Writing a letter to the NFL Commissioner…

When I see something that angers me, I sometimes take to pen and write to express my disappointment. This time, my letter is not towards the person who I am disappointed in, but rather someone else who should be disappointed when the find out it is their company and their prodcut that is being abused by a third party. Not only have I sent this letter to Mr. Goodell, the Commissioner of the NFL, I have forwarded a copy of it to the NFL player’s union as well. This concerns them both, and I hope for a change they’ll be on the same page with this issue.

Let’s see how this works out…

Peter

Dear Mr. Goodell:

I have been a fan of your league for over 20 years (a fan of the Bills of Buffalo) and I am writing to you today because I would like to inform yourself and NFL concerning my feelings regarding the actions of VEVO during one of their parties during the Sundance Film Festival.

During Sundance 2012, the VEVO PowerStation there was an NFL game being shown during this party. The game being show was the AFC Championship game between the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots. When looking closer at the several large screen televisions that were playing, it was noticed that the feeds of this game were coming from an internet site called Tutele.com, which is a site that pirates television feeds from legitimate stations.

What makes this oddly ironic was that VEVO is run by companies like EMI, Sony Music and Universal Music who are all part of the RIAA, that same company that has been suing people for pirating their music. They’ve sued Grandmothers, 14 year old kids for tens of thousands of dollars per song to try to stop people from pirating their product. These same companies that championed the anti-pirate message have been caught here doing the exact same thing with your product, broadcasting an illegal feed of an NFL Playoff game at their VEVO station.

I think that the NFL should hold VEVO to the same standard the labels themselves hold people to when suing them for stealing their product. I believe the NFL should hold this company accountable for being the blatant hypocrite they are and make them pay for pirating your product at a public event.

For proof that this pirating occurred, I would recommend watching this video that was created by TC reporter Jason Kincaid:

http://youtu.be/EhJjlkpyiec

This is your product, this is piracy, this is not legal. It was showing on all screens in the establishment. This was not accidental, this was not a mistake, and it was illegal and fraudulent. I hope that the NFL will take actions to protect their product and let companies like VEVO know that if they want stop piracy of their own product, they should show the same respect to other people’s intellectual property. I urge you Sir to take action and let everyone know that your product will not be pirated, especially by those who claim to fight piracy. I hope you will not let this gross example of hypocrisy go away without recourse.

Thank you for your time and best wishes for the upcoming season.

Sincerely,

Peter
Dedicated NFL fan,
Ontario, Canada