Tom Larimer
08-13-09, 09:02 AM
The Southeastern Conference, in an attempt to protect their sanctioned athletic events from unauthorized "broadcast", has created a firestorm of controversy from newspapers and traditional broadcasters in states where SEC schools are domiciled. It appears the SEC was attempting to stop Twitter'ers and bloggers from "broadcasting" the SEC games without the proper authorizations. While they were in the revision mode, the SEC also sought to control images captured at SEC events and to claim ownership of these images under a copyright claim. Does that sound at all familiar? This link goes to one Kentucky columnist's view of the new policy: http://www.kentucky.com/kentuckysports/latest/story/892078.html. The Democrat-Gazette is taking the lead in creating a formal complaint against the SEC. Newspapers in other SEC states are considering the same. The SEC has reportedly indicated they plan to revise the revised policy, but has not yet done so. There will be much more to this story as football season approaches.