licensing your playbook

Yeah I have written several articles, made powerpoints etc for my team and clinics I speak at...and then found them as part of a package people are selling!?? Without my permission. WTH???

I've seen an old playbook of mine on one of these idiot sites that has 950 thousand different football documents available. For that reason, I don't send playbooks or cut-ups out to people any more. The few people I HAD sent them to were always asked to please not re-distribute what I shared.

I've also seen post "articles" I've written on this site posted on other football websites. Nobody ever asked me to do that or anything.

Oh well, welcome to the internet.

I give a lot of stuff out pretty freely, b/c I think we all ought to share. However, I do have an issue with some one selling things that I have written regardless of if its a playbook or an article.

The only thing I will not email out anymore is my application packet I send out when I apply for a head job.

Last year after my interview the AD asked me if I knew "Coach X". I told him, no. He then said "your application packet is the same as this guy. I asked to see it. Almost word for word as mine. Was not real happy.

A lot of my old stuff made it into playbooks. My website has a license that says that not-for-profit use is fully permitted (i.e. if some coach wanted to include something of mine in his playbook for his kids, that's fine) but commercial use is only with permission (i.e. someone is selling my articles as part of a package or putting them on their website with advertising, etc). A lot of people are just really stupid or naive about this stuff.

Note that you can't license your actual plays or concepts or ideas, but you can the playbook itself.

I mean honestly, I think it would be flattering that somebody would take your playbook and use it or put it on a website. As far as licensing your playbook, that would be pointless I think, because once one person does it, then everybodies going to do it. At that point all of the copying that we do as coaches, in using others teams or more specifically our favorite college or professional teams plays is out the door.

Its really all based on intents I suppose.

The stuff I've seen 'packaged' that includes some of my old stuff doesn't make me upset as much as I wish they would've told me (because I would get them a better copy than they are using).

The coaching profession is about sharing and exchanging ideas....thats how we adapt. But it is a grey area when you

1) read/see something and can immediately attribute it to so-and-so (“hey I got the new mesh adjustment from Sonny Dykes”)

2) read/see something and acknowledge they got it from assimilation (“hey, I’ve seen a lot of people use this adjustment to mesh…”)

3) read/see something and attribute it to themselves (“this is my adjustment to mesh”)

#1 – is probably no problem I would assume. A general observer making an innocuous statement with what I would assume is for the benefit of others.

#2 – begins the shades of grey……is it an immediate unattributable observation or is it something that happens over time? You may have been exposed to such-and-such in 2005, but it didn’t sink in until 2009….by then, do could you really pinpoint the origins of creation (ha ha…Inception territory)?

#3 – now this could be another debatable intent. Maybe someone DOES come up with something inspired by revelation (its not like doesn’t happen), but what if the intent is to clearly rip someone off/plagiarize? What then?



What coachjd is talking about was pretty rampant in the early days of Huey, which was why so much of the download section got protected (plus copyrighted materials were shared). Its one thing to provide a template, its another thing to just copy & paste with no real work being done.

I'm sure Tesla was pretty flattered by Edison

The only issue I have is selling the playbooks or putting them up on a 'for profit site'.

Now, the articles are an entirely different deal. If you copy and paste something, word for word and post it somewhere, and take credit for it, you're a thief. I don't care if you're selling it or not.

Yeah, unless you are willing to hire a lawyer and have him/her file cease and desist notices to all the sites posting your stuff, it's kind of futile.

But really if you do write articles, I would think to write in some kind of copyright notice, be it creative commons or US copyright . Then if you do find a gross offender you can aleast have some legal footing if you do pursue legal action.

(note: In no way am I a lawyer and this post should in no way be taken as legal advice.)

Check this out:

creativecommons.org/

Stick it on your playbook.

To Brophy's point:



This is true, but the way I look at it is this:

(a) If it's no big deal and someone is stealing (happens A LOT to my stuff) then I just ignore it.

(b) If people are really aggressive about it (i.e. stealing lots of stuff straight out, and giving no credit or links or anything) AND they are trying to make some money, I will send them an email. If the person said no I'd have to make a judgment.

(c) Doing this though does give me slightly more protection, or at least gives me some options. Imagine if Ron Jaworski put out a book of schemes and just lifted page after page from the Brophy blog or from Coach Huey, and then that book was a NY Times bestseller, and you got zero credit and zero compensation. That would be ridiculous and unfair, and pointing to your license would give you some rights there (and it would be worth it to talk to an attorney).

But on the whole, yea it probably doesn't matter too much. The internet is the wild west. My real policy is that people should feel free to use whatever of mine they want, but they should give me credit. I always try to do the same (though I'm sure I'm not perfect).

I openly share all of my clinic materials. I found someone was selling my power pointals as part of a cd. I emailed them and told them they did not have permission to sell my materials. They stopped but are back at it. It is upsetting because I give the info for free. I think using materials with your team is fine. Selling them is not. It's also not okay to take credit for the work of someone else.

Copyright - protection of intellectual property

Licencse - right given to reproduce the property

Good examples. Universities copyright their logos, then license them to be reproduced and sold, and there are limitations and restrictions on the license.

You can't just copyright a playbook. There has to be something unique about it.

Example: You can't just copyright a picture drawing of a mouse. Give it unique enough features, and name it "Mickey" and you can copyright "Mickey Mouse."

When you own the rights, you can then license the right to reproduce the image, or parts of the image, such as the Mickey Mouse Ear hats that kids wear.

Before it can be "stolen" it has to be copyrighted. Good example was the Bud Light commercial featuring the online playbook we're all familiar with. If you put it out there for public consumption without a copyright, there's no protection.

If you have something copyrighted, and it's "stolen" or rather "reproduced without permission" the remedy is in civil court, not criminal, IN MOST CASES. There are exceptions.

As to football. The TFS is copyrighted not due to a unique playbook, but the entire system including drills, practice plans, wristbands, play names, practice plans, etc. etc. If Tony Franklin were simply selling a playbook, he couldn't copyright it, and as we all know, there's Air Raid playbooks all over the net. (I used TF by way of example, nothing more)

You've never paid money to go to a clinic? Ever been paid to speak at one? Never put on a camp and charged a fee?