As I mentioned below with the US school sports right. This issue is becoming increasingly predatory, as the converging media organisations fight for coverage in the face of their dwindling subscribers and who owns what and the way it is broadcast.
This from across the ditch in Austrailia
Senate inquiry to decide who owns sports match footage
Simon Canning March 16, 2009
Article from: The Australian
A NEW Senate inquiry might set a global precedent for online sports reporting and result in a digital "anti-siphoning list" as administrators and media groups feud over where news footage taken at sports events can run.
The inquiry, which launched last week, comes in the wake of a series of stand-offs between sports administrators, press agencies and media companies over the rights to use photos and video footage of sports online.
"The potential precedents for this are enormous," the head of a major news agency said.
"This will set a global benchmark -- it has been coming to a head for a long time."
There has been growing tension between news organisations and a number of sports in recent years as the line between traditional newspaper, TV and radio reporting has blurred with the growth of digital media.
This summer three major international press agencies -- Agence France-Presse, Reuters and AAP -- boycotted coverage of the Australian cricket Test series after they refused to sign accreditation documents restricting how images and videos gathered could be used.
Senator Anne McEwen, chair of the Senate's environment, communications and the arts committee, said the inquiry was the result of an election promise and had been pushed by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
The inquiry will look at the balance of commercial and public interests in the reporting and broadcasting of sports news, the nature of it and the effect of new technologies such as video streaming on the internet.
It will also look at the public's right to access sports news and the rights of commercial broadcast rights holders to control or limit access in order to drive a commercial return. The inquiry will also investigate the use of media accreditation as a method to control reporting of events.
The simmering feud between media companies and online operators has flared several times without being clearly resolved.
In 2006, Cricket Australia threatened to ban Fairfax Media and News Limited journalists from covering the Ashes series after both groups refused to sign accreditation documents. The issue was finally resolved.
CA had attempted to put limits on how much video footage could be used on newspaper websites. Both the AFL and NRL have had similar issues, concerned that news organisations are linking online stories to unauthorised footage posted on websites such as YouTube.
In February, Telstra won a Federal Court case banning News from linking websites to copyrighted AFL material posted by third parties on YouTube.
Chris Warren, federal secretary of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, said many Australians were unaware of the extent to which their access to sports coverage was limited by agreements that media companies were forced to sign in order to get inside grounds.
"This is a matter that has been of immense concern to the media all over the world and control over access to events is being used to control access to images," he said.
Debate has centred on the Copyright Act's "fair use" provision, which allows snippets of video to be used online for the purpose of reporting news.
The inquiry is expected to attract submissions from all major sports organisations.
One sports media analyst said local sports bodies could also seek the assistance of international sporting organisations in making submissions.
"It's not just cricket and it's not just Australia," the analyst, who asked not to be named, said.
"All sporting bodies from FIFA to the English Premier League, PGA and LPGA are going to be analysing this very carefully and may even seek to have a say."
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