Posted on 02/01/2008 5:12:40 AM PST by steve-b
For years, as many as 200 members of Immanuel Bible Church and their friends have gathered in the church's fellowship hall to watch the Super Bowl on its six-foot screen. The party featured hard hitting on the TV, plenty of food -- and prayer.
But this year, Immanuel's Super Bowl party is no more. After a crackdown by the National Football League on big-screen Super Bowl gatherings by churches, the Springfield church has sacked its event. Instead, church members will host parties in their homes.
Immanuel is among a number of churches in the Washington area and elsewhere that have been forced to use a new playbook to satisfy the NFL, which said that airing games at churches on large-screen TV sets violates the NFL copyright....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
So even a large family watching at home could be in violation of the NFL policies. Perhaps 42" was a very large TV back when they made up the rule, but that's actually quite a small size for a digital HDTV nowadays. I think it's about time for Congress to revisit the NFL's limited antitrust exemptions granted in the 1960's to allow the merger of the NFL and AFL.
and their ratings continue to plunge.
the NFL is 100% stupid.
Those mass gathers WILL NOT BE CHANNEL SURFING.
THEY WILL BE STAYING ON CHANNEL TO THE END.
IDIOTS.
What if the party is just free?
Holy smokes! Wrong thread!
The NFL gets paid through the cable or dish. No seperate agreement required.
Now, if the church in question wants to be billed for its TV in the same way the local sports bar is, they can arrange so. Otherwise, they are in violation.
I was under the impression that NFL ratings were spectacular for games not involving the Phoenix Cardinals or Atlanta Falcons. Am I wrong?
Mosques won't show the Super Bowl, because the pig skin offends Allah.
Plus, how stupid is it to keep countless groups of people from watching all those expensive commercials together? Isn't that the whole point?
The bars already have paid for the right to display the Super Bowl and other games to a patronage.
Ever listen to the standard disclaimer during a broadcast? It’s for the private viewing of a home audience unless one has another arrangement with the NFL. A bunch of people gathered in a church is hardly a private home audience.
Bingo.
If a business is using the Super Bowl telecast to promote itself without paying a license, that business is in violation of the NFL's copyright. That this particular business is something we support doesn't change the fact.
some have church halls.
Not all churches are condusive to a stadium setting.
(actually this resembles a passage in Heilein’s Stranger in a Strange Land where the altar of a church had a big screen holoviewer in the back for the “big games”)
It's a socail event for teh community, liek any other social event the church sponsors. Nothing wrong with that. Many people are attracted to organizations -- even churches -- by the sense of community. Having a Supre Bowl party is part of the sense of community. I fail to see how holding a party and showing the Super Bowl on a large screen somehow violatesthe NFL's copyright, but showing it on several smaller screens wouldn't. I'd get two 54" screens and put them up on each end of the room, just to poke the NFL in teh eye. GO BLUE!!!!!
Fellowship.
You are not going to be at worship services 24/7. At some point, you will be doing recreational activities with friends. So, you look around for a group of friends to watch the Super bowl with and, after you consider your relatives, the people on your block and the people at work, you decide that the people at Church are your best friends.
So, you have the Super Bowl party at the Church Fellowsip Hall.
Admitedly, setting up the wide screen TV right IN the Church building right next to the pulpit and in front of the Cross is NOT Kosher.
If you are Catholic, you never have such a confusion.
How about a Muslim-themed football team? The Dearborn Jihad? Imagine the cheerleaders. Their game plan would include using the bomb quite a bit. Oh well, they’d be better than the Lions.
Take it up with the NFL. According to the article, it’s an ad revenue thing.
and their ratings continue to plunge.
Wha-?
Ironically, the commissioner is a Republican. His father was a RINO-Liberal Party Senator. His father-in-law was in Bush 41's Cabinet and his wife is with Fox News.
The NFL pulled this crap in Indiana last year. And we are building them a huge stadium on the taxpayers’ back. Screw the NFL. It’s just bread and circuses to placate the masses.
True, especially older, traditionally styled church buildings. But, many of these have church halls, as you noted, and a lot of the newer churches are built with ample seating and projection screens for displaying announcements, words to songs, or scripture verses.
I'm sympathetic too; I'm a writer. I just recently sent a short play -- a parody of "Julius Caesar" -- out to a few places to get it performed. They have my permission to do so. (I am quite willing to hjvae it performed other places as well.)
There is no possibility that it will be broadcast from the venues where it's being performed, although someone might put it on CD for me to watch. But if it were being broadcast, I fail to see how the size of teh screen, location of teh set, or number of people gathered woudl violate my copyright, assumign I have given permission to the broadcaster to broadcast it (or to the company to make a broadcst deal.)
The same holds true for the NFL. I cannot see how a bunch of people gatehring to watch this on a big screen somehow vioiltes their copyright.
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