Sports fans visiting huge coliseums are fairly accustomed to having their YouTube videos of the game removed. Expensive sports tickets typically contain prohibitions against shooting vids in the venue (and that’s a debate in itself). But shots of everyday people huffing and puffing over grass in a public space? Come on. A new policy by the nation’s largest running organization — USA Track and Field — nixes YouTube clips shot at the races it organizes, most of which are casual amateur events.
When a small running club (of which I’m a member) had its footage removed from YouTube and then called to ask why, the track and field association responded by comparing themselves to the NBA and saying the offending shots (of awkward running people) infringed on its intellectual property assets. The video in question has been linked in this article on the ordeal (Trigger Warning: endless shots of running followed by frank depictions of people dancing badly at some afterparty.)