Hmmm: Vevo Says a ‘Guest’ Was Pirating the NFL at Their Sundance Party…

on Feb10

by london | Stumble it | Digg it | Tweet this

Hmmm: Vevo Says a 'Guest' Was Pirating the NFL at Their Sundance Party...

It's been a turbulent week for VEVO. First, the company was brought to the mat for stiffing indies, though the company decilined to offer any comment on the allegations. Then, TechCrunch caught the company red-handed broadcasting an illegal NFL playoff game at its celebrity party in Sundance - and published the videotaped evidence on Thursday. "So let's recap," TechCrunch's Jason Kinkaid wrapped. "VEVO is owned by the record companies, the record companies have tried to sue people into oblivion over piracy. And yet VEVO was showing a pirated video stream at one of their events. That's hypocrisy folks."

This time, the company is responding: Vevo chief Rio Caraeff has now publicly admitted that an NFL playoff game was indeed being pirated and broadcast from a Vevo computer to the Sundance party, but the act was done by a mysterious 'guest' on an unmonitored laptop. Remember, TechCrunch found several screens in different rooms broadcasting the game, confirmed the illegality with ESPN, and captured it all on video. Caraeff offered this statement today on the company's blog.

"A guest of our lounge asked for an NFL game to be aired. We said no. There was a laptop hooked up to VEVO.com that fed into the large TV screens around the bar. Unfortunately, the laptop was easily accessible to the public. That was our mistake for not making sure the laptop was more secure. While VEVO staff was in other areas of the venue, the game was put on – via a website transmitting ESPN’s broadcast of the NFL game – without our permission or knowledge."

... then finished with this assurance.

"What happened was unfortunate and we can’t take back what happened.

Let’s just make this clear. VEVO is not in the business of streaming illegal video content. We work really hard to give our fans access to the best HD music videos and original programming – legally. VEVO takes intellectual property and copyright issues very seriously. We have always supported our artists and content owners and have the same respect for all content creators in every industry and of every art form."