Whew. What a game last Sunday! We could barely pull ourselves from our screen — especially in those last ten minutes. As we marveled in the replays and even went back to replay the streaming feed on NBC, thanks to our Replay Video Capture software, we realized that some customers and those non-Applian laymen might think that our insistence of recording this NFL game might be (*gasp) illegal. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it’s not. But the NFL does a fantastic job at making you think so. An intelligent Ars Technica article that came out last week does a great job explaining why it’s not. Here’s a sample:
The NFL is also drastically overstating its case when it comes to actual copies of the game or pictures coming from it. You can record the Super Bowl. It’s been undeniably, unquestionably legal since 1984 that you can record the broadcast to watch later (and skip commercials, if you’re so inclined). And the fair use doctrine that allows you to do this also lets you use those recordings for other purposes, too. If you want to use clips for commentary or criticism or news reporting of some aspect of the game or the broadcast, that’s perfectly legal, too.
So don’t fear, Applian friends. Go ahead and get your Super Bowl re-watch on. Oh, and if you missed all of the advertising action because of the NBC stream, we highly recommend that you check out this full recap of the multi-million-dollar spots.
Our personal favorite, and slightly underrated, was the pitch-perfect Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler commercial from T-Mobile. We hope it’s an ongoing theme, because we love seeing comedians do what they do best — make fun of themselves and each other:
