Media Coverage of Ultimate

I find it very interesting that the last video that I posted, Luke Johnson's own footage of finals, was sent DMCA takedown notice by CBS Sports. I haven't taken copyright yet, so I don't have a fully informed opinion about this, but my impression is that copyright laws only protect your coverage of an event, not the game itself.

If Luke had posted the Go211 stream itself on Vimeo, that would clearly be an infringement of their copyright, but the video that he posted was entirely filmed and edited by him. I'd like to see what the contract between CBS and the USAU looks like, but it seems to me that Luke's video is his own property.

From about 2 minutes of Googling the subject, I found this case:

National Basketball Ass'n v. Motorola, Inc. 105 F.3d 841 C.A.2 (N.Y.) 1997
As noted, recorded broadcasts of NBA games-as opposed to the games themselves-are now entitled to copyright protection. The Copyright Act was amended in 1976 specifically to insure that simultaneously-recorded transmissions of live performances and sporting events would meet the Act's requirement that the original work of authorship be “fixed in any tangible medium of expression.” 17 U.S.C. § 102(a). Accordingly, Section 101 of the Act, containing definitions, was amended to read:

A work consisting of sounds, images, or both, that are being transmitted, is “fixed” for purposes of this title if a fixation of the work is being made simultaneously with its transmission.

17 U.S.C. § 101. Congress specifically had sporting events in mind:

[T]he bill seeks to resolve, through the definition of “fixation” in section 101, the status of live broadcasts-sports, news coverage, live performances of music, etc.-that are reaching the public in unfixed form but that are simultaneously being recorded.

H.R. No. 94-1476 at 52, reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5665. The House Report also makes clear that it is the broadcast, not the underlying game, that is the subject of copyright protection. In explaining how game broadcasts meet the Act's requirement that the subject matter be an “original work[ ] of authorship,” 17 U.S.C. § 102(a), the House Report stated:

When a football game is being covered by four television cameras, with a director guiding the activities of the four cameramen and choosing which of their electronic images are sent out to the public and in what order, there is little doubt that what the cameramen and the director are doing constitutes “authorship.”

Now, I haven't researched the subject, nor am I qualifed to be giving any legal advice, so please understand that this is just speculation.

If the USAU didn't want anyone else filming finals, they should have prevented people from doing so at the event. Did they post notices on the admission tickets that filming was not allowed?

More importantly, does USA Ultimate really want to prevent ultimate players from sharing and enjoying material from ultimate games that they've created themselves? I know USAU wants to become a more "legitimate sports organization," but at the same time we have to accept that media coverage in ultimate right now is overwhelmingly provided by the players themselves. The video that Luke made is excellent promotion for the sport, and in many ways more enjoyable for experienced players to watch than the professional coverage because Luke knows what he's doing and there doesn't have to be announcers explaining every rule of the game.

Maybe it's not appropriate to blame USAU for this. It might be that it was just some guy in an anti-piracy department cubicle sending a take-down notice for what he believed to be CBS property. I assume that USAU sold (how much is that actually worth?) the exclusive rights to film and broadcast the finals, so they're protecting themselves by not wanting other people to have video up. In the future, it seems they'll either have to go more open or more restricted with access to events that they plan on televising. My guess is, things will become more restrictive.

It's just another small step towards taking the sport of ultimate away from the players in an effort to become a "real sport."

Is that what we want?