FA Better to Do

As some of you may be aware, Viva Rovers has been out of action on occasion in the past week, meaning we were unable to bring you a preview of the Ipswich Town match, and were also prevented from updating or editing the site in anyway. The reason for this was that WordPress, who host this blog-site, had received a complaint from Football Data Co. working on behalf of the FA in regard to the pictures featured within Viva Rovers.

You may recall a week ago Football Data Co. contacted WordPress on the same subject. The bugbear that time was that we were showing pictures of football league players playing football on this site and that all such images are copyrighted by Football Data Co as part of their contract with the FA and the Football League. Grudgingly we accepted this ruling and replaced the offending photos with some of our own crowd shots snapped on my mobile phone at various grounds in the past few seasons. Job done? Sadly not.

On Friday WordPress informed me that the FA, no less, had now contacted them and asked that the aforementioned camera phone pictures taken from the depths of the stands at Cheltenham, West Brom and Reading and showing no football action whatsoever were also in breach of their copyright. Not wanting to put WordPress in the middle again I contacted a representative of Football Data Co for an explanation with the following email;

Afternoon,
 
I have been contacted (twice) by WordPress who host my unofficial blog-site Viva Rovers about images which Football Data Co have insisted be removed from the site. In particular match action photography which I had obtained from other sites.
 
I have complied with this request and removed the aformentioned images as requested.
 
I have today been contacted again by WordPress who say the FA are insisting I remove further images from the site. However the images they refer to were taken by me and do not feature match action at all.
 
Can you please inform me of what exactly Football Data Co have the rights to in this field so that I can ensure that I am not infringing copyright as I cannot see how the football league can hold copyright for any images taken anywhere in the vicinity of a football ground.
 
Regards

I received a short reply within a couple of hours from Mr Derek Johnston who stated (and this his entire explanatory email by the way);

Thank you for your email I regret to take a camera or equipment that records images into football grounds and use them to photograph, is in breach of ground regulations regards Derek Johnston.

Despite Mr Derek Johnston’s considered and detailed response I felt the need to press on and so pushed for further information;

Evening Derek,
 
Thanks for your reply.
 
Having attended football for many years I have to say that this is news to me. I was aware of the ruling regarding match action imagery, but was unaware that taking any photographs in a ground is forbidden.
 
I don’t want to be pedantic here, but could you please send me a copy of the ‘ground regulations’ where this is written, just so I can be sure of what is and isn’t allowed, because as I say, I was unaware of any universal ground regulation on this subject.
 
Also, may I ask how, amongst the many thousands of football websites out there, you were drawn to my humble blog?
 
Regards

As I had genuinely never seen this written down and I wanted to resolve the issue as quickly as possible I did an internet search for the Football League’s Ground Regulations. There was nothing on the Football Data Co website and there was certainly no detailed explanation on the back of any of recent match tickets so I continued to trawl the web, eventually discovering them in full on Cheltenham Town’s website. And I am frankly surprised at the nature of them in relation to photographs at matches.

Ground Regulation 16

Mobile telephones are permitted within the ground provided that they are used for personal and private use only provided that no audio, visual, or audio-visual material captured by a telephone may be published or otherwise made available to any third parties including, without limitation, via social networking sites.

So effectively, if you take your mobile phone to a match, and decide to take a picture of your mates and yourself savouring the occasion with your mobile and then whack it on Facebook to show everyone, you are effectively breaching copyright. All the fun of the football and all that. Whilst I was finding this out I had a further unstructured reply from Mr Johnston.

Ground regulations are part of your ticket of entry to a ground and posted at all grounds. I will send a copy tomorrow, in answerer to your question why we picked your humble blog we have good intelligence regards and all the best Derek.

I replied as follows;

Alas it seems good intelligence is no substitute for common sense,
 
No need to send the ground regulations as I found a copy on the Cheltenham Town website after a lengthy online search. I can’t say I have ever seen them posted in a ground, and certainly not on my match ticket, but then I suppose once I’m in the stadia I’m too busy watching the football.
 
I shall ensure the pictures are taken down as soon as WordPress allow me access to the site to do so as they have currently suspended my account at your request. Rest assured any future match images produced on the site will consist of artistically crafted collage interpretations made from finger paint, glitter and dried pasta.
 
I too wish you all the best; I hope your company’s pursuit to make football as soulless and corporate as possible is a fruitful one. In all fairness supporting Doncaster Rovers has, over the last few years, probably given me more fun and enjoyment than I am really entitled too so I applaud Football Data Co’s efforts to put a stop to this.
 
Regards

Unsurprisingly I never had a further reply. If I genuinely believed that the FA had nothing better to do then I would probably be a lot less irked, but this shows in many ways how the FA works. When an unofficial website uses dodgy camera phone images rather than paying them for official material they are straight in touch. Twelve years ago the club to which this site is devoted was being town to bits from the inside, unsurpisingly back then the FA were nowhere to be seen.