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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?
So, will you be paying attention to the game today? Ignoring it? Practicing your cultivated disinterest?
Wrong. The NFL says the BROADCAST descriptions and accounts are copyrighted. Plenty of other places have their own accounts and descriptions.
When NFL says "Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game"
They are not referring to you talking to your friends about the game or even you authoring an original description and publishing it.
They are essentially saying any descriptions or accounts given in the telecast or personal accounts written by staff under contract to create them are protected, which they are.
You are not allowed to copy a description or account from the telecast and reuse their description or account beyond what fair use allows, as it is subject to copyright just like the images, video, and live audio.
This is apparently a result of your conscious efforts to distance yourself from the lower classes, and you could become a better person (read: someone who can find common ground with disgusting sports fans) by no longer denying yourself the enjoyment of men+balls, or if necessary forcing yourself to become interested. I feel terrible about my lack of appreciation for the tastes of the common man, I really must take up smoking, dog fighting, reality television consumption(actually, i'm quite tempted by the idea of a dozen or so contestants infested with TB, stranded and left to survive on a remote island, or maybe the US without medical insurance) and indiscriminate breeding right away.
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.