Periscope

[RichyMills]

After hearing about a few lads being warned not to video/periscope at Grimsby's FA cup replay with Shrewsbury and that someone got ejected, I tried to find out what the deal was with it. Have a read -

http://wp.me/p6WiRp-ak

I reckon it's great and doesn't really adversely affect the club or competition and as someone miles from Grimsby it's great for me but I'm interested what everyone else thinks about it.

I also broadcast myself from a few Torquay games this year

[Gullscorer]

I don't know how the law stands, but I feel this should be allowed for personal and private use only; not for personal financial gain and not where it adversely affects somebody else's commercial enterprise for which they have probably made a hefty payment for the licence.

Over the years people have copied vinyl records, CDs, television/radio programmes, even DVDs, as back ups against damage to the originals or for listening/viewing later, all for private use. I have no problem with that. There's no evidence that commercial companies or artistes/composers lost revenue as a result (though they have of course claimed otherwise). And the BBC and television companies have allowed video recording of programmes for personal use. Pirate copies for sale are clearly quite a different proposition, and copyright infringement here is a major problem. But the difference is usually pretty obvious, as it will be with the Periscope video system.

In most cases it should be obvious when the video is displayed subsequent to the game as to whether or not there was personal financial gain or potential loss of somebody's business. Stewards at a match would be unable to correctly make such judgements at the time of the game, and should concentrate on crowd safety and anti-social behaviour. Stewards should not be allowed to intrude upon private matters which have no implications for safety or anti-social behaviour. On the other hand, anything which interferes with others' enjoyment (for example, flash photography, or over-exuberant use of equipment) should be within the stewards' remit. As for ejections from the ground, again I am not an expert on the law here, but I should imagine there may be situations where a spectator could successfully sue stewards and their employer or the club itself, as a result of such ejection.