"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
Late last night your beloved BeachGrit received an email from the World Surf League, in both Cardiff-by-the-Sea and Bondi bureaus, demanding that cute little videos of Mick Fanning’s surgeon-like attack (a compendium of his 9s!) and the wonderful skills of jetski pilots (cowboys!) be taken down.
And such a shame! Because Mick Fanning’s nines are like a beautiful lullaby if you are having trouble falling asleep. One turn, two turns, three turns snore! But mostly because surfing should not be treated the same as American football. Have you ever been on a film shoot where someone in the field of vision has a New York Giants baseball hat or a Green Bay Packers hoodie? That shit is like crazy radioactive! Gaffers, gofers and line producers will run, as fast as they can, to the fan and ask, then beg, if they could take off the merchandise. If they won’t, and must be in the shot, then all NFL and team logos must be covered with tape or, somehow, shot around. The NFL, you see, is so sue happy and power hungry that they pounce on any infraction of copyright, however tiny or insignificant.
Surfing ain’t the National Football League! It just ain’t and to act like it is a stone-faced multibillion dollar tyranny guts the love. Give us free, World Surf League! Unshackle our hands and we can all soar on wings of John John’s fails! (I think we had to take that down too).
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“…the only thing that we can do is to keep on keeping on, like a bird that flew…”
—Apparently censorship is rampant in the surfing world.
Well, at least you know they reading your stuff. They worried your audience is bigger than theirs 😉
Should keep the content up….. A good public fight would be perfect publicity.
Don’t they know the phrase “any press is good press”?
What a bunch of cunts… good job on bringing this one up Chasy, a big step up from your toyboys instagram battle articles, keep it up
refer to my avatar
Thats a direct violation of the WSL anti middle finger code Nick. $2400 fine.
So very petty. On the plus side Beach Grit is getting big people starting to take notice. “You yell my name, that’s only giving me props”
anyone whos ever done a GOOD turn can appreciate micks mastery
BTW, lol at the photo credit.
LMAO missed that. Poor Grahamy.
What’s the big deal? The only time I ever go on the WSL site is to stream the Live Feed but other than that I don’t ever read/watch anything else. At least this way they’re getting free coverage and more people paying attention to what’s going on.
I’d love to see the WSL try to sue Beach Grit over something like this. A simple “no thanks, we’ll leave it up” would likely end the discussion – after all, WSL’s only real remedy is to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit. Beach Grit can leave the links up until that’s done, and then take it down with no real penalty likely. Alternatively, there’s a decent fair use argument here. Either way, make the WSL spend money it doesn’t have and see how far they’ll escalate.
You make a fine point with the fair use argument, but Chas would have to lawyer up too. Who would foot the bill for designer jeans, fruity drinks, and cigs then?
not really. They could just take it down after the suit is filed and WSL would drop it.
Unfortunately, they’d probably just send The Grit a Cease-And-Desist, which isn’t particularly expensive for the WSL (unfortunately) and much less impressive than a lawsuit.
nah, I’m saying toss the cease and desist.
Ummmmm you?
Too rich for my blood amigo, but I’ll click away… I mean refreshing like every second. Isn’t that like money for the internet?
Y’all forget I’m married to a pretty damn good attorney.
It must be so rad to be able to drink and drive without concern.
Im assuming she would work for free…
The WSL will be the cause of its own demise. Their next move? How about pay per view surf contests! A “Season Ticket” approach to watching what has been gratis from day one. We’ve seen that greed has no limits. The WSL will prove it is no different and that, my friends, will be the beginning of the end.
How else are they going to get off my dad’s teat?
Contact the bad lip reading guy and see if he can do one for the WSL. The content is put out there to be shared and viewed, why get pissed when someone has a little fun? Keep doing it and your dedicated readers have all the more reason to check in frequently. Best of luck comrade.