing different is its moving down to College Level?
cannot be commented about in a derogatory manner or distributed in such a manner that may damage said posters standing in the community. Failing to follow these actions will incur being locked in a room while Tron is playing backwards.
This has to be the dumbest idea ever. So some collegiate body is going to tell me what personal experiences I can and cannot share with whom I please?
Um, no.
I have a brain, thoughts are produced, I wish to share those thoughts. No one necessarily has to listen to my thoughts but if I'd like to share personal experiences (and it doesn't involve national security) then I should be allowed to do so.
Sheesh!
Naturally, the summary focuses sensationalistically on the popular buzzwords du jour: Twitter, Facebook, et-fucking-cetera. But the actual wording of the ban seems to be much more broad than this - it would supposedly ban somebody describing anything about a game on a regular cell-phone call. You couldn't call your wife and say "sorry, I'll be home late, the game is going into overtime."
Which to me, raises another question, why do we refer to the privileged sites (MySpace, Twitter, Facebook) as "social network" but exclude the mobile phone network? Doesn't it perform the same function? What about actual face-to-face social groups, are they not social networks?
Another nitpick: the article already says "Good luck with that," so shouldn't it be tagged "goodluckwiththatgoodluckwiththat" instead of simply "goodluckwiththat"?
... and then they built the supercollider.
They can easily enforce their policy by physically throwing you out of the stadium. It might be legal too: the fine print on the ticket will say that by using it to enter the building you agree to the policy. In fact, they may have a good case for trespass against you if you violate the policy: their house -- their rules. I doubt they'll successfully sue anyone for damages, but the threat of stadium security throwing you out is bad enough.
While I do agree that it's a little, I dunno, unfair to the students, I would point out that the schools can and do give them 'athletic scholarships', including tuition, room, board, and possibly other expenses. At a lot of these large Universities, that package deal could be worth something like $30,000 - $60,000 year (maybe more at some, I'm not sure). They can get all the free food, soda, and coffee they want at the University dining services, included in their 'scholarship'. Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if these Universities had very nice, very exclusive dining halls just for their elite athletic students with better food and coffee than the 'normal' students get, you know, the people who are at the University to actually *study* things like science, engineering, mathematics, language arts, literature, history, etc. The University could, I'm sure, 'contract' with Starbucks to provide coffee for their football and basketball players, with no repurcussions for the players.
illustrate the ridiculousness of the whole policy
1) pick your political persuasion (often determines number 2)
2) pick your (in your opinion) reasonable activity
3) do it in a jurisdiction that doesn't agree that it is reasonable
4) be a criminal!
The world would be better off with fewer asshats, and the asshats are often not who you have been told they are.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
""The idea that people can't capture their own lived experience is a losing proposition."" ... No one's saying you can't capture your experience... just don't broadcast your experience to the masses. Not that I agree with either argument, but let's stay on track with the issue here.
"Yes, I have a Disaster Recovery Plan. It's called my Resume"
1) pick your political persuasion (often determines number 2)
In the USA - liberal, conservative, etc.
2) pick your (in your opinion) reasonable activity
smoke a joint, own a gun, etc.
3) do it in a jurisdiction that doesn't agree that it is reasonable
Florida, New York, etc.
4) be a criminal!
eventually there will be nowhere to go where you aren't jailable for something, unless you shut up and stay out of the way.
Well, in a way, they are. What I'm trying to say is that they couldn't care less if you tweet to your friends or post to Facebook.
What they ARE interested in is controlling coverage of the game that competes with that of CBS. If you happen to be working for a newspaper, Web site, TV station, blog, or podcast that hasn't been blessed by CBS and/or the SEC, they're gunning for you. After all, you might do something crazy like publish real-time coverage of a game, a frequently-updated scoreboard, or, heaven forbid, you might interview a player. Want a video clip to use? Pay up. Want to post that footage you got of a player sucker-punching an official? Not unless you get approval. Want to do anything that CBS or the SEC doesn't want you to do? They'll show you the exit and place a boot in your ass at no extra charge.
If you want to really piss off the SEC, forget a mass tweet protest. No, start an unauthorized Web site providing coverage of SEC events, and make it better than what the SEC and CBS offer. That'll get their attention in a big way.
It seems the ban applies to the press (ie. the media) that are covering the game. Those people actually are entering into a legally binding contract when they enter the stadium and begin covering the game. Much needed clarification is given by a Nashville Is Talking article with updates, their producer did what Slashdot should have done about 7 hours ago and actually read the f'in policy. Here is the actual Southeastern Conference Media Credentials EULA thinger.
TLDR Please troll shorter.
What if all persons who bought tickets had to sign an agreement to such an effect, with the consideration that they are then able to see the game, and if they refuse, they are given a full refund?
Would that not form a binding contract?
They cannot control people doing things outside the stadium, but it's largely accepted practice that if you're in my home, you obey my rules. Same with any business place.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
you know what I love? opinions that make clearly verifiable claims, like, "The fed is inept, period. No matter which country you talk about" yet have no desire to actually verify that claim.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
It's not like the SEC can include "by attending games you agree your soul belongs to us" in the fineprint on the ticket. A ticket is a contract and unconscionable aspects of a contract can be stricken when you get it before a judge. All it takes is the first deep-pocketed sports fan to take the SEC to court and then we'll actually know if their rules are conscionable or not.
The whole mega-sport-corp thing strikes me as utterly ludicrous. Does anyone here remember when sport was about the actual game?
As far as I can tell it all started going downhill as soon as some guy figured out he could make money off sporting events.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I'd like to see them enforce that rule on blogs that don't bear someone's "legal" name.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
I text "x just won!" A red light comes on in an operations room at the NSA. ~SNIP~ (a lot of time consuming stuff) ~SNIP~ They get the alert, containing my seat number. They rush to the seat not only to find it empty but the entire stadium empty because "x just won!" and the game is over so everyone has gone home.
"Hmmmm. Maybe we haven't thought our cunning plan entirely through. :-/ "
T, FTFY. ;)
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
These idiotic "protect your turf" rules have been around a while and are just getting worse. I attended a Steelers game last year in 20 degree weather and I had a shopping bag filled with cold weather gear. The morons at the door made me ditch the bag and carry it all in my hands because the shopping bag had an unapproved logo.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
As a student that goes to an SEC school, I have to say...
No.
From TFA:
"Ticketed fans can't reproduce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture, video, audio, reproduction or other information concerning the Event."
This disclaimer has been on just about every televised sporting event for the last 15 years, almost verbatim! I actually think I can quote the NFL one from memory: "This broadcast is copyright of the National Football Leage. All information obtained from this broadcast can not be disseminated or reproduced in any way without written permission from the National Football League." Seems to me that TFA is about 20 years too late! NCAA sports = BIG business (period.)
That has nothing to do with feminism.
Breastfeeding is a natural thing, there is nothing feminist about wanting to do it in public when needed.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
you know what I love? opinions that make clearly verifiable claims, like, "The fed is inept, period. No matter which country you talk about" yet have no desire to actually verify that claim.
Wait, national government isn't generally inept!?
lolwut!?!?
I have to guess you sort of missed the last 3 thousand years of human history, particularly the last couple of hundred, and most especially the last 60-80? I'd say that's all the "verification" any rational being would need.
The *only* things government is actually *good* at are spending other peoples' money and restricting its' citizens' freedoms.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
The *only* things government is actually *good* at are spending other peoples' money and restricting its' citizens' freedoms.
Don't be a twat. Most (not all) governments are good for at least one thing - a basic level of physical protection of citizens from other citizen. It's the presence of this protection that means you don't generally have to worry about coming home from work and finding that your neighbour has 'annexed' your property and in is dug in there with several heavily armed relatives, and the only way to get them out is to have a gun battle or similar which you might or might not win and which might anyhow result in the destruction of your house. Such things do happen in countries with no effective goverment.
And don't give me the 'I can defend my own property'. You or one of your family is going to spend the rest of your life in your house, unable to go out, in order to defend it?
OK, so you say we'll form a local militia/posse. Guess what, you've just invented a primitive form of government.
1) Given that the corporate entity *agreed* to abide by the Regulation of The People in exchange for permission to incorporate, then what The People say, goes. e.g.: Health Department Inspections; Fire Department Inspections.
2) Further, there is *law* which regulates things like this... In NYS, it's section 40-B of the Civil Rights Law, which pretty much states that if you have a ticket, and aren't committing a breach of the peace or being offensive, then they *under law* cannot throw you out.
Of course, the stadium isn't going to post 40-B, are they? Nope. They'll just assume ( rightly ) that nitwits will *believe* their fairy tale about "We can do whatever we want"
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
Just as requested, nobody talk about college football on the Internet. At all. Sure, talk about other sports that interest you, or indeed anything else, but just don't give this particular commercial enterprise any publicity. It'll soon go away, and hopefully be replaced by something better.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
whatever. corporations always try to stop citizens from doing things that take money out of their pockets but there is no way they can stop them all. facebook away people!
This ingenious idea is brought to you by the same folks who think the BCS is a better system for selecting a champion than the playoff system that exists in all major sports across the globe EXCEPT college football. I have no doubt that the retards in charge of the Big XII who think their championship system is just fine even after last season's debacle will be following the SEC's lead here.
To add another Shirky quote...
"The loss of control you fear is already in the past."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press
AccountKiller
And making your so-called "money" worth a damned thing.
What's the difference between tweeting from the stands and tweeting what you see on TV? How will they sort out who is tweeting from the stadium vs those tweeting from home? End result is the same, game information is going out via unauthorized channels.
The SEC can't even enforce the Cowbell Ban at Davis-Wade Stadium with any reliability. What makes them think they can enforce this at all??? (This is coming from a State alum who's gotten his 'bell into the "K-mart of college stadiums" [Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium / Ole Pi$$] on more than one occasion!)
Don't be a twat.
I'll be careful not to challenge your obvious expertise in that area.
As to the rest of your comment, that's where the phrase "necessary evil" springs from. Yes, some government is necessary to maintain order, provide for national defense, etc. Usually even in these areas where it is clearly governments' purpose and reason to exist, it does only a mediocre job, and at that only at great cost.
No, my point stands. The only thing government does well is spend money and restrict freedom.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Well, aside from the fact that the colleges figure they'd not make as much money by dropping the bowls and BCS system, I don't think most of the other conferences WANT to risk having to play SEC teams every year. All in all, it is pretty much the toughest conference of all of them, and in a strict playoff system, I'd dare say you would not see any other conference often represented as a nat'l champion.
Just my observations.
Hell, USC seems to depend on LSU winning the championship so they can declare themselves co-champions.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Whoever keeps making these rules really doesn't get it I guess. Making rules, valid legally or not, that fly in the face of what people almost unconsciously expect just erodes the respect of legitimate law. So thanks a lot for further degrading respect for rules of any kind.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
It seems to me that the real intent of the regulations involves protecting CBS' rights to broadcast and distribute 'the game'. I doubt that they care about Joe Random Hipster with his iPhone posting pictures of himself and his drunk friends on Facebook. What they're probably concerned about is the guy sitting there with his laptop and webcam giving play to play over a live feed. To look at it another way, CBS isn't there to put some random guy and his friends on Facebook. Conversely, some random guy shouldn't be there trying to compete with CBS or other 'professional' sports reporters who are covering the event. If some random guy wants to drive hits to his site and do so by covering (semi)professional sporting events, then that random guy should pay the same access fees as everyone else.
We are pwn all their base. Stay tuned for SEC games broadcast live on internet @ site to be disclosed. F*** em. LOL
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
People have already accepted that the organizers of events can restrict their right to bring food and drinks because they are selling some on the spot. I wouldn't be surprised that they eventually ban your cameras and anything that can take quality photographs from there. ï Eventually, they'll end up making sure the internet is unavailable by any means (even satellite connections) just so they can sell contracts to companies who wish to buy a monopoly on the coverage of these events. In the end, you won't be allowed to breathe any air except that which is sold on the spot... y'know, when air will have become a luxury.
Hope this sucks the money out of college sports so the schools go back to teaching.
Exactly the opposite happens. You'd think that schools with emphasis on sports would have poor academics, but you'd be wrong. I'm an Auburn fan, and when Alabama lured Nick Saban from the Miami Dolphins for $4 million dollars a year, everyone criticized them at first. But what they're doing was (and I hate to admit it) actually smart. We now have evidence that, the higher the profile a college's athletics program has, the more applications for admission they get. Also, much more alumni and donor money comes in. And so the sports-rich schools are then able to expand all of their departments, and offer more in terms of academics, not less.
Perversely, in the end, having a big time near-pro sports program actually benefits the academic side of things. Big colleges, like those in the SEC, now have departments that do fund raising and campus/faculty expansion full-time (like Tigers Unlimited at Auburn, and the Gator Foundation at U. of Florida), and sports promotion goes hand in hand with that effort. The bigger your football or basketball team is, the better chance you have of building that new chemistry or history building. And so, end the end, that $32 million contract Alabama gave Nick Saban generated so much excitement among fans and alums, they nearly doubled giving to the university, and applications for admission shot through the roof. It turned out to be a pretty good investment for them all the way around. Is $4 million a year to coach a college football team ridiculous? To you and me, yeah. But when it brings in more fans/money/students/faculty/facilities? Its an investment that paid off handsomely.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Its more likely that the Pope will declare that God doesn't exist than that US Colleges will stop caring about sports and start caring about education again.
Personally, I agree that sports receive too much emphasis (and I'm a college football fan myself), but... what makes you think they're "not teaching" now? Just because they have a popular sports program, does that mean there's some kind of moratorium on education? Kind of hard to square that idea with the sterling academic reputations of places like Notre Dame, Duke, and UCLA, all of which have big time sports programs. Go to Georgia Tech, Michigan, or Texas, and tell them to "start teaching again", and they'll throw their high academic rankings right back in your face.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
So the SEC doesn't want fans broadcasting the games? Fine. Let's see what happens when they get a class action lawsuit against them and CBS for broadcasting an image of my face or body as I sit in the stands without my express written permission. "Any account or description, whether broadcast, written, or in other media, of my face or other body parts without my express written consent is strictly prohibited." [IANAL, but I'm sure someone who is could come up with an appropriately short disclaimer that you could say as you enter or while you're at the game, or that you could send to CBS and the SEC beforehand.] If they have something like that that you have to agree to in order to buy the tickets, how can they prove that I purchased the tickets and agreed to grant consent rather than having someone else buy them for me and give them to me as a gift?
Good luck with that. To quote Clay Shirky, "The idea that people can't capture their own lived experience is a losing proposition."
It's not that simple. Two words: movie theaters.
http://twitter.com/SECSportsUpdate
The Government only becomes a necessary evil when people who are necessarily evil are running it. Who the hell remembers who James Lee Witt is? Yet we know who Michael Brown is because of how insanely inept he is.
Or Superfund, or Rural Electrification. Or the post office. Or the FDA. Or the CDC. Or the NOAA/NWS. Or the FCC, who may be evil for censoring the airwaves but not evil for the fact that I can have a WiMAX modem talking to my wifi router talking to my ps3 that talks to my Bluetooth DualShock3 and headset, all with out interference.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
So just because they write this crap on the back of a ticket, it automatically makes it true? What if these people wrote "By attending this event you give up any and all rights, liberties, and entitlements. We also get your soul."
Football. Seriously, football talk on /.?
I'm confused and scared all at once.
IT people are 90% male and throw out the 5% that are complete complete sci-fi geeks the rest of us love sports. The two, sci-fi and sports don't have to be mutually exclusive.