1 minute read

Interesting question here about tweeting sporting events: Should Live Tweeting Be Protected Like Broadcast Rights?
I think what is happening is that as technology moves forward the nature of Speech changes. Posting your thoughts on a social network is essentially now a normal type of speech and you should no more be able to restrict it than you can restrict people talking during or after a sporting event or calling a friend and telling them what is going on. The difference of course is that it’s broadcast, not an individual conversation. But when everyone has the ability to broadcast how can you restrict that ability just for topics that are marketed as products like sporting events or movies? Could a movie studio restrict my ability to talk about the plot of the latest James Bond movie on Twitter? How is a sporting event different than that?
The problem here is different than the one the movie and music industries face with people pirating a packaged product. They want to control discussion of a live event that people have paid to watch. This kind of business model is based upon the assumption that the ability to broadcast is scarce and expensive. This is no longer true anymore. Long ago their must have been business models based on the fact that long distance transportation was expensive, but with the arrival of trains, planes and cars this was no longer true and those businesses would have to adapt.
They’ll just have to adapt to the changes.