An interesting pro-Icenetwork propaganda article

[bekalc]

Well if you want to see the event that badly - buy yourself the ticket, book the flights and hotel and go and and see it. Quite a big expense to pay isn't it? Might put you off doing it. What if you did and then someone took your tickets, hotel reservation and flight that you had paid for? That would seem pretty unfair to you having spent all that money and then someone else gets to go for free at your expense wouldn't it?

Ant

The point is Ant that people in Asia/Europe CAN"T buy Ice Network. Same with Canadians. They don't have access to Ice Network .

And really as well it's a different service. I doubt that the people who go to youtube want to see the whole event. They likely just want to see one skater's skate.

Frankly once again, I just hate the concept that they want to restrict my ability to see Eurosport.

 

[Tonichelle]

Wouldn't that violate Icenetwork's rights just the same?

yes, but I don't think IN would have as much of a problem once the season was over. *shrugs* I don't know.

 

[Fsqueen]

IN

Don't worry too much about this. I will continue to post the video for you guy til my computer broke

 

[saltypig]

you know, I think we can continue to carry out things "as is" without all this bickering about whether IN is justified or unjustified in doing that they are doing. It's pretty clear to me that someone is lurking about this site shutting down Youtube videos/accounts. Why help them out? By complaining about them- and here's the important part- making suggestions about circumvention on the open forum- I feel we're only helping them. So let's try and keep this all on the DL and carry on as usual, eh?

+1

A similar IN thread was shut down on ... another FS board ...

The fact of the matter is that members in this forum post links to youtube to share whose origin they don't know and are not the youtube account holder.

The IN supporter goes and gets the youtube account banned and the account holder loses all of their other videos (not only the FS ones).

I think the best option is not to mention or post links to any FS videos from any site. If a member wants to see the video bad enough I'm sure that member will find a way...(hint go to youtube or try google).

 

[Tonichelle]

the "snitches" are not "trolls" let's quit with the name calling of our fellow members.

 

[tarotx]

It seems few are willing to pay to watch skating. That's why it isn't on any network. They can't recap their money. Icenetwork had to pay for the right to broadcast the events they do. It wasn't free for them why should it be free for anybody? Ad buys aren't bought for things that aren't watched by many. They can't afford it.

I do think Youtube needs to be able to block countries isp's of certain videos instead of deleteing them. It would be helpful because other countries should be able to share videos if it's legal for them to do so.

Icenetwork should be able to have exclusive US rights if that is what was sold to them.

 

[PolymerBob]

I would have to say I understand everyone’s point of view here. I like to go to YouTube or DailyMotion and watch videos. I get disappointed when they are taken down, but I see why they are taken down. They are removed to encourage people to pay the Ice Network subscription. They are the ones paying to broadcast the competitions.

Maybe the solution is for IN to set up a video page were people can pay a small fee to watch the performances of their favorite skaters, not the entire competition.

 

[Spun Silver]

Maybe the solution is for IN to set up a video page were people can pay a small fee to watch the performances of their favorite skaters, not the entire competition.

Now that is a constructive suggestion. What bugs me about IN's seeming attitude is that it reeks of bad capitalism or totalitarian socialism -- it acts like a central authority trying to control people's behavior instead of a business figuring out how to make a profit off what people actually want.

IN should have a greater interest than recouping its immediate costs. It needs to be concerned about building an audience for FS and that means seeing Youtube et al as allies, not enemies. And it needs to charge for what people actually want -- not arbitrarily create a package that is way more than most people want and costs more than most people think it's worth (and punish people who aren't even eligible to purchase its services - good grief!).

I don't have a solution but I still think IN is on the wrong track.

 

[antmanb]

The point is Ant that people in Asia/Europe CAN"T buy Ice Network. Same with Canadians. They don't have access to Ice Network .

No it's true we don't have access to Ice Network, but in Europe you have complete coverage of the event by Eurosport and seemingly many countries in Asia are covering the events on their television channels.

Frankly once again, I just hate the concept that they want to restrict my ability to see Eurosport.

Well you can always go to the Eurosport site and watch all of the events on their player there (if you not in the US). Eurosport, if they so wished, have very valid claims against youtube too. They don't appear to enforcing those rights though.

Ant

 

[Tonichelle]

I thought it was Eurosport that was having issues with the football/soccer clips being posted on video sharing sites?

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Take it from a fan of LIVE Skating. There is nothing better than IN except UniversalSport which is at the whim of NBC.

 

[mycelticblessing]

No it's true we don't have access to Ice Network, but in Europe you have complete coverage of the event by Eurosport and seemingly many countries in Asia are covering the events on their television channels.

Ant

It's really limited in Asia unfortunately. The Chinese channels only seem to broadcast when there are Chinese skaters in the event. And Japanese coverage is difficult to get.

Why is it so difficult for IN to get their product sold worldwide anyway? If they want to restrict everyone from watching skating online, they should at least offer their product to everyone.

 

[Tonichelle]

they probably want exclusive rights, and not all countries follow those rules.

 

[antmanb]

I thought it was Eurosport that was having issues with the football/soccer clips being posted on video sharing sites?

I haven't heard about Eurosport having an issue with youtube. The big case here in the UK is by the Premier League (who organise and run the Premier League Football and have all the TV rights worth multi millions of pounds).

It's really limited in Asia unfortunately. The Chinese channels only seem to broadcast when there are Chinese skaters in the event. And Japanese coverage is difficult to get.

Why is it so difficult for IN to get their product sold worldwide anyway? If they want to restrict everyone from watching skating online, they should at least offer their product to everyone.

I would have thought that IN would not receive exclusive worldwide internet rights from event organisers. They certainly wouldn't get European rights because Eurosport pay a fortune for figure skating coverage and to play it on the internet player. I also wonder if the BBC will have at least Europeans and Worlds available on their Iplayer too. There is already a market with big players for internet braodcast rights in Europe so i suspect IN would not have the money to compete with them (or more specifically with Eurosport).

Ant

 

[dorispulaski]

USFS is requesting deletion of youtube accounts back to 2007, so obviously they care, whether IN does or not, after the season is over.

One should also not underestimate the influence here of NBC and their sports channel, which nobody's cable, including mine, seems to have. Universal? I think it's called. youtube/USFS wrongly deleted a vid of mine (it was 2007 Four continents, which neither IN nor NBC nor ESPN nor ABC broadcast), I complained to USFS, which apologized & offered to have youtube restore the vid if I had the URL (unfortunately I didn't have the URL). In the letter, they mentioned that they had contractual agreements with IN and NBC that they (USFS) would police infringement of broadcast rights.

It may be NBC as much to blame as IN.

However, IN also stores and allows you to see competitions from last season, and indeed in August they were still selling the ability to see last season's coverage, so I think they do care.

Based on what the USFS letter said, it looks like the intent is to police back 2 seasons at this time (no 2006), but IN and NBC had no USFS contract in 2006 I think?

 

[antmanb]

In the letter, they mentioned that they had contractual agreements with IN and NBC that they (USFS) would police infringement of broadcast rights.

...

Based on what the USFS letter said, it looks like the intent is to police back 2 seasons at this time (no 2006), but IN and NBC had no USFS contract in 2006 I think?

That is the crux of the matter. If the contracts set out obligations on one party to take responsibility for policing breaches of the rights then USFS has to do what they are told. Moreover, failure to police the rights, not only dilutes them but also puts USFS in breach of their contract so no wonder they're all over youtube like a rash.

Ant

 

[visaliakid]

Why is it so difficult for IN to get their product sold worldwide anyway? If they want to restrict everyone from watching skating online, they should at least offer their product to everyone.

Under their contractual arrangement with the ISU from which they purchased the rights to webcast all international ISU figure skating events within the U.S.A., they cannot offer viewing availability to anyone outside the U.S.

The ISU in turn sells the broadcast / webcast rights to other TV or web entities in other nations similar to TV and web entities in the U.S. Until YouTube, and other similar video streaming sites develope and utilize a country by country blockage of video products from any country to the rest of the world, posting of a video of any GP event from any source that is viewable world wide, violates all web rights of all holders of webrights, IN or any other entity.

Until such blockage by country, from the rest of the world's viewers is made possible, even IN cannot set up it's own YouTube site as they would be violating their own webrights. They are not going to do that.

 

[R.D.]

^ ah, I see. That makes sense.