Any photographer has copyright over their photos - regardless of the subject matter. It's up to that photographer who and where he allows to use the photos, and what limits - if any - are placed on their use.
Bobbins
All my photos of football are copyright Dataco, as the commisioning agent and licence holder.
If anyone is bored
This pretty much sums up image rights and media stuff in football
The bit about fixture lists is interesting
UK Football Rights FAQ
Q. Why are there no fixture lists on fansites?
A. Fixture lists are the exclusive intellectual property of the Football League, and are licensed by them for use by 3rd parties. For someone to put just their teams fixtures on a site would cost £258.00 per season. Not surprisingly few fans are prepared to pay for information which really should be public domain and free.
Q. What about pictures, there are very few of those either, particularly recent ones.. why is that?
A. All mid-game ‘action shots’ are the property of the Football League and/or Sky TV. It is illegal for someone to show them on a website without permission. I myself, did try to get permission but they simply do not give out material in this way. Headshots of the players in team strip are the property of the Club itself and can be shown if they give permission. Few clubs have given permission to fansites for this.
Q. This is all a bit heavy isn’t it?
A. Tell me about it. I guess it is just a symptom of the radically commercial state of the game today that all elements of the ‘product’ that is Football are owned by someone, usually exclusively, and usually with the sole aim of generating revenue from it. Sky TV have, after all, pumped huge piles of cash into it, so expect to own all rights to all of the coverage.
Recently the Premier and Football Leagues created a Limited Company called simply ‘Football DataCo Ltd’. This Company has the task of policing the media, and in particular the Internet. They have a ‘compliance unit’ which reviews websites and issues warnings to those sites that are infringing the many licensing agreements that bind football material, pictures, video, sound, trademarks and so on.
In 2003 alone the Compliance Unit allegedly closed down in excess of 250 fansites. Think about that for a moment.
So.. on many sites now you will not find any photographs of the team, limited or old headshots, player names and shirt numbers are also licensed - although narrative content such as this FAQ can include them - so no team lists as such. You will also find that there are no Club Crests (trademarked by the Club), no images of the stadium, absolutely no video or audio content, and no live data (so goal flashes or a live updating league table are out of the question).
Fansites are allowed to show the league table though. Lucky old us..
Okay, here is some info sent to me, or related on the phone by various folk including the Commercial Director at CCFC, the General Manager at Football DataCo Ltd (who has since moved on), the Photographic license guy at the Football League and a few other journalists and media folk.
A few years ago - the Premiership and the Football League formed a jointly owned Limited Company called ‘Football Data Company Ltd’, based in Connaught Place in London and usually referred to as ‘Football DataCo’. This Company is responsible for protecting the rights to the various aspects of media coverage for football in England and Wales and has a fair amount of cash behind it.
This Company has something they call the Compliance Unit, which amongst other things reviews websites for breaches of licensing, and where necessary contacts the site owners and ISPs to make changes or close the site down under threat of legal action. Few ISPs will stand against this, and in fact intellectual property theft is often in the ISP T&C so they can shut your site with little or no warning and no refund.
Throughout the 4th Quarter of 2002, an extraordinary 182 Football related websites were closed, and over 300 warnings issued. In October 2002 alone, the Compliance Unit closed down 70 Fansites.Here then are the rules and restrictions on football websites.
Fixture Lists
Fixture Lists are owned and licensed by the League. Official Club sites can obviously show fixtures for themselves (but not other clubs) for free - everyone else must apply for and pay to license the data from the League. If you are the officially recognised Fanzine website, and can get the Club to write a letter to that effect - the cost to license Fixtures is just 1 Uk Pound per Season. Each Club can only nominate a single site as such. For whatever reason, virtually no Premiership or First Division Clubs have chosen to nominate an Official Fansite.
If not, the cost is 258 UK Pounds per season - for each team whos fixtures you wish to show. To show the entire 1st Division fixtures it would therefore cost 24 x 258 = 6,192 pounds plus VAT. There are discounts available if you do buy all of them but it is still going to cost you a small fortune.
The official fanzine site can pay just 24 quid for the lot - so it really is worthwhile to get the Clubs recognitiion, but as I said - this is very hard to get in practice and your independence in terms of being critical about the club has gone.
The League Table
The League Table itself is considered public domain and can be shown. There may be issues if you wished to show a live updating table (as Sky do on the last day of the season), as this may be considered as ‘live data’ and is therefore the property of Sky TV.
A static Table, that is updated after 5.00pm each Saturday is fine.
Match Results are considered to be public domain and can be shown. As with the League Table, you cannot show Live Goal Flashes, as this is ‘live data’ and owned by Sky TV.
Use of the Official Logo and other Trademarked Items
You can display the Nationwide logo on pages that show the League Table or Results. You cannot show the Football League logo without their permission, which they seldom give. At the very least they will wish to review the site contents in full - and will remove permission should they ever notice anything that they are not happy with. The League have signed a deal with Premium TV who have paid a lot of money to be the Official League site.
You cannot show the Club Crest or derivations thereof - as this is a registered trademark. Neither can you show any trademarked Club logo or its trademarked name. If you wish to show these, you must apply in writing to the League itself, though I have been told that it is very unlikely that they would ever grant this without written controls over usage and content on the site.
Photographic Images
As Coventry fan Jonny Barton found, Photography within the Stadium is strictly prohibited. Media coverage of game action is licensed by Sky TV, who can withdraw coverage (and therefore pay no TV money) to any Club that allows action coverage by any 3rd Party. Clubs are therefore extremely touchy on this point, and there have been numerous incidents during the 2002/03 Season where fans have been ejected for taking still/video images during a game.
All action photography is the property of the League. Only approved websites are allowed to apply for permission to use action shots, and approved sites are those that have agreements in place with the League (such as the Newspaper sites who source through PA News or Ananova in Leeds). Fansites are not allowed to show any action shots.
Head shots of players in the Coventry kit belong to the Club, and only the Club can give permission for a fansite to use them. If the player or his agent object, then the pictures will have to be removed regardless of the Clubs permission. Clubs very rarely give this permission however - although the odd Charity site for example have managed it where the Player is involved in the worthy cause.
Shots of players in International strip (live action or not) belong to the International federation of the Country they play for, and cannot be used without their permission. In the case of England it would be the FA.
Shots of players playing in a European competition (not likely for Coventry but still), belong to UEFA, and cannot be used without their permission.
The only way you can take photographs inside the Ground, is to apply for a League Photographic License - and then with this License to apply to the Club to be allowed into the Press Area. To qualify so that you are even able to apply for a Photographic License you must have had 15 Paid Photgraphic images (30 if you want a Premiership license), published in National or Regional newspapers, within the last Year.
These images could be of Sunday League matches for the local Freesheet for example, but it must be Paid work - and you must be able to produce evidence if asked.
In the event that you have a Photographic License, and you have succeeded in getting permission from the Club (no mean feat, many clubs are heavily over-subscribed for the press area), to enter the Ground with a Camera, then you are finally free to take pictures. Sadly, however - you still cannot use these images on a website, of any kind, at all. All you can do is to sell the Images to an approved Site such as Ananova or The Guardian for use on their site.
Team Sheets / Squad Lists
Player names and shirt numbers are under database license by the League who administers them for the Clubs. You cannot therefore show a squad list of Player Names and Shirt Numbers without League Permission. You can only use Player Names in a narrative or editorial context such as a match review or news item.
Live Coverage
Live match coverage, of any kind, is not allowed. No Audio streams from a website for example, or live textual coverage are allowed. Strictly speaking, narrating the match, live, via mobile phone from the ground or from your seat in front of the PC, to a 3rd Party, is infringing SKY TVs exclusive broadcast rights and is therefore illegal.
Moving images, even animated GIFs of match action are not allowed. Video files of live action are also not allowed without the written permission of the broadcaster and the Club.
Other Points of Interest
* Websites are now liable under Libel Laws, and there have been recent actions against individuals who have written libellous material. Under certain circumstances you can get away with satirical narrative, but steer clear of anything involving ongoing litigation - so do not take the wee wee out of Player X being in court for drunk driving. Several websites fell foul of this during the infamous Leeds players court case and were closed down.
* WAP Coverage is covered by a separate agreement, and is therefore licensed. You cannot have a WAP website showing Football media without permission.
* No website Betting without a betting license.
* The selling or auctioning of protected Football material, either directly or indirectly on the website will result in legal action. Used footy shirts are okay so long as they are genuine and have been legally obtained, but your homemade T-shirts of some naked girl with the Club Crest across her chest - definitely not allowed.
* Fantasy Football games, where real Player/Club/League Names are used are not allowed, unless you first obtain all the necessary licensing. You cannot use the phrase ‘Fantasy Football’ either, as this is owned.
I think that just about covers it. As an aside, much of the licensing of live action is worded to protect ‘digital and broadcast’ rights, so you could legitimately set up an Easel, paint a watercolour of a goal incident, and stick this on a website. I think you’d just about get away with this.
