WAG Boycott Gymnastike

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Canadian_gym_mom

Proud Parent
It has been mentioned in other threads to make this a new specific thread, but it hasn't yet been done. So I am taking it to task to say that I believe it is the right thing to do to stop visiting their site, following links to them or supporting them in any way.

The reason for this, in case some have not been following the "tabloid" gym news, is that they linked to alleged
naked pictures of McKayla Maroney in the recent issue with many other big name stars.

I would hope that people here would join this boycott, and go further to cancel memberships with this website.

If any American members have ways to contact USA Gymnastics about this, I would hope they could post it here. I don't honestly know if Gymnastics Canada has any relationship with this site, but if someone does know, please post that here as well.

It would just be a positive step for all gymnasts and the sport of gymnastics to see support of getting rid of any site that feels it is appropriate to link such pictures.

Please add to this thread your thoughts about this boycott.
 
This is the last straw. I have never purchased a membership, but now I would never consider it, nor will I ever go to their site.

What I don't understand about them is how they have gotten away with taking privately recorded footage off of Youtube, putting it up on their site, and monetizing it with no credit and no compensation for the original recorder, who presumably owns copyright. Apparently they have been getting away with this at women's NCAA meets? How?

I would encourage anyone who has footage used in this way to claim a copyright violation, and I would also encourage athletes who have had routines put up on the site to register their objections to the use of their images and performances for profit. I hope some college coaches will band together and contact the NCAA.
 
Yup. This is a pretty big thing on twitter and tumblr with the 'Gymternet'. Lots have tweeted at and emailed flocasts (owner of gymnastike), USAGym and Joe (personally responsible for the content on gymnastike)
Can't remember his last name.

It has been said that USAG is reconsidering allowing them at future events. Not sure where that stands now.

At this point gymnastike is going to have a rough time surviving with how many people are on board boycotting them.

I've personally never been a fan of them. I'm all for exposing more people to the sport of gymnastics but when they make you pay a large amount just to view certain footage it really takes away from it.
 
Can someone explain to me what kind of site this is exactly? And what reasons exactly do they exist for? Is it gymnastics news or something? I've heard about this site numerous times before, but never explored on my own. Please tell me so I don't have to go to the site to find out. :p
 
It's a "gymnastics news" site, but they also post some unprofessional gymnastics gossip and make people pay to view videos that can be accessed for free elsewhere.

Also, just heard gymnasticscoaching.com is now boycotting gymnastike
 
Thank you for filling me in. So it really is a crummy site, huh? What's the deal with the whole McKayla Maroney thing? Is it in the huge thread in the WAG forum?
 
Not a problem for me, I have had issues with gymnastike long before the felony was committed.

Just a small correction, when they embed other peoples youtube videos the original owner still gets hits, so that is okay. BUT, and this is a big BUT, then gymnastike makes money from the video getting hits on it's own site and does not pay the owner of the video. Plus they often put those videos behind a wall of Gold membership. Some of those videos are sent to them, but many are not.

But my biggest peeve with them is the gold membership where they buy rights to a meet, Like NCAA, stream it live with geoblocking and then archive it for gold members only. Then continue to follow that up by paying people to stalk youtube to force people to take down their own home video of the meet. Including video taken by fans and family. Legally they can do that, but it does nothing to promote the sport of gymnastics.

I love that USA gymnastics has been working so very hard to get all of it's meets out live, and later archived, to the whole world for free. They are the people we should be cheering on. They have made huge strides in the past 3 years in their media savviness. GymCanada is also pretty awesome about this as well.
 
That's right, and that's how gymnastics should be promoted and how gymnasts and fans should be supported. There's so many other worthwhile gymnastics sites that I've never bothered with gymnastike
 
wow, never heard of Gymternet before - looks a great site and I love how it gives news from all over the globe
 
What I don't understand about them is how they have gotten away with taking privately recorded footage off of Youtube, putting it up on their site, and monetizing it with no credit and no compensation for the original recorder, who presumably owns copyright.

Just a non-gymnastics specific thing about YouTube:
(I'm not a lawyer)
When you upload a video to YouTube you give them non-exclusive rights to display that video. When I last read their terms and conditions, this explicitly included the possibility that your videos could be put on compilations, DVDs, whatever and sold for profit (pay for view) etc.

This is why people wanting to make money out of short films etc. need to think carefully before uploading stuff to YouTube. It's not fun signing your rights away. Put can be good publicity etc.

It is entirely OK according to YouTube conditions for someone to embed YouTube videos in their site and make people pay to watch them.

This is separate from rights to broadcast etc which I know nothing at all about.

This also doesn't mean that I think any of this is reasonable, sensible or morally OK. I've also never been to the gymnastike website. It sounds horrid.
 

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