Is it just me, or is this a little Regime-esque:
How on earth are they possibly going to enforce this? What would the consequences possibly be? Is someone going to literally comb through EVERY owner/rider/groom’s social media feeds to FIND any footage? Are they going to whack phones out of people’s hands?
This is how a lot of horse abuse gets recorded and shared, also. In this time of license to operate, this does NOT present well as a policy…
This seems so poorly thought out. Recording is banned in the field of play, which is defined as “the main arena, warm-up area, kiss & cry, leaders lounge and entrance/exit area” (in addition to other areas).
It doesn’t restrict by content either. See a cute dog in the warm up? Can’t video. A pro having a nice moment with their kid in the leaders lounge? Can’t post that. A junior realizing they just won while sitting in the kiss&cry? Tell mom to put down the camera.
If I’m reading it correctly, an owner can’t post sale video of their own horse’s round…?
It seems there is a basis for this in the Swiss code on copyright, Article 69.
I work in social, including for some equine NGBs and horse shows. The FEI will not monitor everyone’s social, absolutely no one has the time.
This doesn’t indicate that filming is banned overall, just that “capturing video… and posting at a later date is forbidden.” So you’re welcome to film all you want for your personal archives, but the FEI can claim copyright if those videos become public.
To me, this reads as primarily intended to protect whoever has paid for the broadcasting rights to the event, with the bonus that if a “non rights holder” DOES video & post something the FEI doesn’t want on social, and it causes a fuss, the FEI can issue a copyright strike and the social media platform hosting it will take it down. The FEI can also copyright strike any creative “edits” of their publicly posted footage.
I do not think that videoing your own horse and texting it to a few people violates this policy. Ripping your horses’ round from fei.tv or FEI social and posting it on your website or Facebook does - because the FEI wants to be sure they or the broadcaster are paid for your commercial use of that footage. And they want the legal right to get a shady video of a horse with a blue tongue at an FEI event taken off social before it goes viral.
Agree with this. FTR, you can’t photo or video Derby Finals and other “named” USEF events (been there, got that reprimand), and this seems along very similar lines.
I think I read somewhere this is geared towards people like the “dressage hub” blog who snip clips from these events strictly to find fault & criticize them for their own profit/benefit. But I could be worng
This is just basic Copyright rule. All national sports associations have them.
It’s just protecting broadcasting rights and the rights of the FEI as owners of the Field of Play.
FEI is not going to monitor your social media, and owners can absolutely post rounds of their horses as long as they get the rights to the round from FEI (just like you’d have to buy it from the horse show videographer).
Basically, content obtained by hired media for FEI is owned by FEI. You can not screen record a stream and post it as your own. You can not livestream an event and post it as your own. FEI owns the rights to the event and its broadcasting. All of this is especially highlighted when “owned content” is shared and profited upon (a saddle company screen recording video and sharing it as their own to promote a rider in their saddle for sales, a viral video of a clip you clipped from the live stream, etc). You can post and share official still images (as long as you have permission and/or the rights from the original photographer).
Copyright is boring and can be confusing and slippery (even though it was my favorite type of law we studied). However, this is being blown way out of proportion by journalists and social media.
@Belmont asking you since you seem to be pretty knowledgeable here. My question that didn’t seem to be answered (from what I could see) is regarding a fan/owner/groom/whoever recording a round on their iPhone and sharing it. Is this disallowed? You see it all the time at lower levels, even at the national level of a rider sharing a video of their round taken ring side. It reads like this isn’t allowed. Is that correct?
That appears to be not allowed but athletes can post official video of their rounds with permission. Anyone can “share” from one of FEI’s socials as well, of course. (Meaning using one of the platform’s share tools, so the views and monetization go to FEI’s page).
If it’s the main ring and a named event, you probably cannot do this. Similar to filming an NFL game from your seats— that’s a No No. But it does not look like it will apply to lower level/national level events. And honestly, if you’re showing the World Cup class, you likely don’t need video to sell the horse and aren’t memorializing it with iphone footage shot by a groom.
There is no mention of fan/spectator here, so rules don’t apply to them. These rules are just for the named non-rights holders (people directly involved that don’t hold rights to the FEIs content). As for recording your FEI round as a groom/owner/rider - you must use official FEI licensed footage. You can not record the Field Of Play for your own use as the FEI has obtained rights to the Field of Play. It says in the link on the OP that the FEI will provide licensed footage to the athletes and National Federations for their use. Everyone else must “share” the footage from the people that have obtained the license of use.
These rules only apply to Accredited Media, Athletes, Owners, “Entourage (grooms mostly, agents, etc)”, and National Federations. These rules are also only for FEI Named events, not regular Grand Prixs or classes.
It sounds like that would also mean that XC riders can’t record and post helmet cam footage either? I wonder how FEI license that type of footage - I can’t see them supply official helmet cams to riders?
I may be wrong here so someone correct me if so, but I am pretty sure Helmet Cams have been forbidden in FEI competitions for years now, unless special permission is granted by FEI (or the FEI straps one to your head for their own content). Which would likely mean in the agreement that they own the content, but that is just me speculating.
Correct. As someone that came from the licensed footage and image world, copyright law is pretty locked down. Our sport has been pretty loose and fast with what we have allowed in the past, but with further scrutiny, big sponsor money, and licensed content providers now in play, along with social media being hard to police, this is absolutely necessary and long overdue.
What does it not mean? It doesn’t mean stop being aware. If you see something, capture it, and say something! Do not post it on social media and start a witch-hunt… go first to stewards and horse show official, and ask for forgiveness, not permission. Horses should not suffer because of copyright laws. Same goes for abuse of children or really anyone (berating/verbally assaulting the help, sexual harassment, etc). If they’re going to make you the martyr for doing right by the public or the horses, then so be it.
Helmet Cams are alive and well in eventing at FEI Events.
Yes. You can wear them with special permission from FEI. However, in general, they are banned. Here is an article Eventing Nation did back in 2013. They also mention there could be Media Rights issues with the footage as well.
Upon further research, the rule has not changed: https://inside.fei.org/sites/default/files/FEI%20General%20Regulations%20-Effective%201January2024-%20clean_0.pdf
The chart indicates that there is “no right to film” for certain categories of people. Looking at the chart, an owner has “[n]o right to film or use on social media or otherwise publish” in the field of play. I read this as a horse’s owner cannot record the horse, at all, full stop, in an area defined under the field of play. I don’t see another interpretation of that. Field of play, as mentioned earlier, is pretty broadly defined.
From the Social Media Guidelines PDF linked above
For the avoidance of doubt, the FOP includes the main arena, warm-up area, kiss & cry, leaders lounge and entrance/exit area, as well as the cross-country course in Eventing and the marathon course in Driving.
I agree the copyright issue might come into play, but just wanted to confirm there are helmets cams everywhere at these events.
Yes, see my second post on this thread (which is what I was referencing).
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