This story was first published for the 1709 Blog, where I regularly write about copyright law in entertainment, technology and media.
The World Cup is the largest single sporting event on Earth, with nearly half the world’s population tuning in. With England’s (somewhat surprisingly!) good run up to the Semi-Finals, fans of the Three Lions were especially eager to show their support.
When England’s captain Harry Kane scored a goal against Tunisia, a mother filmed her 7-year old boy celebrating the moment. She subsequently posted the short 5-second clip of him dancing in the living room on Twitter. However, FIFA – Football’s ruling body – ordered the clip removed from Twitter. FIFA claimed the clip infringed their copyright, as viewers could see blurred football action from the family’s TV in the background.
Speaking to the Mirror, Kathryn Conn explained that her son “is a massive Spurs fan and he absolutely worships Harry Kane so he started dancing around in the living room. All you can see on the TV in the background is a really blurry replay of the goal. It’s hardly visible.”
According to Conn’s tweet on the subject, the copyright notice from Twitter was brought under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Several sources including iNews report that Fifa issued a letter stating: “On behalf of Fifa, we hereby assert that your making available and/or promoting of the protected content on your platform is not authorised by Fifa, its agent nor the law and that your activities in this regard serve as a serious infringement of Fifa’s exclusive rights.”
By way of background, Fifa reports on its finances page that around 95% of its revenues come from the sale of television broadcasting, marketing, and licensing rights related to the FIFA World Cup. From the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Fifa hauled in $4.8 billion in revenue, which turned a $2.6 billion profit for the association (which is then re-invested into development projects). Compared to ticket sales earned $527 million, Fifa’s broadcast revenue topped $2.43 billion, while sponsorship fees brought in $1.6 billion.
To date, Fifa’s intellectual property portfolio contains 14,000 trade mark registrations, about 300 registered designs, and 150 copyright registrations covering 157 jurisdictions overall. As is made clear in its 30-plus pages of official guidance on brand protection, Fifa has millions of reasons to be protective of its intellectual property.
Fifa engages in active surveillance and brand protection, which includes court proceedings to halt an infringing situation and seek financial compensation for any damages suffered. However, sharing official content belonging to FIFA by fans without any commercial benefit is expressly permitted, as per the branding guidance. Curious by nature, this CopyKat’s therefore wonders why an account with barely 200 followers was singled out in this instance.