back to article Are you ready for some sueball?! NFL opens wallet, makes vid stream patent spat go away

The NFL, the home of America's favorite form of recreational brain trauma, will find itself a bit less wealthy, after it settled a lawsuit brought by a streaming video software developer. The football league on Thursday finalized a settlement with OpenTV, which had accused the NFL of ripping off parts of eight of its US …

  1. Youngone Silver badge

    Just Awful

    I like to have a clear hero and a clear villain in each piece I read on El Reg, but the NFL is an awful bully, and any company with 5,000 multimedia patents is just a troll.

    Can I hate them both?

    1. EnviableOne

      Re: Just Awful

      5,000 patents are not that many, providing they relate to the technology they actually produce/created (like these ones do)

      I'd be happy to call the NFL the bad guys on this one

  2. Winkypop Silver badge
    Trollface

    On the bright side

    A courtroom debate over patent ownership is probably more interesting than an NFL game.

    - runs away!

  3. Chris G

    I quite like watching the edited games on TV but I couldn't sit through an entire game at a stadium,which mostly consists of large men inhaling oxygen on the sidelines while everyone watches video replays of every move just after it happened.

    Rugby is better, happens faster and is played by blokes who think wearing armour is for cissies.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Attending a game live at the stadium isn't too bad, provided you have good binoculars and good line of sight to the cheerleaders...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "good line of sight to the cheerleaders..."

        Enjoy them, before they are removed because it's a sexist thing...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Yes, we know Britons prefer direct contact between men bodies...

    3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      played by blokes who think wearing armour is for cissies

      (Google nGram viewer suggests the spelling "sissy" is more common than "cissy", and indeed has been far more common since it began a rapid ascent circa 1900. But maybe "cissy" is still common in the UK?)

      Anyway: research suggests that the addition of ever more protective equipment in US football has actually increased the rate and severity of long-lasting injury. I think it was covered in Why Things Bite Back, Tenner's popular treatment of revenge effects.

      1. Wensleydale Cheese

        "(Google nGram viewer suggests the spelling "sissy" is more common than "cissy", and indeed has been far more common since it began a rapid ascent circa 1900. But maybe "cissy" is still common in the UK?)"

        "Cissy" is the only spelling I have ever come across in the UK.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "more protective equipment in US football has actually increased"

        Not surprisingly, as they "weaponized" protections, trying to inflict more damage to opponents, especially when they are less protected. But even when good protection exist, the trauma can happen anyway - both ways - see the brain damage issues now under the spotlight.

        That's why the NFL is introducing new rules to forbid some hits - and there's already some journalists who complain because it "changes" the game. IMHO, some hits should have been forbidden long ago, they add nothing to the "show", they made it only more dangerous - and the show is less interesting when good players are sidelined by big injuries.

  4. Velv
    Coat

    Sounds like the NFL took a knee

  5. The Nazz

    "Sounds like the NFL took a knee"

    Yeah, in the nuts.

  6. paulf
    Gimp

    Unusual Promotional method

    "websites that let football fans watch clips of beefy lycra-clad men inflicting violence on each other:"

    Perhaps they could aim that kind of advertising strapline at the porn market to get even more $$$?

  7. disgruntled yank

    Lycra?

    I started tuning out of the NFL before Lycra was invented, but are you sure that they wear that?

    Also: "Anyway: research suggests that the addition of ever more protective equipment in US football has actually increased the rate and severity of long-lasting injury."

    Well, maybe. On the other hand, weight training means that a lot of men who might have been tall and clumsy are tall, strong, and agile, so the both sides of mass x acceleration have gone up over the years. I am old enough to remember the days that linemen might play at 250 lb. Those days are long gone.

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