NCAA Bans Live Blogging

[www.courier-journal.com]

I doubt this will stand up for very long, but if in their infinite stupidty the NC$$ decides to stand by this, I will be delighted to violate their rule at every possible opportunity. Gits.

The same is true at the WSOP. The final tables that will be aired on ESPN are being played in isolation booths. The media and even players' families are forced to watch in a tent on 1 hour tape delay.

So stupid in both cases and I can't decide which is worse: forcing someone to liveblog from in front of a television (NCAA) or forcing the media to wait an for ESPN to announce the winner of an event that won't air until the results have been out for weeks (at least).

Does Dick Cheney run the NCAA now?

That's awful.

It's really kind of amazing how many of the comments on the newspaper website support the NCAA. The only argument that I can see carrying any weight is that restrictions on use of information are a condition of being granted access to the press box. But otherwise, I'm kind of flabbergasted that information about what has happened in the game is considered proprietary information.

jtwcornell91
The only argument that I can see carrying any weight is that restrictions on use of information are a condition of being granted access to the press box.

That is exactly what they say; it is apparently also a condition of admission to the game. I don't see how this is any better, except to the extent that people have notice that they need to blog from elsewhere.

Courts have made clear in the past, however, that live updates are not proprietary - though MLB apparently disagrees.

jtwcornell91
But otherwise, I'm kind of flabbergasted that information about what has happened in the game is considered proprietary information.

It's a stance I would expect a lawyer to take when setting up the most extreme possible defense of his client's property rights. However, it's also a stance I would expect every other sentient being on the planet to immediately laugh out of court.

In the interim, you are no longer permitted to discuss what socks I'm wearing today. That's proprietary information, and I haven't given you the transmission rights.

Al DeFlorio
Does Dick Cheney run the NCAA now?

Yes. And he's anti-blogging because blogging could not exist had Al Gore not invented the Internet.

From the newspaper discussion:

Jeff Ford
The Courier Journal sets a bad example by choosing to simply ignore a rule that it disagrees with rather than try to change a rule. All citizens are obligated to live by the rules and work to change rules that are not fair. I am really pissed about the new stop sign that was installed at the end of my street and feel that it is within my first amendment right to express myself by ignoring it.
_________________
Jeff Ford

... thankfully, somebody forgot to tell Rosa Parks about this unspoken truth.

JDeafv
From the newspaper discussion:

Jeff Ford
The Courier Journal sets a bad example by choosing to simply ignore a rule that it disagrees with rather than try to change a rule. All citizens are obligated to live by the rules and work to change rules that are not fair. I am really pissed about the new stop sign that was installed at the end of my street and feel that it is within my first amendment right to express myself by ignoring it.
_________________
Jeff Ford

... thankfully, somebody forgot to tell Rosa Parks about this unspoken truth.

sports night
"Danny...." -Isaac
"Yeah?" -Dan
"You know I love you, don't you?" -Isaac
"Yeah." -Dan
"And because I love you, I can say this: no rich, young white guy has ever gotten anywhere with me comparing himself to Rosa Parks. (pause) Got it?" -Isaac
"Yes, sir." -Dan
"Good." -Isaac

However, the point stands that if you believe a law is unconstitutional, the most effective way to challenge it in court is to break it first so that you have standing. In this case, though, the NCAA is revoking a privilege rather than initiating legal action.

sports night
"Danny...." -Isaac
"Yeah?" -Dan
"You know I love you, don't you?" -Isaac
"Yeah." -Dan
"And because I love you, I can say this: no rich, young white guy has ever gotten anywhere with me comparing himself to Rosa Parks. (pause) Got it?" -Isaac
"Yes, sir." -Dan
"Good." -Isaac

I thought of the same scene. Great show.

NCAA lives in a Sun King kind of vacuum. (Nice name for a Cornell Sun column, perhaps?) It thinks it makes the rules.

Next the NCAA ought to get Chevrolet to up the meager $1000 it's been giving to scholarship funds for the player of the game. How about $100,000?

billhoward
Next the NCAA ought to get Chevrolet to up the meager $1000 it's been giving to scholarship funds for the player of the game. How about $100,000?

That amount has been fixed since I've been a kid, and every time I hear the announcer mention it it rubs me wrong. One wonders if the NCAA now charges Chevrolet $20,000 for the plug, of which $1000 goes to the scholarship fund and the rest to NCAA coffers.

Al DeFlorio

billhoward
Next the NCAA ought to get Chevrolet to up the meager $1000 it's been giving to scholarship funds for the player of the game. How about $100,000?

That amount has been fixed since I've been a kid, and every time I hear the announcer mention it it rubs me wrong. One wonders if the NCAA now charges Chevrolet $20,000 for the plug, of which $1000 goes to the scholarship fund and the rest to NCAA coffers.

By now that plug has to be going for a lot more than $20K.

Much as I think the NCAA is being stupid and much as I think there are free speech issues involved, it's possible the NCAA in its finite wisdom may have some legal basis.

In the case of a regional college playoff game, the NCAA is being dumb because it's not as if there's huge call for information on the game. The NCAA could be in the positon of encouraging blogging from minor events and trying to extract blog money from the other ones.

Wasn't there a blog live from the NCAA lax tourney?

Is there a difference between written information and spoken? I don't think the NCAA would be able to prohibit people calling on cell phones to provide updates, if for no other reason than it would be even harder to enforce.

Perhaps the NCAA just wants to stake out the right to get people to sign up for text updates for a nominal fee.

billhoward
Wasn't there a blog live from the NCAA lax tourney?

Yes and no. There was a live blog but it was from a guy watching from his couch as I recall.

As a condition of the ticket, the arena (or the business renting the arena) can enforce rules for fans such as no movie cameras, no professional cameras but snapshot cameras okay, and probably no blogging or no published game reports although as you note, how would you enforce it? For the NCCA lax tournament in Baltimore, I believe video cameras were banned but no mention made on the size or type of the still camera. I brought in a 100-400mm zoom, which probably falls outside the range of snapshot camera.

If the NCAA persists in this blog-banning silliness, the newspapers collectively, not just the Louisville Courier-Journal (the affected paper here), could say, "You want sports coverage? Okay, it will include blogged game analysis," which is the term they'll use (as the CJ did) to describe the ongoing game reports.

The NCAA realizes its popularity is a wax and wane thing, much like that of a movie actor/actress. You need to have the right mix of arrogance and accessibility. It can set virtually any rules it wants for college hoops coverage, but it falls off pretty fast after that. They'd be nuts to ban blogging at, say, the college soccer finals. Or swimming.