Soccer

Bosses to crack down on soccer action posted on social media

Thousands of short videos posted on sites such as Twitter soon after goals scored

During the World Cup, thousands of short videos shot on smartphones were posted on sites such as Twitter within minutes of the ball hitting the back of the net. Photograph: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
During the World Cup, thousands of short videos shot on smartphones were posted on sites such as Twitter within minutes of the ball hitting the back of the net. Photograph: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
Fri Aug 15 2014 - 14:00

Football bosses are launching a crackdown on unofficial clips of action posted on social media.

The Premier League said using Vines and Gifs to capture goals and other moments is a breach of copyright.

During the World Cup, thousands of short videos were posted on sites such as Twitter within minutes of the ball hitting the back of the net.

Now English football’s top flight is urging fans not to share the content.

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Dan Johnson, director of communications at the Premier League, told BBC Newsbeat: "You can understand that fans see something, they can capture it, they can share it - but ultimately it is against the law.

“It’s a breach of copyright, and we would discourage fans from doing it. We’re developing technologies like Gif crawlers, Vine crawlers, working with Twitter, to look to curtail this kind of activity.”

Last year, News International - now News UK- struck a deal with the Premier League to offer online highlights to paying subscribers to the Times and the Sun.

A Premier League spokesman said: “The use of Vines and Gifs to show Premier League football is a breach of copyright, and we would encourage fans to use legitimate means to access this content, such as the Sun or the Times goal apps.

“We are working with social media providers to take down pirated clips and hope fans understand the need to maintain the investment model that produces the football they love.”

Dean Scoggins, deputy head of sport at the Sun, said the paper is working closely with the Premier League.

He said: “Posting poor-quality videos to social networks is illegal.

“It is breaking copyright laws, and although the clips cannot compete with the quality of service that we are providing, we are not happy that it takes place.”

Hundreds of thousands of users follow some football Vine accounts on Twitter.

Vine, which is run by Twitter, allows users to capture and share videos that are a few seconds long.

Gif, which stands for Graphics Interchange Format, is used for low-resolution football clips which are then posted online.

Press Association