Strange legal cases from really strange places!!
Over the weekend I’ve been watching the US Figure Skating Championships. I do this with Peacock. Unfortunately the feed hasn’t been the best, and has been crashing on me for some reason. I managed to figure out that if I don’t try to interfere with it by rewinding mostly, it will usually cooperate.
A lot of other people on the Figure Skating subreddit were having issues with Peacock as well. Yeah there’s one of those. Someone said that the replay disappeared while they were trying to watch one of the events.
Everyone was saying this happens because of a 2022 copyright lawsuit in which a band sued NBC and a pairs skating team for using their music in competition without getting the propper licensing for rebroadcast.
As someone who follows legal cases, some civil, I decided to take a look. Unfortunately the case settled, so no discovery for me, blah!
I actually thought this was strange, because when itcomes to figure skating broadcasts, there’s a whole lot of commentary!! It’s so thorough that a blind person does not need audio description. I’m not debating the marettes of description, it would just be redundant at that point.
I have followed figure skating since the 90s, although stopped in the early 2000s when I was institutionalized for a while, not by choice, and not in prison just FYI. After that the professional circuit stopped as well, and I really didn’t have too much of an interest in keeping up with the Olympic eligible circuit for some reason.
I have at times over the years, but recently, after being burned out on cases while trying to prepare my own, i decided to watch nationals that were happening this week. I do have Peacock premium, so it was going to be fairly easy for me, I thought.
This is the lawsuit that happend after the 2022 Winter Olympics.
[https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/olympic-skaters-nbc-settle-with-musicians-over-song-use-2022-07-22/]
Unfortunately, since there was a setlement, no discovery or deppos for me or the public, blah! I really wanted to see why the band thought suing NBC and the pair over what should be fair use was anywhere near acceptable, or winnable, for that matter!
Anytime you have any sort of commentary, and this is extensive commentary!! It should be considered as transformative, and therefore fair use. I can understand if this was NBC just letting the music play, but that isn’t what happens here!!
I suppose they could argue that rebroadcast would be considered a performance. Well, does that mean they have to license the commentary as well? I mean are the commentators suddenly on the copyright clock for everything they say? Don’t say anything too bad guys!, or you might get sued!!