As the Euro 2008 group stages draw to a close, Uefa has criticised video-sharing websites for failing to warn their contributors about uploading license-breaking material. Uefa Media Technologies CEO Alexandre Fourtoy told The Observer fans attending games could shoot their own footage with one big proviso: “If it is to show your wife, that’s fine. If it’s to set up a website and make a business, you’ll end up in jail. You should not put it on YouTube because then you are giving it to the world. It’s not the same as sending a video to a friend. The problem [with] these websites is that they don’t educate their users.”
Judging by a quick search of YouTube, Uefa has done a good job of rooting out clips that infringe its agreements with licensed broadcasters. And the official Euro 2008 website, which includes plenty of its own video, reports a fivefold traffic increase on the last tournament (via Reuters), with most hits coming from the UK, despite not having any teams involved. BBC’s Click has more.