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The NFL Wants You To Think These Things Are Illegal

Posted by Soulskill on from the might-want-to-focus-on-making-the-players-think-certain-things-are-illegal dept.

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?

1 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. Re:xkcd by StillAnonymous · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People ask me about sports all the time and I just respond that I'm not interested in watching. The conversation typically goes like this:

    "Why don't you like sports?"
    "It's not that I don't like sports, in fact I like playing some of them. It's just that I don't enjoy watching them."
    "Why? They're so exciting!"
    "Would you like to watch me play a video game?"
    "No."
    "Why?"
    "That's boring."
    "Now you know how I feel about watching someone I don't know play a game on a field. Intersperse that with hundreds of advertisements, comments about how much money these guys are being paid because they were lucky enough to be born with the physical qualities that make them good at this game, and therefore how much more important they are than say, a group of scientists who's names you will never know that working on a cure for Parkinson's or leukemia."

    The commercial aspect and obscene amounts of money and resources poured into "professional" sports is actually a major turn-off to me and turns it from something I'm merely "not interested in" to something I actually resent. I would have enjoyed Hockey back in the 50's or 60's when it was just a bunch of regular Joe's with day-jobs who played the game for the love of it, not because they're some prima-donnas who're demanding they get an extra million or they won't play. Go watch the movie BASEketBall to see this.