NFL Blitzes Super Bowl Parties At Churches
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Posted to Media on Sat Feb 02, 2008 at 06:28:02 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
David -vs- Goliath: round 2, in which Goliath clubs David with his Copyright Stick© and David may or may not fight back using Goliath's own weapon against him.
But this year, Immanuel's Super Bowl party is no more.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.
At the heart of the NFL's argument are their claims that watching the Super Bowl in a public place - sports bars being exempt - on a screen larger than 55" or in a room with more than 2,000 square feet, are copyright violations, thusly, any church gatherings under those conditions could possibly come under legal assault from the NFL.
This a continuation of a trend that got some traction last year when the NFL warned an Indianapolis church not to host a Super Bowl party; this year churches are acutely aware of the murky legal waters that surround copyrights and content, and most, while not happy about it, are reconfiguring their assemblies. Says the Rev. Paul Atwater, from North River Community Church in Pembroke, Mass."Even though we think this is a stupid law, we are going to abide by it."
If you're asking yourself why the NFL would crack down on churches and risk a PR backlash, the answer, as it usually boils down to, is money. According to NFL communications vice president Brian McCarthy:
While a free church event of that size might seem harmless, he said thousands of such non-commercial showings would significantly reduce network TV ratings, and thus cut the ad revenue on which Fox and the NFL are counting -- an estimated $275 million for Sunday's game.
Somewhat surprisingly, no churches - excepting one in Alabama - are willing to use the help offered by the conservative-leaning civil liberties group, The Rutherford Institute, to take on the NFL's claims even though there's plenty of wiggle room; consider another claim by the NFL's McCarthy "We have no objection to churches and others hosting Super Bowl parties as long as they . . . show the game on a television of the type commonly used at home." Perhaps McCarthy hasn't been into a Best Buy or Circuit City lately, but screens larger than 55" for homes can be found in abundance. And despite the oft-noted claim from the NFL regarding the dos and don'ts of its content regarding copyright, they themselves have violated copyright regulations.
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