Everyone already knows that Tom Brady wields tremendous power in the sports world. Add to that a Brazilian super model wife and the guy has some serious social capital as well. But who knew the former Michigan quarterback’s casual comment to a group of reporters could trigger a federal investigation that resulted in the shutdown of sixteen illegal sports streaming websites and the indictment of nine of the sites’ operator? This is exactly what happened last Thursday when Tom Brady expressed his awe that he had in one year gone from “watching the game on an illegal Super Bowl website” as he rehabbed his foot in Costa Rica to playing in the big game. Within hours prosecutors had launched an investigation of similar websites. With that kind of political capital and a face that I’m pretty sure could single handedly accomplish world peace: Tom Brady for president?
The crackdown is perhaps not surprising considering that the commercials set to air during the Super Bowl generated $250 million in revenue for NBC. That all falls apart if fans are tuning into illegal live streams rather than the NBC broadcast. Yonjo Quiroa, the 28-year-old man arrested in Michigan on charges of copyright infringement for operating nine live streaming sports websites, earned more than $13,000 from merchants purchasing advertising space on his sites. While that revenue was made on other sporting events besides the Super Bowl, as one ad executive explained, the Super Bowl is “essentially our prom night.” The stakes are higher and those with deep pockets care more.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement on Thursday that although using such illegal websites may be tempting to sports fans, “These websites and their operators deprive sports leagues and networks of legitimate revenue, forcing spectators and viewers to bear the cost of this piracy.” Thanks, Tom Brady for passing on the cost of your Costa-Rica-viewing of Super Bowl XLV to the people.
Although for most viewers the Super Bowl is arguably the one broadcast event of the year where they don’t mind seeing the ads, the debate surrounding web streaming of events or shows that others have paid to air or have invested money in developing is a hot-button issue as of late (see previous MTTLR blog post, for example, here). It hardly needs to be mentioned that there is a bit of a fight in Congress over how things should and shouldn’t be shared over the Internet. It bears remembering that as that battle is waged with the pen in the legislature, enforcement is carried out in a manner federal prosecutors feel fit on the ground. The consequences of that policy are very real to Mr. Quiroa who faces up to 5 years in federal prison for the operation of the sports streaming websites. As the debate continues in Congress and as we sit back and watch the game and commercials that we will all be talking about for the next week and beyond, it is worth thinking about what we want the Internet to look like and whose interests we think are most important to protect.