Watch This Space

Watch This Space – The Pictures Were There

But of course we know that unofficial sites do exist. And they exist in mass numbers and many of them are more popular than the official sites could ever dream of being. Official sites have their place – this is where you should go to get the latest news about the club that you support and then you visit an unofficial site to get the fans opinions to that news. It’s a system that should work and in reality it always used to. But that was of course before the PTV deal and the introduction of a company called Football Data Co.

Football Data Co was a company set up to look after exactly what the name suggests Football Data. You know this game attracts so many statistics, fixture lists and the like. Football Data Co was set up to oversee all of that and basically to control what people can and cannot read (or more importantly write)

One of the first decisions by this new company was to copyright a football fixture list. You know that day in June when you plan your football watching season around the list that you are presented with. Well that list can only be reproduced under copyright. Matter not that basically it is a list of dates, locations and times it is copyrighted to the football league. And little old unofficial sites like this one cannot reproduce this list without going to the expense of a licence fee which I am led to believe is hundreds of pounds. No matter that this list tells anyone that is visiting who we play next. No matter that this list actually would produce more fans in the ground the more places it gets printed, it cannot be carried on a web site like this one. Once the relevant date and time has passed I can produce a results list but not a fixtures one. Hence, we don’t have one on here.

And believe you me, Football Data Co trawl web sites at the start of the season telling people who have these lists without licence that they have to remove them. And you are left in little doubt what happens if you don’t – the basics of it are you get sued for breach of copyright.

Today I was contacted by Swansea City. They in turn had been contacted by Huddersfield Town. Our hosts of last weekend had taken note of the match photographs on this site from the game and informed Swansea that I was in breach again of football league copyright. The photos had to be removed. They were because if they weren’t then Football Data Co would be involved again and I have seen these e-mails before – they are the same ones that fly around when people print fixture lists they just refer to photographs instead.

Now after discussion with the Swans I rung Football Data Co and spoke to a nice chap by the name of Derek Johnstone. He was pleasant enough and I am sure he was just a rule enforcer not a rule maker. How do I get a licence I asked him. You have to work for one was the response, you basically have to prove you are a photographer and get 15 photos published in a local publication (e.g. newspaper) in the preceding 12 months. Once you have done that you can apply I was told. I didn’t get into the cost of it as the first criteria was never going to get met.

I asked if I could take photos from the stand to which I was told I am not even allowed to take a camera in with me. So that stops you going after a hard morning’s bird watching then!!!! I clarified this point and was told that I could not take a camera into the ground. What if I had been doing this I asked. Here I was told that the club concerned must have been turning a blind eye but I could still get sued for printing these pictures.

I still don’t see what harm publishing fixture lists and photographs will have. If someone can tell me how this directly affects the football clubs then I will understand. This is the football league trying their best to control what you see and where you see it. I am no David Bailey and take a few photos to give those who cannot be there a quick peek at the games they have missed. They are not brilliant pictures and never will be but they are something. Had I been selling these pictures then I would have understood more but, let’s be fair, who in their right mind would buy one of the pictures from the site when better pictures are available for purchase elsewhere.

I really do not see what the football league have to gain from all of this other than some ill feeling from the supporters. What is next on the list – banning of discussions? Match reports only available under reporting licence? Player names only allowed to be used on official sites? The world has clearly gone mad. I could understand more if there was a serious breach of copyright but this is a copyright that should never have been granted. A fan taking a few photos of his team from a stand. Where is the real crime in all of that?

I would like to add that I do not proportion any blame onto Swansea City for this incident nor the removal of my photos from the site which I did voluntarily because the Swans had become involved in something that Huddersfield could have easily bypassed them over and asked me direct. Huddersfield I think have been petty but I do understand that they are following the letter of the football league law. I do however blame the football league and think that they have lost sight on reality and forgotten that it was the ordinary fans that made the game what it is – the suits who have no idea will eventually ruin it.

I have one final gripe with PTV as a whole and that is their text results service. 12 months ago I turned this on in the middle of our relegation fight to get the results and scores as they happened when I was on holiday. When I came back I sent the text to turn it off. Since then I send the text every game when one of theirs comes through. Each time I get a message saying I am successful. And next game it starts again. Let’s see how they react when they get my e-mail now asking them for a full refund of the cost of these texts. I won’t hold my breath!

JACK ARMY!

Why not check out the latest Vetch Verdict on the BBC site?