WWE has multiple twitter accounts shut down for sharing GIFs

[bmfjules]

(I didn't see a thread for this, but feel free to move or merge if there is one.)

So it's all over the newzy sites that multiple popular twitter accounts were zapped for sharing live images from summerslam.

Seriously?

I get going after actual pirating sites that torrent entire shows, or youtube accounts with whole matches or promos etc, especially when you are trying to promote the WWE network.

If I'm running a business, I wouldn't like that either. But to be a big corporate bully over little three second pictures, or "short films" as Roman likes to call them....

That's shortsighted, ignorant muscle flexing bullshit, especially from a company that claims to be so up on all things social media. This makes them look like jackasses.

[saintpat]

I know, it's like when a store calls the police because someone stole one little candy bar, or a cinema kicks you out because you snuck into one little movie.

Bullies.

[Milkman Norm]

In my mind a GIF should be considered protected under fair use.

[Lancers]

The UFC has done this as well months ago. They're convinced that people won't order PPVs/subscribe to the Network if everything will be made available minutes or hours after the event.

The NBA has gone in the opposite direction. They've completely embraced it to generate more buzz to the league.

[Push R Truth]

To be a little fair, one of the accounts that got shut had a bunch of 15 second GIF's of Orton bleeding and some match finishes.


There's a fine line somewhere in there. I'm glad I'm not the one that has to figure it out.

[Deleted]

Company stands to make more money by allowing people to share those little video clips since this stuff spreads fast and leads to popularity/free advertisement.

Even from a purely business and 100% selfish standpoint, they should allow it. I definitely would.

[Mister Pigwell]

Remember, this is the company that went after this message board for a poster embedding a commercial for a PPV here from youtube just because it wasn't from their official channel.

They get real petty at random times. My long standing theory is there's a low level office guy who wants to act like he's busy once in a while so he decides to raise a stink.

They came after us for having an advertisement they themselves created. An advertisement that reaches a shit ton of viewers for an even bigger shit ton of page views seeing said advertisement.
Shouldn't they be THANKING the fan base of twitter users and forums for the free advertising? They disagree.

[bmfjules]

How is seeing a three second clip of something with no sound equivalent to "sneaking into a movie"? I'm not against WWE going after thieves, pirates, and general douchehats. I get and support that sentiment.

But GIFs on twitter are basically the epitome of free advertising. It would be more like drawing a picture of said candy bar and describing how it tastes---if this is considered pirating, then I need to reconsider my life choices and probably turn myself into the nearest local authorities pronto.



EDIT - 15 second clips I agree, that's pushing it. Although it would be on a case to case basis---especially since some UFC fights or WWE matches don't last 15 seconds.

Still, seems like pissing against the wind when they could just reap the benefits of the free advertising and instead focus on people who are actually stealing from them, and are doing it on purpose.

[lookout]

Aug 22, 2016 13:42:44 GMT -5 @bootytime said:

Company stands to make more money by allowing people to share those little video clips since this stuff spreads fast and leads to popularity/free advertisement.

Even from a purely business and 100% selfish standpoint, they should allow it. I definitely would.

That's what I've always thought too and it's always puzzled me why wwe or any company doesn't see it this way. The more eyeballs you get on your product the better and a few second gifs are not going to cause someone to not order the damn network or cost them any money...in fact it's the opposite...more like free advertising. Just strange a company would think otherwise.

[xCompackx]

While I guess I can see how GIFs do use copyrighted material, why would any company choose to go after websites/people using them? I mean, consider how many websites on the entire Internet use GIFs; they'd need to really buff up their legal department.

[Milkman Norm]

Yeah the 15 second length is a bit much. Still in general I'd say fair use applies to the majority of GIFS.

[Nickybojelais]

I wouldn't imagine too many people would say "screw paying 9.99 for the network, I'll just get my wrestling fix by watching a bunch of 2 second clips".

I cant see how they are losing potential subscribers or ppv buyers from these, if anything it's more eyes on the product and could possibly boost their stagnating viewing figures.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

How long were the gifs? A couple of seconds to show a move, then yeah, excessive, but if you're sharing gifs over a minute they're basically clips.

[Mayonnaise]

I honestly don't think it is that gifs are made and shared so much as gifs are made and shared within minutes of it occurring, especially when some of them contain the marks of pirating sites.

Not to say they cannot be petty about things but I think there is more to it than them just shutting down some gif makers.

[oneday]

That's dumb .....cause if you follow WWE's Twitter they basically gif/video 90% of the ppv live as it airs.

[魔界5号]

LARIATOOOOOOOOOOOOO is back under his back up account, @mrlariato. No idea about the other Death To All Marks guy, though.

[Mister Pigwell]

Aug 22, 2016 14:00:17 GMT -5 oneday said:

That's dumb .....cause if you follow WWE's Twitter they basically gif/video 90% of the ppv live as it airs.

Yup.
Which means this is for the same petty reason as going after us for someone on youtube uploading their commercial.
They just want their social media channels to have more eyeballs and don't care how many eyeballs their actual product loses in the process. They're backassward.

[Deleted]

It's WWE's content. I like a good GIF every here and there but it's WWE's content so if they wanna be stiffs about it, that's their prerogative. I wouldn't call it bullying, they have a right to not want their content shared like that.

[Deleted]

I can understand being mad at a GFYcat with clips that are like a 1 minute and 30 seconds or more showing all the highlights, but a short gif nah. Like whenever they have a Raw after a PPV, WWE doesn't even shown video footage of what happened in the intro, just photos and commentary. So I understand at being mad at the excessive long clips.

[Milkman Norm]

Aug 22, 2016 14:04:11 GMT -5 @nichotine said:

It's WWE's content. I like a good GIF every here and there but it's WWE's content so if they wanna be stiffs about it, that's their prerogative. I wouldn't call it bullying, they have a right to not want their content shared like that.

No legally speaking they don't. At least not in all cases. If the original work is used as a portion of a review or for educational purposes or if a portion of protected material is used to create a new piece of media those works are protected under the Fair Use clause of US Copyright Law.