Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

I got the sense from reading excerpts from his book that "Ace" is a bit of a BSer.

SeahawkFever wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2025 8:14 pm
For the record, I do not create media or artistic works myself, but if I did, I would be stricter with the copyrights on the pieces of media that are perceived to have more commercial viability than those that don’t.

Ex: if I were the NFL, I would be more likely to go after people who are uploading stuff related to the Super Bowl, than people who are uploading say, old team highlight films from 40 years ago on teams that aren’t being talked about much, and with film NFL Film that I typically never use.

The thing is, the law makes no distinction between a popular work and an unpopular one.

RichardBak wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2025 12:39 pm From the NFL's perspective, I suppose the difference between Rare Sports Films and Volsky is a matter of eyeballs. Doak is selling his merchandise onesey-twosey to a few hundred people whereas the YouTube channel is viewable by potentially millions.

I've worked on a few docs, and I've been surprised how often even those with big budgets freely ignore copyright when it comes to photos and old film. The operative adage for many producers has always been "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission."

I suspect you are correct - Volsky’s YouTube channel was too easily accessible to too many eyeballs. And his work was fantastic. That’s two strikes against as NFL executives look (and are) inept when it comes to the NFL’s own history and legacy when some guy with a YouTube channel and a MacBook Pro is running circles around them.

I agree with most of you. I really enjoyed Volsky's channels. It was great finding the music I grew watching and that wasn´t including in The Power and the Glory and Tropic Thunder and other NFL Films music recopilations, as well as knowing who the composers were (NFL Films only listed Sam Spence as the sole compositor in their shows until the 80s and clearly he wasn't the only one). Volsky made a great job.

As for the restaured broadcasts and other highlights, I think that Volsky made a great job that was forgotten and neglected by NFL Films since before the passing of the Sabols, and I believe he should have been hired and let him restore whatever he could, I think is priceless to understand and preserve NFL history. In contrast, Disney digitalized every old content (and not all of them was good or great, but I was surprised I found old shows and movies of the 1970s who were clearly forgettable that are in their app) and I beleive NFL Films should also get every film/highlight/show in an app and have subscribers. While maybe it appears it has not great interest from the public now, in a few decades I think it would be given their true valor.

FInally, they are other YouTube users who upload NFL Films and older broadcasts and they monetize them, unlike Volsky, and I believe they have not been bothered by the NFL. I think that until NFL Films has its own app, they should let users upload old highlights if they not gain a profit.

JohnR wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2025 5:53 pm NFL Films bought the Tel Ra pro football back catalogue around 1980. I think they paid $20K? This is why in the '80s we started to see those 1950s player profiles that pulled extensively from the Tel Ra footage. I don't remember the Cachiotti story about retrieving Tel Ra reels from the dumpster. If they'd just paid for all that, why would they toss it?

Thanks JohnR. Great catch. I had it wrong. And I was wrong about NFL Films. Despite almost destroying one collection of game tapes due to questionable condition (Ch. 38), they don't come off bad at all in the book in terms of historical preservation. Quite the opposite actually.

It was a different find Ace saved from the chopping block and I misremembered as Tel-Ra footage. In chapter 38 he says: "The acquisition of this rivaled the film library that we had purchased from the company Tel-Ra in 1980...."

That does bring up the question - if NFL Films purchased the Tel-Ra collection in 1980, how is another entity selling Tel-Ra DVDs? I don't have an answer.

TanksAndSpartans wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2025 8:09 pm
That does bring up the question - if NFL Films purchased the Tel-Ra collection in 1980, how is another entity selling Tel-Ra DVDs? I don't have an answer.

I don't know the answer. I can tell you what I read on a tape trading board many years ago. I have no clue if it is true. Someone was posting some of the films that the Rare Sports Guy (RSG) -- don't know his name --- was selling. There was some argument going on. My memory is that the RSG said something of the nature of "I have the only license to sell these films."

Again, I have no idea if that was/is true. No idea how he would have gotten it ... or if he did strike a deal (why he's still in business?) But I do remember reading that and making a mental note of it ... thinking that was interesting.

Take if for what it's worth. Something I read maybe 20-25 years ago from someone claiming to be the RSG.

Thanks John. He may have mentioned the license to me when we talked. I don't remember. I just checked NFL Films homepage and there is a licensing link.

That makes me wonder how exclusive their licenses are. I remember some legit companies in the '80s (Heron, Fox River or something like that) that distributed a lot of their videos, but would they grant a license to a dude selling DVD-Rs out of his basement?