The Periscope effect on the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight

WASHINGTON–The boxing match billed as the fight of the century is over, but the battle over smartphone video streaming of the Las Vegas showdown is just beginning.

Revelations that dozens of smartphone users streamed the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather weekend fight have raised questions about how new technologies can get around copyright restrictions imposed at live venues such as sporting events and concerts.

There are no reliable figures, but thousands of people may have watched the fight via the Twitter-owned app Periscope, which allows any smartphone user to “broadcast” live video, and independent app Meerkat.

These viewers avoided the $100 fee for official pay-per-view video — as long as they did not mind reduced picture quality.

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo appeared to boast about the feat when he tweeted at the end of the match, “And the winner is… @periscopeco.”

It highlights the conundrum copyright holders could face if they lose control of their rights to fans with smartphone apps.

Similar questions arose last month when HBO sent notices to Periscope over piracy of its “Game of Thrones” series. And these issues are expected to multiply as smartphone streaming gains popularity.

Acting ‘expeditiously’

Under US copyright law, tech firms have a responsibility to remove copyrighted content “expeditiously” when notified of a violation. But at a live event, it’s not clear how fast is fast enough.

“The law really does not have the tools for copyright owners to go after platforms that have content that is live streamed,” said Bradley Shear, a Washington-area attorney specializing in social media and copyright issues.

The debate over these streaming apps “is going to restart the conversation about copyright protection in the digital age,” Shear told AFP.

Periscope and Meerkat say in their terms of service that they do not allow streaming of copyrighted content. But because there is no clear definition of “expeditious” the law may have been rendered useless by technology, according to Shear.

“This demonstrates the need to revisit our copyright law,” he said.

Eric Goldman, co-director of the High-Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, agreed that when Congress wrote the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, “it did not contemplate live streaming.”

Goldman noted that copyright holders could in theory sue those who carry out the streaming, the viewers and the platforms such as Twitter.

But such litigation is unlikely after the fact, especially since the law allows tech firms “safe harbor” protections if they respond to takedown requests.

Goldman said some technology firms have gone beyond the law to help copyright owners, by setting up filters and using other means to block illegal videos or at least prevent them from being discovered in a search.

‘We were ready’

Periscope founder Kayvon Beykpour said at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference Tuesday that his team was “completely prepared” for the welterweight mega-fight, with a team of people scanning for emails about potential problems.

“We had 66 requests for takedown and we took down 30 of them, all in a matter of minutes,” Beykpour said. The others could not be removed, he said, because they had ended by the time the team could deal with them.

“We were ready, we knew we had to be well-staffed,” he said.

On the broader question, Beykpour said the issue of copyright infringement is overblown because of the relatively poor quality of video on these feeds.

“No one wants to watch ‘Game of Thrones’ on Periscope,” he said.

HBO and Showtime, which managed pay-per-view television for the Pacquiao-Mayweather clash, declined to comment.

But sources familiar with the matter said the newer platforms like Periscope lack the systems adopted by YouTube and others where copyright owners are allowed to log in as special users and instantly remove content.

That means each request must be managed individually, which can often mean action is taken too late.

Fight promoter Top Rank meanwhile said it takes the issue seriously and is considering legal action.

“We are always pursuing, watching out for piracy,” Top Rank president Todd duBoef said.

“We think anyone redistributing unauthorized streaming is cheating. They don’t have the right to distribute. We want a thorough report on how many streams are out there.”

source: technology.inquirer.net

‘Mayweather won with hugs’– boxing fans

For Ferdinand Piñol, municipal administrator of Mlang town in North Cotabato, Floyd Mayweather Jr. won because he “threw 265 hugs and ran 15 miles.”

In the frustration of some of those who watched the fight at the Kidapawan City gym, they threw the monobloc chairs.

North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, who watched at fight at MGM Arena, said although Pacaquio lost, “we enjoyed” watching the game.

In Pacquiao’s home province of Sarangani, Jeffrey Abellanosa, who watched the fight at the Alabel gym, said their congressional representative should have won.

“The score did not reflect what I saw during the fight — that Manny won,” Abellanosa said.

For the Zamboangueños, Floyd Mayweather was “maru,” which meant “clever” in Chavacano. They also called the American judges “hecho” or game fixers.

John Amin, one of those who watched the fight inside the Western Mindanao Command headquarters, said Mayweather “hardly delivered a punch, and kept on running around and embracing Pacquiao.”

For Mayor Joel Lopez of Sta. Cruz town in Davao del Sur, Pacquiao and the boxing fans “deserve a rematch.”

In Tagum City seconds into the eighth round, the huge LED screen set  up near the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex in Mankilam  village here went dark.

It was an ominous for the thousands of fans as they  failed to catch two rounds of the fight that saw Pacquiao losing to Mayweather by unanimous decision.

“It was disappointing,” said Jerwin Libre, a 37-year old habal-habal (motorcycle-for-hire) driver who was among the thousands who squeezed into the packed roofed venues near the Pasalubong Center in Tagum City.

A sports official from Western Visayas participating in the Palarong Pambansa that would officially open on Monday said he was a bit disappointed, not by Pacquiao’s loss, but by the live telecast’s brief interruption.

“Floyd was piling up points in the early rounds,” said the sports official.

Sofonias Gabonada, provincial information officer, said it was vthe cable provider, whom he did not identify, who was in-charge of the  telecast.

But for many who watched the fight, Pacquiao did everything to win it.

“Mayweather kept on running away and avoiding Pacquiao,” said Ruel Dagsangan, an announcer of a Tagum-based radio station.

(With reports from Julie S. Alipala, Williamor Magbanua, Frinston Lim, Alan Nawal, Orlando Dinoy, Eldie Aguirre and Charlie Señase, Inquirer Mindanao)

source: sports.inquirer.net

Roach vs Floyd Sr.: Trainers’ trash talk heats up

LAS VEGAS — Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. may have toned down the trash talk during the events leading up to Saturday’s super fight but the verbal exchange between trainers Freddie Roach and Floyd Mayweather Sr. is heating up.

Roach offered a few words for Mayweather Sr., who had been constantly referring to the Hall of Fame trainer as a “joke.”

“He’s never beat me ever. I mean, he never will. So I’m not really worried about him,” Roach told Filipino reporters of Mayweather.

Roach fired back after Mayweather Sr. had called him “a joke with no hope” during a media scrum Thursday afternoon.

“He’s never come close [to winning Trainer of the Year]. He’s a joke. I mean, let’s face it,” added Roach, who is a seven-time Trainer of the Year. “He calls me the joke but Roger’s a better trainer than him. He knows it and he shouldn’t be in the corner.”


Roger Mayweather, the uncle of the pound-for-pound king, normally serves as the chief trainer but health issues prevented him from assuming the position this time, pushing Floyd Sr. in charge of his son’s corner.

“He can’t even get his message across because he gets so nervous in the corner he stutters the whole time. You can’t even understand him. Floyd’s training himself. That guy has nothing to do with nothing,” Roach said.

The trash talk between the two coaches had been going on for months now with Floyd Sr. even hitting below the belt when he referred to Roach’s battle with Parkinson’s Disease in an interview last month.

So while the two welterweight champions set for a Saturday showdown have remained subdued over the course of the buildup to their megafight, the verbal war between Roach and Floyd Sr. doesn’t seem to be headed for a ceasefire anytime soon.

source: sports.inquirer.net

Mayweather uses high-tech toy for recovery

Floyd Mayweather Jr. uses a new high-tech pod to recover after an intense training.

It’s called a cryosauna and it looks like something out of an animated series with yellow-haired characters.

Mayweather posted a video on his Facebook page which showed him using the cryosauna, an extremely low-temperature pod, at SuvZero Recovery on Las Vegas, making him the first person to use the high-tech gizmo.

SubZero Recovery CEO Dave Levi said in the video that the method used in the cryosauna is meant to replace an ice bath.

This will give you that initial shock where you instantly freeze, it will oxygenate your blood, pickup enzymes,” Levi explains in the video. “It actually gets much colder than an ice bath.”

Levi added that ice baths normally go to as low as 40 degrees Fahrenheit but the cryosauna can go as low as negative 240 degrees and it’s because of liquid nitrogen.

“When you step out of the machine … those enzymes, the proteins in your blood, the oxygenated blood, will flow back out, and it’ll heal whatever it is,” Levi said in the video. “If you have joint pain, if you have soreness in your muscles from working out, that’s kind of what we’re hoping to do for Floyd because we know he works out so hard every day.”

It looks like Mayweather is pulling out all the stops for his May 2 welterweight unification bout against Manny Pacquiao at MGM Grand Garden Arena, even using something Son Goku would use. IDL

source: sports.inquirer.net

Showtime makes a trailer for Mayweather-Pacquiao

Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Manny Pacquiao is so big it needed an Oscar-worthy red carpet just for the pre-fight press conference.

So big in fact that Showtime decided to make a trailer out of it.

Showtime posted the two-minute video on its Facebook page late Friday evening and basically showed video clips of Mayweather training for the May 2welterweight unification fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

As Mayweather’s stable, Showtime’s “trailer” has Mayweather all over it with a few seconds of Manny Pacquiao and Freddie Roach.

Kinda biased isn’t it?

source: sports.inquirer.net

It’s on: Mayweather says he and Pacquiao to fight May 2

LAS VEGAS — The Fight is finally on.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. will meet Manny Pacquiao on May 2 in a welterweight showdown that will be boxing’s richest fight ever. Mayweather himself announced the bout Friday after months of negotiations, posting a picture of the signed contract online.

The long anticipated bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas will almost surely break every financial record ever, and make both boxers richer than ever. Mayweather could earn $120 million or more, while Pacquiao’s split of the purse will likely be around $80 million.

The fight, which matches boxing’s two biggest attractions in recent years, has been in the making for five years. It finally came together in recent months with both fighters putting aside past differences over various issues — including drug testing and television rights — to reach agreement.

“I promised the fans we would get this done and we did,” Mayweather said.

While the fight rivals the 2002 heavyweight title bout between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson for interest, it comes more than five years after the first real effort to put the fighters together in their prime. Most boxing observers believe both have lost some of their skills, though Mayweather remains a master defensive fighter and Pacquiao showed in his last fight against Chris Algieri that he still has tremendous quickness in his hands.

Still, Pacquiao is 36 and has been through many wars in the ring. And while Mayweather has been largely untouched in his career, he turns 38 on Tuesday.

Pacquiao was sleeping in the Philippines when the fight was announced, but his camp issued a statement saying the fans deserve the long awaited fight.

“It is an honor to be part of this historic event,” Pacquiao said. “I dedicate this fight to all the fans who willed this fight to happen and, as always, to bring glory to the Philippines and my fellow Filipinos around the world.”

As part of the agreement, Mayweather insisted on having the right to announce the bout. He also won concessions from the Pacquiao camp on who enters the ring first, what type of gloves are used, and a number of other issues, including a reported 60-40 split of the purse.

But it didn’t take long for Pacquiao’s camp to start talking, either. Promoter Bob Arum expressed his elation in making the fight, while trainer Freddie Roach predicted a big win for his fighter.

“Floyd should enjoy being the A-Side while he can because on May 2 Manny is going to put him on his backside,” Roach said.

Arum, who has promoted some of the biggest fights in history, said this one would be bigger than them all.

“This boxing match will have the interest in the U.S. of a Super Bowl,” Arum told The Associated Press. “I think it will set all kinds of pay-per-view records and gate records. It will be the biggest boxing event of all time.”

Both fighters will bring 147-pound titles into the ring, but the fight is about far more than belts. Mayweather, who is unbeaten in 47 fights, wants to stake his claim as one of the greatest fighters ever, and remove any doubts about his legacy by fighting the boxer who is thought to be the greatest challenge of his career.

Pacquiao, meanwhile, will try to show that a knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012 and a disputed decision loss to Timothy Bradley should not define a remarkable career that began 20 years ago in the Philippines

Don’t tune in looking for a big knockout, either. The last time Pacquiao stopped anyone was in 2009 when he finished off Miguel Cotto in the 12th round, while Mayweather has only stopped one fighter (Victor Ortiz) in the last eight years.

Oddsmakers have already posted their opinion on the bout, making Mayweather a 2 1/2-1 favorite in betting parlors in this gambling town. The fight is expected to draw record betting, with tens of millions wagered in Nevada’s legal sports books.

Another record which will almost surely be set will be the pay-per-view price to watch the fight at home. The fight will be televised as a joint venture between competing networks Showtime and HBO, which will share announcers with Jim Lampley and Al Bernstein reportedly handling the task at ringside.

source: sports.inquirer.net