How can the NFL assert copyright over &quot;any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game&quot;?
<p>The NFL's copyright statement for today's big game, and presumably for other football games, contains language like "Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited".</p>

<p>How can they prohibit someone from making their own "descriptions or accounts" (or, indeed, their own pictures - if someone brings a camera phone into the audience they may be violating some stadium policy, but they're not violating copyright) under copyright law?</p>

<p>The NFL cannot use copyright as a basis for preventing independently made recordings, &quot;descriptions or accounts&quot;, but can prevent usage of their own such items.</p>
<p>The case <em>National Basketball Association v. Motorola</em> [<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Ass%27n_v._Motorola,_Inc." rel="noreferrer">wiki</a>, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/105_F3d_841.htm" rel="noreferrer">full text</a>] contains a concise summary of the law on this issue:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[29] [...] The House Report also makes clear that it is the broadcast, not the underlying game, that is the subject of copyright protection. In explaining how game broadcasts meet the Act's requirement that the subject matter be an &quot;original work[] of authorship,&quot; 17 U.S.C. § 102(a), the House Report stated:</p>
<p>[30] When a football game is being covered by four television cameras, with a director guiding the activities of the four cameramen and choosing which of their electronic images are sent out to the public and in what order, there is little doubt that what the cameramen and the director are doing constitutes &quot;authorship.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>

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