Premier League’s Lawyers Come After The Offside

By: Daryl | February 12th, 2009

We received a threat from the ~~Evil Galactic Empire’s~~ Premier League’s legal people yesterday, demanding that we stop using all English Premier League club crests here on The Offside, and all UK club crests too.

While football fans see football crests as a helpful way of identifying football teams, Football Data Co (the Premier League’s licensing arm) sees football crests as a way to make money.

We could understand the legal takedown notice if we were profiteering from club crests by selling counterfeit Arsenal shirts or dodgy Man Utd dog food bowls. But we’re not. We use club crests the way they were originally intended: to identify teams.

And for the Premier League to prevent us doing that is not only comically tyrannical, it’s extremely short-sighted too.

Because the more the Premier League stamps on football fans, the more football fans feel separated from the game. I certainly feel a lot less goodwill toward the Premier League today than I did yesterday. And I wasn’t all that happy with them yesterday.

It’s as if the Premier League suffers from a particularly aggressive form of Obssessive Compulsive Disorder, except instead of being compelled to clean everything eight times they feel the need to make sure they’re making money out of everything.

Here’s the text of the letter we received:

We write on behalf of the Football Data Co Limited which is the appointed licensee of the FA Premier League, the Football League, the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League (”the Leagues”) in respect of the licensing of certain intellectual property rights of the Leagues, including UK Club Crests, for use by third parties.

We have noticed that your website http://www.theoffside.com/ is displaying UK Club Crests without permission. The Club Crests can only be used with permission from each individual team. The Crests need to be removed until permission is granted.

We wish to make you aware that we have a good faith belief that your present use is an infringement of the Leagues’ legal rights and that all such unauthorised use must cease immediately. Please confirm by return your agreement to this and give your undertaking to cease all such infringements on any and all of your web sites. Pending your response the Leagues’ rights are fully reserved.

We thank you for your cooperation.

Formal Declaration

1. I hereby state Football DataCo are the owners of the exclusive rights to the copyrighted material and that NetResult are authorised to act on their behalf.

2. On behalf of the owners of the exclusive right to the copyrighted material at issue in this notice, I hereby state that I have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorised by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

I, Jack Xxxxxx, as a representative of NetResult hereby digitally sign this e-mail message under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America with the additional statement under penalty of perjury that the information in the notice is accurate.

Yours sincerely,

Jack Xxxxxx

NetResult
www.nr-online.com
A Division of Projector NetResult Ltd
Broadway House,
2-6 Fulham Broadway,
London,
SW6 1AA

Those aren’t kisses at the bottom next to the guy’s name. Jack was actually quite pleasant via email so we don’t want to cause him any personal trouble.

But Football Data Co is everything that’s wrong with modern football. These are the same people that sue you if you dare print Premier League fixtures without handing them a fistful of cash first. Apparently information like football fixtures isn’t public knowledge, it’s just an asset to be sold off. Because why would football fans want to know who and when their team is playing?

Long time readers may recall that this isn’t the first time that we’ve tangled with the football authorities over the use of logos.

So there’s a definite battle being fought between the internet and the Premier League.

We’d love to be able to counter-sue them for ruining football by making it all dollars and no sense, and for attempting punk moves like Game 39.

But they have all the money and all the high-paid lawyers, and that makes them right. Legally at least.

Seems to me that with moves like this, and taking down YouTube videos and threatening sites like us and 101GreatGoals and other sites that are written by genuine football fans the Premier League becomes less and less about football and more and more about the cash register noise.

So we’ve removed all the crests. We didn’t really have much choice, because prison food doesn’t look too appetizing. But we’re also going to do exactly what it says in the letter. We’re going to seek permission from individual clubs to use their crests and find out which teams are marketing machines and which are still just football clubs.

Big thanks to the following blogs for highlighting our little legal battle here:

EPL Talk
Red Rants
Run of Play
Off the Post
Studs Up
101 Great Goals
Dirty Tackle
The Spoiler
Deadpsin
Football Media
Unprofessional Foul
Sport is a TV Show
The Modern Spectator
Sekadar Blog
The Beautiful Game

Some Related Stories:

Category: World Football

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Al

You should use the logos from Pro Evolution Soccer. Everyone knows what team they actually represent (Merseyside Blue all the way!) and it would be halarious to see
droo

i dont get it. they said u cant use the logos without the permission of the clubs - so did u ask the clubs? what did they say?
Will

Don't forget to let us know which clubs were willing to work with you please; I think it will be interesting to guess who will help with wanting something in return.
matt

Can you re-post the logos with a big black censored banner covering the majority of the image? "The Leagues" would look a little silly if all sites began to do it.
CSD

It's really silly. There's no merchandise being sold with the crests on them. This isn't a subscription site. Any revenue made is from the ads that are based on hits. People don't come to the site just because the official crests are used.

Sites like these are part of what keeps me interested in the sport. They should be thankful you're out there giving them free publicity. Maybe e-mail them back an invoice.
Raph88

just cite fair use and tell them to shut the feck up!

“s30.—(1) Fair dealing with a work for the purpose of criticism or review, of that or another work or of a performance of a work does not infringe any copyright in the work provided that it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement and provided that the work has been made available to the public.”
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
Matt

For what it is worth, I am kinda on Jack's side here...You're getting profits from ads on this site. The better your site, the more visitors and thus, the more $ you'll make. By making the site as nice and appealing (using crests of football clubs) you are making more $ by using something that isn't yours. That is the reason for copyright laws to begin with...so people that own something can do what they want with it (in this case, make $) and those that don't own them need permission to profit from something they don't own. I am willing to bet that if you weren't making any $ off of this site, it would be a drastically different story and you would have more of a case for not taking them down.
Satu

And I'd started to wonder why I prefer the local Finnish women's league... this is why.
Jhonka

Is this the UK equivalent of a DMCA takedown notice?
dylan

I don't think you should've taken them down. I understand that you want to avoid tangling with EPL lawyers, but honestly they don't have a case. They're just trying to scare you into taking them down without a fight -- probably so you'll go and pay the clubs.

Surely they've heard of fair use. That's the same legal basis that Wikipedia uses for displaying the crests on their pages about Premiership clubs. Look at the legal notice beneath the Arsenal crest, for example.
nathan

I say suck on it! Bring it on crack whores, if it was not for sites like The Offside, the EPL would be just another league.... these fools forget that we the readers/bloggers are the ones that buy the tickets when they come stateside or go to asia!
sscouser

Boo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Capunk

this is just sad and stupid... I think the best way is to ask another lawyer about this "threat".
Kasia

Around 2010 we won't be even allowed to use EPL clubs' names...
M

How bout we start a massive grassroots grafitti campaign using the premier league logo... see how they like that!
ar126

As a writer I would be cool with OhYes' idea and share the sentiments expressed by previous posters, most notably Dave and Rob's. I'm sure you guys will do what's in the best interest of the Site and as an EPL writer whatever I can help with please let me know
OhYes

Just an idea: It would be cool if each team writer designed their own crest for their team with the help of the readers. The crest would look slightly similar to the official crest just to make it easy for new comers to spot but I think most of it should be unique.
Sean

Just a thought...if you were to reinstate all of the Premiership club logos on the blogs but post them upside down, would that still violate the copyright infringement? Because technically, an upside down logo isn't the actual team crest. Then, as permission is given by the clubs to use their crests, they could be turned right-side up and we could all see which clubs love their supporters and which clubs are a bunch of fucking, pound grubbing pricks.

Plus, it would make a cool looking protest symbol.
OhYes

That's ridiculous. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse they have managed to sink even lower.
Ian

I felt this twice, both as the tech guy that had to go in and remove the crests, and as a blogger that had to have his beloved club's crest taken away. I can guarantee all of the readers here that we'll do our best to get the permissions we need to get, both so that we can continue using symbols that are dear to us as club fans, and so that we can give a big one finger salute (two for the Brits) to the people that took them away in the first place.
13004

It is very short-sighted from a business perspective on their part. The only loser in this situation is the league and the various clubs who miss an opportunity to build a global brand.

It is also very interesting to note how many clubs don't understand the free marketing they receive from bloggers. Most businesses spend a great deal of time and money ensuring that the blogging community has a pipeline to their services but it seems in the Football world it is shunned.

You can go through countless blogs on this site that are unquestionably the most viewed in the online community if not the only in the English language, yet I would be very surprised to hear of clubs contacting bloggers and offering their thanks much less a performance incentive. As the Golden Era of Football comes to a screeching halt with the world’s financial collapse, hopefully they’ll begin to understand the impact of branding.
Dave

Daryl,

I understand taking the 'high road' course of action, but as an extremely loyal reader/fan of this site, I would highly encourage you to heed AK's advice from above. These sort of bully tactics that the EPL (along with most other professional sports leagues) use against fan sites like this is beyond absurd. As was stated above, the only way theOffside impacts the EPL's bottom line (which is obviously the only thing they care about anymore) is by providing free advertising for their product and a forum that promotes their game.

When i saw this post, i emailed one of my law proffesors here at my university about the matter, and he stated that under US law (and he thinks UK law, but is not certain), freedom of speech/expression would trump the copyright due to the fact that theOfffside is not profiting off of the use of the images. I know that trying to take a stand on this is easy for me to say, as i have nothing on the line here, but honestly if you choose to, i know that I would be more than happy to contact copyright lawyers/media outlets/other blogs/etc, and i'm pretty confident most of the other loyal Offisde readers out there would as well. Major League Baseball tried to do the same thing to many fan sites in 2006, but backed off (at least in a couple cases i know of, most notably AstrosDaily.com) after the bloggers contacted local media and the teams themselves about the matter.

wrapping this up (sorry for rambling), i just wanted to say how much i appreciate this site and the work that you and all the bloggers on here do. the EPL not getting what sites like this are about is really a microcosm of everything that is wrong with pro sports today. I know it sounds like i'm ranting against 'the man', but even though i'm a die hard capitalist/Republican (i know, laugh it up), i find this one of the most personally offensive instances of corporate greed/stupidity i've seen. Like i said, if you need anything from us readers, you got my/our support, but no matter what know that this site really does make a lot of people's day to day lives a little more enjoyable.
Johnny

It appears to me that they're trying to compensate for something else.
MoMONEY

Stupid business strategy tbh...
Daryl

Mike,

And Daryl, how many times have you linked to that damn Utd. dog bowl!?

50 more times and I get a free one.
Cerberus

Um, exactly how are they expecting fans to develop such personal and unbreakable association of team love and logo to go out and buy Man Utd dog bowls, if they ban anyone from using the logo to promote the club?

It's got to be about the control, like the RIAA thing where the real objective is limiting the control of distribution of all music, but considering they have a monopoly whether they're dicks or not, I really don't get it. At least in the 90s, people thought it was brilliant that they could get people to buy advertising for their clothes to be walking unpaid billboards. I guess that corrupted everyone enough that they thought that advertising is supposed to be entirely about people paying you to promote your product.
Hommeyer

this is exactly the kind of mentality that makes people sad, in general as well as this specific case. i'm sad, you're sad, hell, the guy who wrote the letter is probably really sad too, it's just his job. is there a silver lining in this?....mmm, no. just people being dicks because they can. and that's always a good enough reason.
Ak

Well, the immediate cause of this is NetResult: the Premier League just tell them to go after all infringements so that they don't have to -- I doubt they have any detailed knowledge of what NetResult are up to. And NetResult are just doing what any successful business is doing -- scaremongering and threatening other smaller businesses/people with litigation knowing that they are likely to succeed, even if they have no case. Which is what I think NetResult have: no case. In the US, the first amendment allows for the fair use of trade marks provided that you don't try to use that logo to compete with the trade mark owner unfairly by using their own trade mark. The UK also follows the same basic principle: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/ac...
Daryl, you should write/e-mail back that you wish to know on what grounds you are believed to be in violation of the appropriate trade mark law. I doubt you have any precedent on your side on account of not being a proper news organization, but you can at least make those slavering idiots do some actual work as opposed to just sending out generic, vacuous, thinly-veiled threats.
shehan

amen joseph. fuck the premiershit.
Joseph

This is ridiculous. Fuck the Premier League.
Mike

And Daryl, how many times have you linked to that damn Utd. dog bowl!?
TheoTaylor

Like to say that you're taking the high road on this and that is to be congratulated. The EPL are a joke and a website that is as fantastic as the Offside should never stoop to the EPL's level of pathetic antics.
Rob

The sad thing is that it comes down to money, that most futile of human pursuits, which means it'll happen in every league eventually.
Ajay

Serie A anyone?
Dhaw

Blasphemy !!!
Fukin Ridiculous.
Corey

What does George Bush have to do with this Weston. That is one of the most short-sighted and idiotic things I have ever heard.

As for the use of the logos, it was only a matter of time before it happened. Think how us Americans feel with regards to the NFL. You are actually liable for lawsuit if you DVR an NFL game and then watch a week later without the written consent of the NFL. The money that the EPL makes is outrageous, but it has not stopped people from declaring in the best league in the world, despite the obvious drawbacks like a complete disregard for fans. Until people who watch the games start to turn away, the EPL will continue to destroy football until it is like the NFL, a three hour long commercial marathon with pauses for two or three plays and commentators who try to sell you products.
Weston (@wpazzurri)

why did it turn my "8" into a cool smiley face? i hope the epl doesnt think that its supposed to look like christano ronaldo and sue us... well they wouldnt do that, its not tan enough.
Weston (@wpazzurri)

we need another one of those petitions, like the fifa 09 wales thing, that would be a lot easier than contacting every club. i completely agree with everything above, so i wont bother retyping it, but this is REALLY BAD. After getting rid of George Bush i didnt think we'd have to put up with this sort of reckless rich power, at least not for the next 4 (preferably 8) years. there has got to be SOMEBODY left at the EPL, thats right, the BARCLAY'S PREMIER LEAGUE (notice the absence of any copright symbols, are they going to arrest me?) who still has some real football spirit in him, and can get this straightened out. we want our badges back! . . . . . or at least the 19 other than ManU....
Musab

Should have challened the Bastards to good ole throwdown. I know I would have.
Mike

If The Offside was based in some country where their legal action couldn't affect you, like many movie and music pirate sites are base din Sweden, then you could simply e-mail back with a friendly "go *$&% yourself"
But alas this is not the case :(

I agree 110% with Rob here, in all of his statements. It is sort of a compliment, I guess... I just hope a majority of the teams will let us use their crests.
Drabik

This is ridiculous. I cannot believe it. If anything, the crests that you use on your website are advertising the premier league, free of charge. Obviously someone was in a bad mood, and disagreed with something someone said on this website, and is now trying to ruin it for all of us.

If only these people thought about what matters, the SPORT, not the money!