UEFA doesn’t seem to understand piracy
Over on the Observer’s Business site there’s a report about UEFA taking umbridge at fans videoing and photographing matches and then putting them on content-sharing sites such as YouTube and Flickr. The more I think about it, the more I’m in sympathy with UEFA, having started from a position of opposition. The matches are held on private land, and the clubs can determine the terms of entry as they like. If that includes limiting photography and video (as the British Museum does, for example) then that’s their choice.
But UEFA reveals a misplaced sense of self-worth in the language it uses and the perspective it has. Take this from the Chief Exec of Uefa Media Technologies, who seems to be talking about fans attending games and recording what they see:
“Piracy is a big problem. There are pirates who steal content to build up a business of their own and we act against them all. [...] If it is to show your wife, that’s fine. If it’s to set up a website and make a business, you’ll end up in jail.”
And this, from their Head of Content:
“People are going to put content on the web. We can’t stop them but if we find it we’re going to take it down. It’s illegal. It’s piracy.”
If they’re talking about recording off the the TV, then I’m with them. But fans recording what they see from the stands and putting it on the web is not piracy. It is not stealing content. It might be against the terms of access to the ground, and it might (note might) be against UEFA’s business model. But Martin Stranzl being booked in questionable circumstances is not art, it’s not “content”, and publishing a personal video of it is not piracy. UEFA are not staging a performance in the same way that that musicians might, and for them to pretend they are is pretentious. As long as they stick to the line that it’s pure business they’ll be on safe territory. To pretend it’s art and to align themselves with record companies is just silly.
