Around The NFL - 2008

[PhillyPhreak54]

LEINART ISSUES DMCA DEMAND OVER CHAMPAGNE PHOTO
Posted by Mike Florio on April 8, 2008, 8:02 p.m.

While perusing my spam folder this evening for any non-spam e-mails that for whatever reason didn't make it through the Gremlin-infested filter, we found a letter from Evan Spiegel of the Los Angeles firm of Lavely & Singer.

The letter asserts that on behalf of Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart that a photo posted last week on other sites (but never posted here) is protected by U.S. copyright laws.  Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, we were given eight hours to remove any links to the photo in question, or else.

Specifically, here's the or else — failure to comply would have resulted in an effort to hold ProFootballTalk.com "and its DNS providers . . . liable and accountable for . . . copyright infringement."

"Accordingly," Spiegel wrote, "on behalf of our client we demand that you immediately cease and desist and refrain from exploiting, publishing, posting, displaying, distributing, or otherwise using or disseminating any of the Copyright Protected Photos, through any venue or medium, including on any Internet site.

"Please govern yourself accordingly.  You act at your own peril."

Gulp.

Since we pride ourselves on knowing where the lines of legal liability are (and on usually staying on the right side of them), we promptly went through and removed links to Deadspin.com and FOXSports.com of stories containing the photos that surfaced last week of Leinart.  The first wave involved Leinart actually partying with young girls; the second photo that came out later in the week showed Leinart pretending to "party" with young men.

And then I called Spiegel, primarily to confirm that the letter is legit.  Unless it was a really intricate ruse, I had my answer when the receptionist identified the name of the firm upon picking up the call.

Still, I thought I'd try to talk to Spiegel.  And I talk to him I did.  The conversation went well, until he attempted retroactively to convert the entire discussion to an "off the record" communication.

We're still not clear on these journalism rules, but we've followed the approach that all conversations are on the record unless and until someone says the magic words.  We don't live our lives "off the record."  The things we say openly to other people in a public place or on the phone should be fair game for attribution.  If Spiegel doesn't realize that, then he shouldn't be taking calls from media companies to which he has sent letters threatening legal action.

As it turns out, the assertion of copyright protection applies only to the photo of Leinart pretending to performing a certain action on a bottle of champagne held by another man at crotch level.  Leinart isn't asserting any protection as to the photos that initially were posted on TheDirty.com of Leinart cavorting with females, and providing alcohol to at least one of them who might or might not be over the age of 21.

Spiegel said that the champagne photo is at least two years old, and was taken as part of a Halloween party.  He wouldn't comment on the specifics relating to the taking of the photos displaying behaviors in which heterosexual males commonly engage.

Spiegel also said that the DMCA notices have been sent to ProFootballTalk.com, TheDirty.com, and Deadspin.com.  When I asked Spiegel if he realized that PFT didn't actually post the photos, he didn't really provide me with an answer.

Spiegel explained that the "Korbel Stewart" photo (my term, not Spiegel's) was allegedly obtained from Leinart without authorization, and then posted on the Internet.  So I asked Speigel whether he's taking the position that any photo obtained without permission from a person's private collection of images and then posted on the Internet is subject to copyright protection.

Spiegel refused to answer, stating that he would not provide me with "legal advice."  I told him that I was not requesting "legal advice," but that I only wanted to get more information about his client's position.  So I asked again, and Spiegel again declined to answer.

Spiegel also declined to answer the broader question of whether it made sense for Leinart and his lawyers to direct more attention to a dead story at a time when the flow of NFL news is slower than usual.  Maybe the goal was to prevent folks from pasting the picture onto a T-shirt or a mousepad and selling the products outside the stadiums that Leinart's team will be visiting this year.  Regardless, the action unnecessarily pushes the champagne incident back onto the front burner, and (in our opinion) makes Leinart look like a baby.

As of this posting, the picture in question still appears on Deadspin.  TheDirty.com, however, apparently has taken the image down.

We're kind of hoping that Deadspin.com will use some of that Gawker money to fight this thing, under the approach best known among practicing lawyers as "my guts, your blood."  We still can't believe that every photo that gets out of the hands of the person who took it is suddenly subject to federal copyright protections in the absence of any effort to sell the images.

We figure that, on this point, we'll hear from a few of the many lawyers who read this site.  But, please, be careful not to give us "legal advice."

Korbel Stewart? Clever and funny.

[Cerevant]

This guy is completely wrong on the copyright stuff, but he makes an excellent point about the letters breathing new life into the story.

[Drunkmasterflex]

When I see that pic the only thing that really pisses me off is the guido tupac.

[Father Demon]

TO has a ton of baggage...



... and a lot of suitcases, too.

[Eagaholic]

Who's the girl wearing #82? Judging by how well he picks his publicists, maybe it's his accountant.

[QB Eagles]

LOS ANGELES -- Bryant Gumbel has given up his role as an NFL Network play-by-play announcer after two seasons.

The NFL Network said Friday it was looking for a new play-by-play announcer to work with Cris Collinsworth on the network's Thursday and Saturday night games.

"I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to call NFL Network games the past two years, which was a new experience for me," Gumbel said in a statement. "But we've agreed that we'd all be better served going in different directions."

Gumbel was brutal in the booth. Glad they finally shteincanned him.

[shorebird]

Brutal yes, and I don't know how anyone could sit beside Collingsworth running his yap for two years.

[SunMo]

Collinsworth is great in the booth

[Rome]

Haha.  Mosy's hittin' it early this afternoon.

[SunMo]

i'm hitting it early like a fox!

[Magical_Retard]

apparently the saints are going to make a decision on duece today or tomorrow...might not keep him.

would love for the eagles to make a run at him if he is cut/released.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

He's right about at the age where he's starting to fall off his prime, and he has a very extensive injury history.

[Magical_Retard]

He's right about at the age where he's starting to fall off his prime, and he has a very extensive injury history.

injury part should excite the eagles.

i know he is no spring chicken but a combination of westbrook + duece is tons better than anything the eagles will put on the field.

of course adding duece would mean they would have to run the ball more which i doubt reid wants to. still with no real weapons, or added weapons, for the WR position, adding a proven bigger back would be pretty good.

[Sgt PSN]

If it were a year from now, I could be on board with Duece.  But incase no one noticed, McNabb looked horrible running around for most of last year and that was just trying to avoid pressure.....not open field running or trying to excel through the line.  I expect Duece would not really be all that affective for atleast the first half of the season, if not longer.  I'll pass on him for now. 

[SD_Eagle5]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3346240

In the just-released book "Breaking Free", former NFL running back Herschel Walker delves into his excruciating struggles with dissociative identity disorder, saying he tried to manage a dozen alternate personalities and that the condition nearly drove him to suicide.

In a "Nightline" interview that will air Monday on ABC, the 46-year-old Walker said he has been in treatment for eight years and believes the disorder is under control, adding that writing the book was therapeutic for him.

"I've totally changed from back then to where I am today," he said. Details of the interview appear in a story on ABCNews.com. It is not clear at what point in his life Walker believes he had the disorder.

Following a Heisman Trophy-winning career at the University of Georgia, Walker spent three seasons in the USFL and then played 12 years in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings, Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. He also was a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic bobsled team, with an array of other interests that included ballet and law enforcement.

After his retirement from football in 1997, Walker said the disorder began to overwhelm him. At one point, while sitting in his kitchen, he said he played Russian roulette with a loaded pistol.

"To challenge death like I was doing, you start saying, there's a problem here," Walker told Woodruff.

DID, formerly known as multiple personality disorder, is described as a relatively rare mental condition where a person has two or more distinct personalities. The disorder has been dismissed by some in the medical field.

"Nightline" interviewed Walker's therapist, Jerry Mungadze, who said he met Walker's alternate personalities, or "alters," during their sessions.

"They will come out and say, I am so-and-so. I'm here to tell you Herschel is not doing too good," Mungadze said. " ... When he finishes, it would just disappear back in him, and Herschel comes out."

Walker and his ex-wife, Cindy Grossman, were married for 16 years before she knew about his illness, she said.

"Well, now it makes perfect sense, because each personality has a different interest," Grossman told "Nightline". "This one has an interest in ballet, this one has an interest in the Marines, this one had an interest [in the] FBI, this one had an interest in sports.

"There was also a very sweet, lovable [personality]. That's the one he told me I married. He told me I didn't marry Herschel," said Grossman, who later in the interview recalled a conversation with Walker, "and the next thing I knew, he just kind of raged and he got a gun and put it to my temple."

When the topic of the book was revealed in January, Walker's father -- plus a former teammate and Vince Dooley, Walker's coach at Georgia -- met the revelation with shock.

"I know him better than anybody 'cause I raised him," Willis Walker Sr. told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time. "This is my first knowing about that."

Walker said he hoped "Breaking Free" will help change the public's image of DID and help others afflicted with the disorder.

"DID is not 'Sybil' or 'Three Faces of Eve.' DID is just an illness that people are dealing with," he said. In the book, he wrote, "I feel the greatest achievement of my life will be to tell the world my truth."