The NFL Wants You To Think These Things Are Illegal

An anonymous reader writes: Professional sports have become a minefield of copyright and trademark issues, and no event moreso than the Super Bowl. Sherwin Siy of Public Knowledge has an article debunking some of the things the NFL has convinced people they can't do, even through they're perfectly legal. For example, you've probably heard the warning about how "descriptions" and "accounts" of the game are prohibited without the NFL's consent. That's all hogwash: "The NFL would be laughed out of court for trying to prevent them from doing so—just because you have a copyright in a work doesn't mean you can prevent people from talking about it. Copyright simply doesn't extend that far." Recording the game and watching it later is just fine, too.

So, will you be paying attention to the game today? Ignoring it? Practicing your cultivated disinterest?

Comments

Re:"Not illegal" is not the same as "you can do th

[NormalVisual]

One of the linked articles in TFA shows that the NFL is also just fine with illegally issuing repeated DMCA notices for the same URL even after they've received a notification that the content is being used in good faith under fair use. Unfortunately, there's really nothing in the DMCA to provide for fines or other deterrents to such behavior, so the NFL and other copyright holders sometimes use repeated DMCA notices to make it enough of a headache for the provider to permanently pull the non-infringing content or to suspend/remove the poster's account entirely.

One law for thee, another for me.