Live streams vs. copyrights
Periscope users may not be thinking of the law when they broadcast events.
Mayweather Jr. vanquished his last opponent Sept. 12, and as fans used live-streaming apps such as Periscope to broadcast the fight, they were also throwing punches at anti-piracy rules in real time.
The battle extends beyond the boxing ring, with viewers whipping out their cellphones to film music concerts, football games or cable TV shows. They’re sharing experiences, often with high ticket prices, for free worldwide and sending copyright holders, tech firms and antipiracy companies on a mad scramble to get the broadcasts taken down midstream. In a race against time, copyright holders are navigating complex legal and technological waters fast.
“The value of real-time sports content diminishes rapidly after that event has ended, so it’s important that we can track these infringing sites and take them down within minutes. It’s a realtime cat-and-mouse whacka-mole,” said Ben Bennett, senior vice president of business development at Irdeto, a digital security firm with anti-piracy operations in San Jose.
Twitter, which owns Peri scope, said in a statement the company is committed to making the live videostreaming app “an enjoyable place for everyone” and quickly responds to takedown notices sent to the company. Periscope broadcasts are up for minutes or at most 24 hours before expiring.
Although live video streaming has been around for more than a decade, mobile apps such as Periscope, which has more than 10 million users, and Meerkat rocketed to popularity this year, making it easier to broadcast copyrighted content. Social media giant Facebook recently jumped into live streaming too, launching the feature first for public figures, journalists and celebri The challenges of realtime copyright enforcement came back in the spotlight over the Sept. 12 weekend, when Periscope responded to more than 140 takedown notices, most about the fight between Mayweather and Andre Berto, a pay-per-view boxing match that cost up to $74.95 to watch on Showtime but that thousands watched through the app for free.
Other complaints came from firms acting on behalf of the NFL, Britain’s Premier League, the U.S. Open Tennis Championship and Taylor Swift, according to data from Chilling Effects, which tracks online takedown notices and was started by attorney Wendy Seltzer, several law school clinics and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship, which has kept a close eye on people it believes are illegally streaming its pay-per-view mixed martial arts matches, has sent more than 650 takedown notices to Periscope, according to Chilling Effects.
The NFL and Showtime declined to comment about Periscope.
Quick to skim past the fine print on a ticket stub or rules for using an app, people on the live streaming sites might not realize they’re violating copyright law when they stream live events. Some live streams over the Sept. 12 weekend attracted only a few dozen viewers before being taken down, while others, including a Periscope broadcast of the Mayweather-Berto match titled “The Fight for Free,” attracted more than 1,000 viewers in minutes. Periscope users took to Twitter to gripe about their accounts getting suspended because they didn’t know it was illegal to broadcast a fight, while others thought it was #petty.
Anti-piracy firms say live video streaming still makes up a small part of piracy that occurs globally.