Legal Commentary

Copyright (and, of course, soccer):

By David Post

Looking for opportunities to segue from my recent obsession with all things soccer-related to the more mundane matters of copyright law that I usually focus on here on the VC, and lo and behold . . . . Two opportunities, actually:

1. For the ?Content Owners, Knee Jerk Protection Responses Of? file: I found the link to the Youtube clip of the horrible foul by Nigel DeJong on Xabi Alonso in Sunday?s final game, which I wanted to embed in one of my postings, but by the time I got there FIFA?s copyright police had already gotten YouTube to take the clip down. They?re within their rights, I know ? though query how much copyright ?originality? adheres in the broadcast file of the game, and why we usually unthinkingly assume that the broadcast is a protected work ? but more to the point, does FIFA really think that they?re harmed in some way by the availability of the clip? 

2. In his nice summing up of the Cup final, Jeff Klein at the NY Times blog, writing to congratulate the South Africans for a job well done in hosting the games, writes about one of ?the many wonderful things South Africa has given the world (not counting vuvuzelas),? the song ?The Lion Sleeps Tonight.? Not only does he include a link to the Youtube (audio) clip of the original 1939 South African recording (by Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds), as well as a link to the extraordinary article by South African journalist Rian Malan (?In the Jungle: How American music legends made millions off the work of a Zulu tribesman who died a pauper? lovingly detailing the amazing history of the recording (and the many, many, many copyright squabbles that erupted as its popularity spread around the world). Great stuff . . . 

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on July 13, 2010 (boomark / email).