NFL Prevents Church from having a Superbowl Party!

Fall Creek Baptist Church Website ^

[pctech]

Fall Creek Baptist Church Family...

We regret to inform you that we have had to cancel our bash to view the Colts game this Sunday in a family friendly environment due to the fact that the NFL believes we would be in violation of the Copyright Act, because we had planned to show the game on a screen bigger than a 55 inch diagonal. We have appealed to their legal counsel and exhausted all options without success. We have been informed that the only exceptions to view the game are given to sports bars and restaurants. While we have argued that we only intend to provide a family oriented environment that will make no profit from the showing, the NFL claims that our event cannot proceed by law. Therefore, we have no choice but to challenge this in court or cancel the event. We choose to cancel the event. We deeply regret that we have been prohibited by the NFL from providing a family friendly environment for celebrating the Colts great season.

Pastor John

[sgtbono2002]

I havent watched the Colts since they snuck out of Baltimore in the middle of the night.

Dont intend to either.

[HamiltonJay]

hahah Our chuch has a super bowl party every year where folks gather in basement and watch the game on big screen TV.... Guess its a good thing the NFL hasn't found out yet.

NFL is doing itself no favors if this is a true story...

[Arkinsaw]

Part of hte problem is that the courts have ruled that lack of commitment to protecting a trademark is the path to giving up the trademark (that's how Bill Watterson lost control of Calvin and Hobbes merch). So if the NFL turns too many blind eyes to church groups they could lose their ability to keep movie theaters from charging to watch the game on the super large screen (which is really the kind of thing they want to prevent). And all their enforcement is based on combining factors, the primary two to avoid are charging (for admission or additional services) and a large screen. You can invite friends over to watch it on your giant TV but don't charge them. They give a special exemption for "normal" sports venues (bars), but that's because they pre-established tradition and it's doubtful anybody would use sports bars as leverage against the NFLs control of their trademark.

Some of that is understandable....but part of the issue involves use of public airwaves. If this were distributed in private channels...encrypted signals....DVD.....pay-per-view....cable then that is one thing. Broadcast over the open broadcast frequencies and trying to restrict at the point of consumption is bothersome to me. It sets precedent in regard to other "image ownership". Networks also own their news images....the DNC owns its convention images....etc.

There still needs to be ability to control your own product....but I think that you should have considerably less ability to restrict when broadcast in the open over publicly owned airwaves receivable by anybody's private property.

I wont even begin to get into restricting tail-gating a mile from the stadium.

[Mr. Lucky]

It's a Baptist church. Not much chance of anybody getting liquored up there.

[Sensei Ern]

I believe this year's half time is the Rolling Stones, who earlier this year came out with an anti-Bush song.

[NorthFlaRebel]

No, its Prince. The Stones were last year.

[Tax-chick]

No, but all the people in the sports bars are, and they'll all be driving the same streets when the game ends.

Not to mention the rioting and destruction of property to be expected, whether the local team wins or loses.

[Red Badger]

If this were a movie, One Night With The King for instance, being shown free of charge, would not they still be in violation of the law? When I bought "NFL Ticket" for $250, to see all games all season long, if I so chose, it comes with notice that I can use it only for my private use, not public, and cannot "re-broadcast, tape or otherwise" show it in a group setting........

[tiki]

I think so and this church was also trying to make a profit and should have to pay for the rights too. Is one thing when an entity or a person willingly gives to the church but you can't take it from them and you shouldn't whine when they don't put out.

[Red Badger]

Not much chance of anybody getting liquored up there.

At least not, IN the church..........

[Arrowhead1952]

I guess I'll have to cancel my "stupid" bowl party for this weekend.

[Ditto]

Don't sports bars, restaurants, etc, have to pay for the rights to show games?........

Any bar or commercial establishment pays cable/satellite fees based on the number of seats (not customers) in their establishment. Big sports bars pay big cable fees.

What part if any of that fee goes to the NFL, I don't know, but the TV networks definitely get a cut of it which is fair since they pay the NFL big bucks for broadcast rights.

[R. Scott]

Much of it has to do with copyright. If they call it a “Super bowl” party it is infringement. Call it a “Championship” party and it might be OK. Local radio stations and sports bars have encountered the same thing for several years. It has nothing to do with a church.

[NCLaw441]

Bryan, our church is mostly about worship, but I am not aware of anything scriptural prohibiting fellowship by watching TV or playing sports or otherwise enjoying the company of other Christians outside of the worship experience. My guess is that the church wanted to provide a venue without alcohol and some of the other revelry that usually accompanies Super Bowl parties (which is why I am going to a non-church-sponsored Super Bowl gathering-- I need a beer or two to watch football).

[Kenton]

Just wondering how the NFL even found out about this.

[discostu]

It does a couple of things:
1 - It's somebody making money using the NFLs logos without the NFL getting any money.
2 - It's bad for the ratings, the whole Neilson machine is built around some pre-set number of people per set. if you've got movie theaters filling 700 and 800 seat auditoriums to watch the game all over the country it's probably going to hurt the Neilson numbers, which might hurt the networks (those number by and large dictate how much you charge for advertising), which will hurt the NFL (damage to the SB gravy train will reduce how much the networks are willing to pay the NFL). They might be able to work with Neilson to slide the scale to slide the scale for extenuating circumstances, although one of the things that keeps Neilson so powerful is they have a rep for not messing with the numbers for any reason.

[tiki]

At our church during Lent, we wanted some inserts for our bulletin, the company that provides the copyrighted material was way behind and couldn't get us the materials. We had a copy and could have copied it and they would never have known but we called the company, told them how many copies we would need and asked if we could just pay them a copyright fee. They agreed and we had our inserts and they had the money they were rightly due.

[R. Scott]

I'd like to know how they have the authority to ban what those people do in their own back yards…

In my backyard it is not “tailgating”, it is “cooking out”.

[joylyn]

You've asked some excellent questions. I wonder if NFL rules say anything about bookies taking bets on "the Big Game."

[BipolarBob]

Just wondering how the NFL even found out about this.

There's a link to a newspaper article. The church has a website.