#snookerroom

[larryshem]

#larryshem #snooker #snookerroom #pooltables #poolroom #neon https://www.instagram.com/p/CZSy7WmjtUQ/?utm_medium=tumblr

[baizeality-blog]

Goodbye, Farewell and Amen

До свидания, прощай и аминь...

Our Russian friends at SnookerRoom, who have provided so many snooker fans - especially outside the UK - with live streams without geo-blocking and WITHOUT ADS OR MALWARE THREATS, along with a treasure trove of fantastic videos, say they are being shut down by World Snooker and IMG (look them up).

Their whole statement (link up there in the title) is well worth reading - even in their less-than-perfect English, their sarcasm about WS’ hypocrisy comes through loud and clear. They also say they even offered compromises with their hundreds of hours of footage:

...we proposed different compromises to right holders: to put a TM on every video, to indicate their authorship, to give them the whole YouTube channel just to keep it alive without removal of all videos... Well. There is no compromise. All the people who could not see snooker because of the circumstances now is left without snooker. It's like a sad joke. they say that SnookerRoom s extremely harmful, but they use the video of our YouTube channel even at the World Championship in Sheffield.

Of course, teeeeeeeeechnically, WS and IMG are right that SnookerRoom were illegally distributing material they (and the broadcasters) own. If the Russians had actually been making money from their ill-gotten gains, and if they were stealing material WS were trying to provide themselves to hungry snooker fans, it would make all the ethical sense in the world to shut them down. But again, SnookerRoom were doing all their work for free, with no ads (will WS be shutting down any of the ad companies who provide those pop-ups and pre-rolls for the likes of Filmon and CricFree anytime soon?). Recently, SR had finally started making a concerted appeal for donations to cover the costs of hosting their streams and keeping up their huge YouTube channel which was the go-to for any snooker fan/player having trouble finding footage of anything from the dodgy CCTV excuse for coverage of qualifying matches to Eurosport’s Ronnie O’Sullivan Show to major matches to broadcaster studio features and interviews that would never be shown again after the initial broadcast. Fortunately there are other live streams (though dodgier) and YouTube snooker channels (though maybe they’ll get the lawyers at their doors soon too), but SnookerRoom was the most consistent and most complete provider of snooker footage, legal or illegal. 

It’s my personal opinion that when illegal distribution happens, more often than not, it should serve as a clarion call that the legal distribution is not serving demand. With the severing of ties with Livesport (who provided the inconsistent legal WS subscription live stream which caused folks to run to the Russians in the first place) and strengthening of ties with Eurosport (word is access on matches will increase on their Eurosport Player, which currently geo-blocks and require subscription for all its streamed content), one can hope WS and IMG have ideas to make live and on-demand snooker more accessible globally... 

...but have they done anything to really make us feel they can pull that off?

For their part, SnookerRoom included the email of World Snooker Commercial Director Miles Pearce (who possibly sent them the offending C&D) in their statement, which may imply encouragement to fans to contact him and make their opinions known about taking away all that content with nothing to make up for it. Anyone who’s been around the snooker world would probably question how successful a tactic that would be, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt giving Miles some further idea of the demand WS is not supplying.

For the time-being as I write, the SnookerRoom YouTube channel is still intact, and it’s hard to say when WS will lower the boom or when the Russians would have to delete their account. There could be foot-dragging (like when WS has to announce a draw so players can get their hotels sorted), or it could happen tomorrow. While this isn’t any more legal than anything else that’s been discussed here, another thing fans can do is dig through the videos and download as many of their favourites as they can. A few methods of downloading YouTube videos are out there, so feel free to Google. You could then keep them for yourself, but to keep alive the SnookerRoom philosophy of “snooker without borders”, you could share them with friends and fellow fans through whatever methods you may have. The more people who do, the more WS has to play whack-a-mole, and the more the demand for snooker content is communicated. Also, it’s just a nice thing to do. :-)

So if you are going, SnookerRoom, прощание and cпасибо for all the many hours of snooker love.