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101 Great Goals receives yet another threat from NetResult
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Yesterday we received another email from our good friend Tim Cooper and NetResult, the company employed by the Premier League to protect the intellectual property rights associated with the top flight of English football. The email (which can be read below) relates to the videos which we link to showing footage from the English Premier League.
The battle against copyright theft (and the subsequent debate on what constitutes copyright theft) has been with us for some time, and extends far beyond the world of football. One of the most high profile cases to date was the closure of the television-centred website, tv-links.co.uk. In that instance the owner of the site was taken into custody by British police, his site was shut down, only to be released 24 hours later without charge and spawning the birth of tv-links.ws, which has remained active ever since.
The conclusion we can draw from this case is that while the authorities may not like linking to copyrighted material on the internet, they had no precedent with which to stop it.
And imagine if such linking was deemed illegal. The result would be that a massive amount of online content, whether it be on YouTube, DailyMotion, The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, the BBC forums, Football365’s forum, and a lot more in between, would all be in serious trouble.
On the specifics of our situation, several points need to be stressed. At no time have we ever updated videos on the internet. We do not sit with our televisions hooked up to computers, uploading footage onto the net. In truth, we have no idea how this is done, nor do we have any interest in this process. Rather, all we do is locate already existing videos and link to them through our site.
Furthermore, all videos uploaded onto this site are traceable through to their source, with all videos labelled to their host site (whether that be YouTube, Sapo.pt or Eatlime.com, to name just a few of our sources). This creates a situation of transparency, whereby everybody can see which video hosting site are hosting the videos.
If a video comes down on YouYube, for example, it comes down on 101greatgoals.com.
With that being said, NetResult appear to be targetting the little people like ourselves, without directing their issues to those people truly responsible for this content, namely the large video hosting sites and those individuals who are actually uploading said clips. NetResult are looking to crack a nut with a bulldozer, trying to put the frighteners on people such as ourselves, while seemingly doing nothing against the big players or the root causes of this situation.
If you are based in the UK, access to highlights can be seen on the Virgin Media site. Further, the BBC now stream Match of the Day on their website for UK users only. Yet, at a time when Arsene Wenger recently acknowledged that only 10% of Arsenal’s support is home-based (with 90% overseas), and when the Premier League are themselves trying to force down people’s throats the idea of Game 39, the fact that no such site exists for foreign fans of the Premier League is simply inexcusable. At the very least, there needs to be a free, worldwide accessible site that updates Premier League clips. But we are still waiting.
(We are also waiting for a site that streams Premier League games online, NetResult and the Premier League have recently rallied against Justiv.tv, but there seems to be no intention to provide a legal service for long-suffering fans.)
By throwing their weight around without offering any practical solutions to the issue, the Premier League paint themselves as money-grabbing whores who care more about monetising their product than allowing everyday people, such as you and me, to associate with the best league in the world. Such prohibition is no-doubt the reason why if you type “Man Utd Stoke” into YouTube you will find many clips of the match for viewing.
Videos of the Premier League on the internet are not going away. In fact the opposite is true, with new clone websites of 101greatgoals sprouting up on a daily basis, and new video hosting sites offering their services to house these videos for free. The rabbit is out of the bag, and bullying tactics are unlikely to have any serious impact in returning the world back to pre-YouTube days.
Rather than stomping their feet, we would like to see the Premier League take positive steps to address this issue, much like other worldwide leagues have done. For example, the MLS have their own channel on YouTube (see here) in which they upload high quality videos within hours of the full time results. We would love to link to such a Premier League site.
So why wont the Premier League follow suit?
In today’s current atmosphere, the only logical conclusion is that the Premier League’s only focus is money.
***
Our most recent letter from NetResult:
Dear Sir,
The Premier League has the exclusive right to commercially exploit all matches within The Premier League championships including, but not limited to, all moving images and other audio/video content.
We have noticed that your website http://www.101greatgoals.com is displaying, offering, distributing and facilitating The Premier League’s audio visual content (http://www.101greatgoals.com/category/goals/england/).
As you have neither sought nor obtained permission from The Premier League to use this content, your present use is an infringement of The Premier League’s rights.
Please immediately cease all such infringements on any and all of your web sites and confirm to us via email that you have done so.
Nothing in this letter is intended or shall be construed to constitute an express or implied waiver of any of The Premier League’s rights or remedies, including any rights or remedies in respect of infringement not explicitly stated, whether current or in the future, all of which are expressly reserved.
I hereby state that The Premier League is the owner of the exclusive rights referenced above and that NetResult is authorised to act on its behalf with respect to internet monitoring and compliance.
On behalf of The Premier League I hereby state that I have a good faith belief that use of the content in the manner complained of is not authorised by The Premier League, its agents, or the law.
I, Tim Cooper, as a representative of NetResult hereby digitally sign this e-mail message under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America with the additional statement under penalty of perjury that the information in the notice is accurate.
Yours sincerely,
Tim Cooper
November 18th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
i’d like to give my 2 cents on this matter… as an EPL fan living in Canada, it’s often tough to see game highlights from all the games played in a given weekend… setanta also screwed us over charging $15 a month to watch the games, which for me here on the west coast of Canada start at 4:45 in the morning! most sport networks only show highlights of 1 or 2 big games, often not even showing a big-4 team, and the highlights are pretty much 20 seconds long showing a goal or two, on one network it takes them longer to mention who sponsored the highlights than it takes them to show the clip itself… i can understand them having a problem in the UK but the rest of the world is sometimes screwed over when it comes to watching EPL games and highlights…
November 18th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I hope everything goes OK i love this website too much and don’t want to see it get shut down by them pigs… They want to stop the online streaming Revolution but they cant! Viva La Revolucion!
November 18th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
i hope 101 great goals stays. i am unable to watch football from the premier league sometimes, and this website is great for catch ups. my team spurs are playing in the uefa cup, and this site is great as you do vido highlights of our uefa cup teams in our group. without this website, i would have no idea about any of the teams we are playing beforehand. its all about money. surely the fa want as many people to view the games (live or otherwise) as they are getting more exposure this way. great site. keep it going
November 19th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Hi - your text analysis on here is great. I’d hate to lose it. I suggest you create a separate site for the videos; and then link to that. If they take that down we still have your excellent commentary on the footballing world
November 19th, 2008 at 1:03 am
I don’t know what I’d do at work if your website was closed down!!
Here in Australia it is my daily routine to open this website the second I get into the office.
Due to the time difference between Europe and Australia, I rarely get to watch Sunday or midweek games so this is the best way to catch some of the action instead of having to read the match report.
Hope alls well that ends well!
November 19th, 2008 at 1:39 am
dear tim cooper,
how apt that you write this email to the website on the week that ronaldo hits 101 great goals for united.
digitally signed,
your mum
November 19th, 2008 at 1:56 am
“I, Tim Cooper, as a representative of NetResult hereby digitally sign this e-mail message under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America with the additional statement under penalty of perjury that the information in the notice is accurate”
found this ^ paragraph hilarious… digitally signed the email did you Tim? what an idiot. and who cares about the laws of perjury in the USA, we’re talking about the BRITISH premier league, and the fans all over the WORLD wanting to watch it.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:00 am
I love this site.
You guys are amazing. Go on, you are the best football channel in the world.
Hope you get 101 responses to this post
November 19th, 2008 at 3:20 am
You guys ignore the ignorant pricks of Netresult.
They will never accept that they need to go to the
source , not sites linking to them. Then they will
not stand a chance. I mean who would mess with Youtube, right?
Your team has the best football highlights site on the net.
This being said by someone who has searched endlessly for a dedicated site. Every other site is terrible compared to
101 Great Goals period. (i.e. Footytube)
November 19th, 2008 at 3:55 am
Great site guys, and its my only avenue for keeping track of all EPL & world goals in Australia. Keep up the good work, and Tim Cooper can eat my dick!
November 19th, 2008 at 4:51 am
We all love what you do at 101 great goals. Fuck all these fascists.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:32 am
Don’t lose faith! You guys are such a sophisticated and classy site; your analysis alone is worth keeping the site alive. Because, really, who likes reading reports from foxsoccerchannel.com? No one. Fuck those FA reps; keep at it!
November 19th, 2008 at 6:14 am
I think Tim Cooper needs to listen to some nwa.
November 19th, 2008 at 6:39 am
I’m from Northern Ireland but over in South Dakota studying and playing golf for the year, I get up at 6am every Saturday and Sunday to watch the Premiership and then La Liga online but if I didn’t have this site I wouldn’t be able to all the goals from across the globe and your blog posts are always so interesting
We need this site
November 19th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Internet connection…£15
laptop…£499
Wireless router…£60
Watching the best league in the world…Priceless
The Premier League should stop thinking about all the money they can make and start thinking about the fans for once! Without our support and enthusiasm for football the sport would be dead so I think it’s about time we got something back. Highlights of matches is not much to give up considering the amount of money already being made from live matches!
November 19th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Go 101! Do not give up!
November 19th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I sometimes type in “EPL Goals” in Google/Yahoo/Lycos etc and it links me to a YouTube clip or whatever. Time to shut them down too?
November 19th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Hope you don’t get shut down….This is my only reliable source for football highlights…
November 19th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
This place is the first stop I come to when looking for my football fix. The whole reason I do is because I have no access to EPL coverage here in Australia since the local news (bar SBS) don’t cover it, there is no free to air games or highlights (bar SBS again) and I refuse to pay massive amounts for Foxtel which I would only watch for one channel.
It boggles the mind that these corporations forget that it’s the fans that drive the sport. Without the fans, you don’t have the money, you don’t have the game. Why treat the fans - who should be the number 1 priority - like second class citizens?
Stick at it 101. I love what you do.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
as a US footy fan, the way i started following this international sport was through streaming clips online. since then i have become a dedicated Chelsea FC fan, have subscribed to setanta sports, and spent quite a lot of dough on footballing apparel from various sites across the net. i also hope that i will be able to put enough money together to pay for a trip across the pond to see my favorite teams play. but none of this would be true without streaming videos of goal compilations and match highlights. i consider myself lucky if i catch 1 goal highlight during ESPN’s sportcenter over here, meanwhile, the internet offers up coverage from leagues I didn’t even know existed.
so please, if you would like to kill international interest in your sport, which is a huge source of revenue, shut down 101 great goals. you will find that the next day, there will be 3 more sites that perform the same task. search and destroy is not an effective method in stemming the problem. as the big networks in the US have done, offer us official streaming videos with advertisements, such as hulu.com, southparkstudios.com, or adultswim.com, just to name a few.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Tim why don’t you suck a big fat lump of shit out of my ass.
101great goals is doing nothing wrong here.
Typical money men after another pay day.
I hate people like this.
I say I open up a website of me, screwing Tim’s ass with a 101 great goals t-shirt on!!!
November 19th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Right on. Brilliant post. Go on, don’t give up, this is a brilliant website, hope it stays up.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
“Rabbit out of the bag”? You mean cat?
November 19th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
There is no need for potty mouth Dick Van Dyke. BTW loved you in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
November 19th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
if this site gets shut down i would probably cry for days besides fsc this is my only source for football highlights and news.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
fuck tim!!!
November 19th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
If the PL and Netresult weren’t so stupid they would realise that this site is a great advert for their product and that a 2 minute low-res video is no replacement for watching an actual match in person or on TV. 101greatgoals provides a service that people actually want. The PL should take note- they can’t attain global saturation without leakage and they can’t hope to completely control the overblown juggernaut they
have created.
Anyway, 101greatgoals is much more than just a load of youtube links….Keep rockin’.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
In my business class we learnt how Nike dealt with a person who sold fake Nike shoes. They offered the person a contract because he had some good designs, and sold more Nike shoes in the process. So instead of ridding themselves of an illegal practice, they turned it to their own advantage.
This is what the record industry failed to do with Napster. And this is also what the Premier League (and other sports suppliers) are failing to see. The activities on this site are not be a threat to them, they are an encouragement for them to do the same.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:28 am
nba offers highlights (in great quality this season) at their official site and it only increases its popularity.
i am a blackburn fan in Singapore and i visit this site everyday. cheers…
November 20th, 2008 at 12:49 am
Your analysis is right-on. Keep it up, I don’t think you should feel threatened at all.
I am a bit worried about Fred54 though. I hope he’s managed to stay anonymous.
November 20th, 2008 at 5:24 am
I found out about this site a few days ago and I have to admit it’s AWESOME!!!! To see the goals from the matches not shown on TV is great. I sincerely hope that you guys stay online and continue to give us this amazing opportunity. YOU GUYS ROCK!!!!
November 20th, 2008 at 6:08 am
This website is my homepage. I suggest a boycott of all official EPL merchandise, content etc, if 101greatgoals gets taken down. This is the greatest website, ever! Fight the power people!
November 20th, 2008 at 6:20 am
I agree with the folks that talk about web search content. I can go to Google video and search around for copyrighted content easily.
This is all about little fish vs. big fish.
Go minnows!
Great job on the site by the way. You keep 15 dollars in my pocket and out of Satan-ta’s.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:37 am
this site is amazing and i reckon the guys who run it are a bunch of smart, smart cookies. i would hate to see it shut down.
power to the people!
from a devoted fan in the UAE.
November 20th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Nice one Tim, you plank. Living in Colombia, its not so easy to watch the highlights of EPL games…and half the time I just want to see the goals.
You should scan a picture of your rectum and send it to Tim.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I wanna thank you for a great site, and I fully support your page no matter what, and I agree with all your arguments above. You guys fight for us, the little people, and most important is that you don’t back down. I think what you’re doing is a good thing, and the right thing. Keep it up, don’t the those whores get to you! //Rasmus from Sweden
November 20th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Tim Cooper can go count his cash and f-off! As as American it is very hard to keep up to date with the EPL, 101greatgoals has allowed me to stay current with the beautiful game and I really do appreciate that. To all the money grubbing execs. piss off and let us be!
November 20th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
101greatgoals.com website owners/employees
THANK YOU for everything
THANKS!!!!!!
November 20th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Great site fellows. I live in Poland and this is my life line to the beautiful game.
I think Mr Cooper and his corporate ilk are a sad indictment of where the premier league has ended up- in a quagmire of greed. Now they even want to deprive real fans of watching the game to further line their filthy coffers.
Fight until the bitter end I say.
SJ
November 20th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
I can’t live without this website
November 21st, 2008 at 12:32 am
Hi, please dont listen to their baseless threats. If you guys go I dont know what i’m going to do! I remember something similar happened on another site (footytube) but they kept going after many threats. 101greatgoaals and footytube are my main highlights fixes, i dont know what im going to do if anything is to happen t either one of them!! F*** off tim cooper and ur net result!
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:13 am
Disregard that e-mail. I suck cocks.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:58 am
hey
tell them suits te f@ck away off an give real fans all over the world the chance te follow their teams..
brilliant web site guys
keep up the good work
from decky down under
gwan de POOL !!