Reposting 8-second sports clips infringes copyright

The High Court of England and Wales has ruled against an app developer who encouraged users to post eight-second sports clips under the guise that it was a social network. Mr Justice Arnold rejected the defence offered by Fanatix developer Will Muirhead that he could avoid infringement using either a fair use defence or a user …

[Anonymous Coward]

All sports clips look the same though. Would struggle to tell horse racing from formula 1.

[Paul Crawford]

Pro tip - if it has wheels is probably not a horse.

[VinceH]

It could be a horse on a motorbike.

Who wouldn't want to watch that?

[AbelSoul]

Re: horse on a motorbike

Neigh problem for this guy.

Aherm, the one with Honda nosebag in the pocket, thanks.

[Fungus Bob]

"Who wouldn't want to watch that?"

The horse's mom.

[Mike Shepherd]

Excellent report

If only all articles were of this quality.

[Adam 52]

Re: Excellent report

It'd be nice to get the difference between prosecution and claimant right, had to go thr BAILII to find out if this was actually a criminal trial or not.

[Doctor Syntax]

“fanatix seeks to disrupt the US$40 billion global sports media rights market”

I suspect that comments like this might have sunk him. Something presented as a fan site might have got through. Going head to head with your supporters isn't a good idea & ECB might have realised that but that sort of talk would be too much of a challenge.

[Steve K]

Disruption...

..and too often "disruption" equates to ignoring the law (whether IP/commercial/statute) rather than a genuinely innovative offering for consumers

[P. Lee]

Re: Disruption...

>and too often "disruption" equates to ignoring the law

True. Although too often the law is a corruptly wrangled contrivance designed to protect not particular industries but particular corporations.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I suspect that comments like this might have sunk him

I imagine so. However, I read phrasing like that as being mere marketing nonsense that sounds big but is not really expected to be believed. Y'know, like most advertising, ElReg articles or DevOps, etc.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: I suspect that comments like this might have sunk him

"mere marketing nonsense that sounds big but is not really expected to be believed. "

And this is why when being "disruptive", one needs to remember that everything you've said on the record can and will be used against you, especially the "marketing nonsense", when you fall foul of the law. If you make bullshit claims to hype up the investors, they can come back to bite you.

Marketing and advertising people take note!

[myhandler]

Eh.. plenty of streaming sites around to get cricket - quality is not great but you need something to stop you watching too many hours.

Cricket board should FO and sell to terrestrial broadcasters .. ah wait.. there's too little demand now. You need Sky to see it and as a direct result fewer youngsters are interested.

[Anonymous Coward]

"You need Sky to see it and as a direct result fewer youngsters are interested."

Rupert Murdoch and his ilk have very successfully wrecked British field games in pursuit of money.

[scrubber]

It's a wonder how sport survived before TV.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ It's a wonder how sport survived before TV.

They weren't paying their playing staff vast amounts of money maybe? You know, the ones that actually play the sport.

Or transfer fees are bigger now than they were so the clubs need to recoup.

Or, instead of being entertainment, which is what they basically are, they've now been taken over by the money men to whom sports is nothing but a cash cow and their own personal bank.

[Doctor Syntax]

"Cricket board should FO and sell to terrestrial broadcasters"

Couldn't agree more. I'd looked forward to spending a good deal of my retirement watching the Beeb test match covering apart from fulminating when they seem to think that tennis fans can watch two channels at once. But not at the expense of paying Uncle Rupert.

[JimmyPage]

*English and Welsh* justice

occasionally do throw up well constructed cases which are eminently sensible and practical.

Must have been as mistake.

[Chris G]

About time

Since nobody else has said it; what Fanatix was doing is just not cricket!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: About time

"Since nobody else has said it; what Fanatix was doing is just not cricket!"

Traditional English cricket-watching for most people consists of stopping briefly in the park to watch a bowler run up, see what happens and pass on. Eight seconds seems about right to replicate this experience.

But to get the real flavour the clips need to consist of some would-be hard man bowler taking a huge run-up, slowing at the last moment and delivering a full-toss which the batsman muffs and scrapes a single.

[Anonymous Coward]

??

It's not really clear how this would make money, or what the point was even.

[Paul Kinsler]

Re: It's not really clear [...] what the point was even.

Perhaps with the right metadata, and a diverse enough distribution of 8 second clips, you could automatically glue them all back-to-back in the right order and watch the whole game, or most of it :-)

[Justicesays]

Re: ??

1) Come up with social media invention, funded by VC

2) Amass customer base

3) .....

4) Profit!

The trick is to get bought by Facebook /Yahoo etc. before hitting step 3.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: ??

"The trick is to get bought by Facebook /Yahoo etc. before hitting step 3."

Surely that is step 3?

[Ian 55]

The rights issue is an interesting one

One reason for playing the stupid Premier League / European Championship anthems before games is that it's a lot easier to copyright music and lyrics - and go after people who broadcast them - than it is what happens in a game.

[BongoJoe]

Re: The rights issue is an interesting one

I understand that the Premier League went after some publicans for showing games sourced over the satellite under the EU Freedom of Trade because they showed their on-screen logo without permission.

icon because it's the nearest thing to my temper going off all Thermite.