An Email from TVCogeco Personnel Leads to OHL Fan Site to Consider Shutting Down

According to a letter from an admin from icedogfans.com, someone from TVCogeco sent an email addressing the fan site and scolding them for using clips of media from the hockey games and putting them on YouTube for the purpose of discussion and viewing as a fan. The clips were brief and for discussion purposes only, not for commercial use.

One of these video's just happened to be one of most talked about goals in hockey this year - Ryan Strome's Highlight-reel goal against the Plymouth Whalers. The goal video went viral on YouTube, and was featured on just about every major hockey media outlet, including the front page of NHL.com.

Wouldn't you think that kind of exposure is good? TVCogeco announcers heard worldwide, thanks to the video being posted on YouTube..

Not to mention, posting videos is a great way to get exposure for the players and allow fans to catch up on what they may have missed. Video's are used all the time from clips of hockey on various websites, and even the biggest media giants never tend to shut these sites down unless they are using the material for commercial gain or profit. If you are going to get into covering sports in your media company, you should get used to people reusing clips etc.

Due to the videos and articles being a main feature of the fan site, and with the creator paying out of his own pocket to run the site, he has pondered the worth of keeping the site active.

This is unfortunate as the site was one of the few fans sites for an OHL team, although it was in no way associated with the Niagara IceDogs hockey club, it was still a great voice for the team. The site generated lots of hits and lots of feedback, and was a great source for news giving the fans a way to show their support to the team from home, not just by coming to the rink.

This is a perfect lesson in new media. What is right and what is wrong? It's hard to tell with so many video sites and YouTube, along with blogs, is the face of media changing? Or will people continue to get penalized for reproducing media for non-commercial intent?

What do you think is right ? Please give your questions and opinions in the comments section below!

For more information, visit http://forum.icedogfans.com/showthread.php?t=6495

The email from Cogeco read:

Quote:

To Whom It May Concern, It has recently come to our attention that you are using TVCogeco’s footage of The Niagara Ice Dogs on your website. Please note this is an unauthorized use and as such is a breech of copyright. We ask that you immediately stop using the footage. If you’d like to provide a link to our TVCogeco website, where the highlights are available online, I would be more than happy to discuss that with you. Please do not hesitate to contact me at (phone # removed) at your convenience. Thank you in advance for your co-operation.