Premier League tells fans to stop posting GIFs and Vines of goals
After becoming the go-to network to upload replays of goals scored during the recent World Cup, Vine could soon become the subject of a domestic copyright clampdown. With the new season commencing tomorrow, the Premier League has told the BBC that it's developed new ways to track unofficial uploads of goals and other related footage, including GIF crawlers, Vine crawlers and working with Twitter directly, in a bid to stop users from stepping on the toes of rights holders.
You see, Sky and BT paid over £3 billion to secure live coverage of Premiership matches, while The Sun and The Times have put down a lot of cash to grab the online rights. Fans must pay to watch both, but can access goal replays (within minutes of them being scored) and full match highlights on their mobile or online. But while the Premier League is attempting to address a legitimate concern, users can't argue with free. We'll almost certainly continue to see Vines and GIFs shared to Twitter, but those in charge might have more to say about things this season.
[Image credit: wonker, Flickr]
