Open House: Archives

Reporters do it. Shaq does it. The guy sipping on the $9 beer in the upper deck does it.

These people all attend sporting events, and they report on the game through social media. They Tweet, they take pictures, and they chat and txt in personal and professional capacities.

It seems inevitable, doesn't it? Technology has become so mobile that people are constantly pushing information, whether they're on a bus or their wife is in labor. When it comes to sports, though, it gets a bit trickier. Imagery and even some aspects of the reporting are intellectual property (IP), and the owners of that IP have a legal obligation to protect it, or else they risk losing whatever rights they've got in the IP.

The NBA is reportedly clamping down its players when it comes to Tweeting, and the NFL did something similar last month. Of course, the NFL (the league where the players wear helmets and they better not show too much personality unless they legally change their name) extended the guidelines to media members, too.

Media members may not, according to the NFL, use Twitter or any other medium to give play-by-play. That seems pretty obvious and fair. But what about the guy with the $9 beer in the upper deck? Can the NFL hope to stop him? Should their IP rights be threatened if they cannot?

It appeared, for a short time, that the Southeastern Conference (SEC) hoped to. After a big negative reaction last month, the SEC explained its new policies, which were primarily aimed at video feeds during games, rather than a Tweet about Tim Tebow's throwing motion in the third quarter.

Are these social media guidelines reactionary overreaching? Or are they a first step towards institutional limitations on what is commonly seen as a self-evident right to Tweet?