Jul 09 2008
Is Major League Soccer Breaking the Law?
I don’t think it’s any secret that I have my issues with Major League Soccer. It’s a cheap league run by cheap owners, its overhypes everything it does, it doesn’t pay much of the talent it has nearly enough, its playoff system devalues the regular season, and it uses this single-entity system where players sign with the league rather than the club, which results in these arcane and pointless rules that give Toronto FC the playing rights to Brian McBride, who last played in MLS about two years before Toronto FC was even a concept in anyone’s brain.
My biggest pet peeve with MLS, though, is the fact that it does everything in their power to bury the U.S. Open Cup and pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s the longest running knockout competition in America, it’s filled with exciting matches, and MLS treats it like a total nuisance. D.C. United and the Chicago Fire played on Tuesday night. If that were a regular season match, it probably would have been on ESPN2 or Fox Soccer Channel. Instead, it was up to Section 8, the Fire’s supporters group, to try and put on its own web video stream of the game so fans could watch — and the Fire practically blocked them from doing so.
In fact, MLS is still attempting to block footage of this game from being shown — and it might be doing so illegally.
Earlier today, The Offside put up this post, which included a YouTube video of a local TV news match recap. The video shoed Cuauhtemoc Blanco, the Fire’s designated player, punching D.C. United player Clyde Simms in the stomach during extra time. Blanco was sent off for that punch, and Marc Burch of D.C. was sent off for retaliating against Blanco, who reportedly headbutted a D.C. official on the sidelines right after he left the pitch.
Greg Lalas of Goal.com also linked to that footage in this game recap. If you click on the YouTube link, though, you get this message:
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Major League Soccer, LLC.
Now here’s where it gets interesting. This is a quote from Greg Lalas’ article:
The U.S. Open Cup is administered by US Soccer. A spokesman from MLS tells Goal.com it has no jurisdiction over Open Cup matches, so there is little chance that Blanco will face any disciplinary action from the league.
So if MLS has no jurisdiction over the match, how can they claim copyright over video footage of the match? Was the footage shot by a D.C. United employee and given to the TV station, or did the station shoot the footage itself? If it’s the latter, then MLS can’t claim to own the footage, and it sent YouTube a blatantly illegal DMCA takedown notice today.
We knew MLS would go to great lengths to hide the Open Cup from soccer fans, but honestly, this takes the cake. Not only will Blanco not be disciplined by MLS for this punch, but MLS might just be breaking laws to prevent American soccer fans from even seeing it. I know they want the Open Cup to disappear, but this is just beyond the pale.
U.S. Soccer’s inability to promote the Open Cup should be considered a lost opportunity for American soccer. This sport got a huge boost in visibility and popularity from ESPN’s coverage of EURO 2008 in June. U.S. Soccer should have turned around and said, “Hey, we have this awesome little knockout tournament filled with champions and underdogs, and the winner gets a bid to the new CONCACAF Champions League. You’ve seen how exciting knockout rounds can be. Come see ours.” But no, U.S. Soccer and MLS keep on hiding this little gem from all of us.
I’m no Charleston Battery fan, but right now, I’m really hoping they win this thing. After this week’s silliness, MLS deserves a good karmic pimpslap.
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[...] Is MLS illegally censoring video of the Blanco incident? (Dave’s Football Blog) [...]
Great article. I love the fact that there is a professional league in the US, and I love when that league succeeds internationally. I just wish it was managed better.
[...] hay interés en que no se sepa nada del asunto, algo así como si nadie lo vio, nunca pasó, como comentan en este blog y en esto otro. Tuve la oportunidad de ver el video antes que fuera borrado de youtube y si fue un [...]
wow…and i thought the premier league was bad…
MLS probably wants us to ignore the Open Cup because it too closely resembles its stupid playoff system, which (as Dave correctly points out) ridiculously devalues the regular season. Tightening up playoff eligibility — I think they should be limited to three teams per conference, with the conference winners getting a first-round bye to make conference championships actually mean something — would make regylar season matches mean more. In other countries, do different entities oversee League and Cup competitions? Rivalry and jealousy between MLS and US Soccer could explain the current situation.
Paul: MLS and USSF are practically in bed together, so this is not a jealously thing. They’ve just been pissing on the Open Cup for years.
As for the MLS Cup, when the league expands 16 in 2010, an 8-team playoff would make slightly more sense. If MLS moved to a single-table format, then it would be just like the AFL. That’s just the first problem to fix with MLS, though.
[...] Is Major League Soccer Breaking the Law? | Dave’s Football Blog Article about the Blanco incident and the US Open Cup. __________________ [...]
[...] Dave’s perfectly executed headbutt to the sternum of MLS (video footage to be suppressed [...]
Paul:
Until fairly recently, different bodies regulated the competitions in England. The F.A. has always run the F.A. Cup (obviously), and Premier League is run by…the Premier League. Until the formation of the PL in 1992, league football in England was run by the Football League This body still runs the division outside of the Prem (Championship, League 1, League 2) as well as England’s third trophy, the League Cup (the name of which changes as the sponsor does; it’s been the Carling Cup recently)
The original point of the F.A. was to decide on the rules for the game of football, and now it looks after the England national team(s) as well as the F.A. Cup and other competitions (generally open to smaller teams)
I think the main reason behind MLS’ reluctance to welcome the US Open cup is borne out of a fear that the USL will be shown to be superior. The owner of the MLS franchises have invested fortunes in their teams and the discovery that that ‘lesser’ league actually has a better product would be very damaging to them; you just know that if relegation were ever to become a reality (not gonna happen, because of the aforementioned franchisees), there would be a net influx of USL teams.
[...] down by MLS due to copyright violations.”) Here’s the thing, though. As Dave over at Dave’s Football Blog pointed out, this was not an MLS event. This was a US Open Cup [...]
To be fair, the USFA/USSFA/USSF have spent nearly a century burying the US Open Cup on their own without any help from MLS.
[...] video footage of the recent incident went missing from Youtube. Some fans argued that the MLS had no right to take the footage down, as the U.S. Cup was a non-MLS game. Some conspiracy theories surrounding the MLS surfaced, ranging [...]
[...] video footage of the recent incident went missing from Youtube. Some fans argued that the MLS had no right to take the footage down, as the U.S. Cup was a non-MLS game. Some conspiracy theories surrounding the MLS surfaced, ranging [...]
[...] under: Techdirt Dave writes in with an interesting story suggesting that Major League Soccer is potentially violating the DMCA by issuing a takedown of footage for which it does not own the copyright. The details are a little [...]
[...] Notices? Dave writes in with an interesting story suggesting that Major League Soccer is potentially violating the DMCA by issuing a takedown of footage for which it does not own the copyright. The details are a little [...]
[...] No Comments Dave writes in with an interesting story suggesting that Major League Soccer is potentially violating the DMCA by issuing a takedown of footage for which it does not own the copyright. The details are a little [...]
[...] by Michael Masnick Dave writes in with an interesting story suggesting that Major League Soccer is potentially violating the DMCA by issuing a takedown of footage for which it does not own the copyright. The details are a little [...]
Not that I don’t enjoy a good blogosphere rant about the big, bad Major League Soccer, LLC as much as the next guy, but has anyone stopped and considered the possibility that MLS might indeed hold the rights for video coverage of games where one of its teams is the home team?
I know, I know. It’s a crazy thought, born of someone who watches college football on Saturdays in the fall and gets to see how non-conference games are covered by different networks, depending on which conference has the home games. It’s a crazy thought, born of someone who’s noted that USLlive has only covered US Open Cup games where the USL team is the home team and that MLSlive has only covered US Open Cup games where the MLS team is the home team.