Half an hour "was enough to show the Premier League that fighting the Internet won’t be easy," according to Orihuela & Panja of BLOOMBERG. Sung-Yueng Ki’s 28th-minute goal for Swansea in the season opener against ManU was available on Twitter’s six-second video-sharing service Vine "within minutes." The posts "came a day after the Premier League said it will crack down on videos posted on the Internet." Online brand protection company NetNames Dir of Operations Stuart Fuller said, "How on earth are you going to do this? It’s almost going to be impossible. What they are doing is trying to set some hard and fast rules." A Vine video "showing a fan running on the pitch" during a weekend match between Tottenham and West Ham and kicking the ball over the goal post has more than 11.7 million views, or "loops," on one Vine account. Another clip "showing bird droppings appearing to hit United winger Ashley Young was watched more than 14.1 million times. The Premier League "has been aggressive in tackling copyright infringements in recent years." Adam Leadercramer, a partner at Onside Law who specializes in digital media, said, “It’s a difficult balance for them to strike. You don’t want to appear overly aggressive or alienate your public but at same time they need to protect their partners and intellectual property" (BLOOMBERG, 8/18). THE LAWYER's Natasha Bernal wrote football fans "will not be pursued with legal action for sharing unofficial footage on the popular Twitter-owned video platform, Vine." The Premier League "has now confirmed that it will not sue individuals who share videos showing live footage of football games." A spokesperson for the organization said that "it would not resort to legal action although it is planning to have unofficial clips taken offline." The Premier League "will continue to work with intellectual property rights company NetResult to take down pirated live streaming sites and video footage online" (THE LAWYER, 8/18).
CAT AND MOUSE GAME: MARKETING WEEK's Lara O'Reilly wrote the EPL does not have the resources "to embark on a giant game of internet cat and mouse." As soon as one Vine account is shut down, "two more will spring up in its place." This form of policing "also smacks of a slippery slope." Technically, "fans inside stadiums filming and sharing videos of their teams clinching a win with a last minute penalty and the ensuing hugs and celebrations are in breach of copyright too." Will "the Premier League’s crawlers extend to them?" Could smartphones "even be banned from stadiums?" The EPL should not be "focusing its effort on preventing Vines from being posted." It should be posting them itself -- "and perhaps monetising the videos too." Vine owner Twitter’s Amplify program was set up in '13 "to offer brands the opportunity to sponsor real-time or dual-screen video clips embedded within tweets" (MARKETING WEEK, 8/15).
