You may or may not have heard, but the Major League has been cracking down on the proliferation of video streams uploaded onto the computer over the past several months. Much of the uploads are pieces of or snippets of longer broadcasts, sometimes taken from video equipment; other times taken straight off the TV; and, still other times, from cell phones or other equipment at the games themselves. What many fans do not realize, however, is that the MLB has extensive intellectual property rights to this footage, at least to the extent that such footage is actually taken from its broadcasts. Similar to movies/TV snippets, copyright laws are strictly construed in favor of the entity holding the copyright registration.
As the ABA Journal recently noted in its March 2011 edition, however, the extent of such claims is "gray". I am certain that, as social media continues to expand to wider audiences, this issue will get much more publicity than merely in legal journals. For now, it remains a wait-and-see issue, mostly because YouTube and other websites have not wanted to get into a legal battle (ie, costly/expensive/$$$$$) with the MLB on the issue.
Interestingly, however, other leagues welcome such uploads as free publicity for their respective sport. The NHL clearly wants people to tune into www.hockeyfights.com and other websites to view the latest and greatest the sport of hockey has to offer at a national level. My opinion is that, at some point, a lawyer will find a loophole that gets around such arguments.
What are your thoughts?
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