With the start of the new season due to kick of tomorrow, the Premier League is on the lookout to protect its copyrighted material.
More specifically, it aims to block user-uploaded clips and GIFs of goals on apps such as Vine and YouTube.
Aside from short comedy clips, it seems that goals from football matches are becoming increasingly popular on Vine.
Thousands of goal Vines were posted on the platform during the World Cup and subsequently shared on other social networks.
However, the Premier League has warned fans that uploading copyrighted material is illegal.
With the advent of live TV streaming services, the ability to pause and rebind football matches has made it easier for fans to record clips of their favourite goals.
The Premier League has reiterated that fans who then upload those same videos online are breaking copyright laws.
Talking to BBC Newsbeat, Dan Johnson – Director of Communications at the Premier League – said: “You can understand that fans see something, they can capture it¦and share it, but ultimately it is against the law.”
Aside from issuing a mere warning, the Premier League has developed technologies like GIF crawlers and Vine crawlers and is actively working with sites like Twitter to remove this type of content.
Johnson added: “I know it sounds as if we’re killjoys but we have to protect our intellectual property.”
It is thought that much of the pressure to curtail this sort of online activity comes from broadcasting corporations such as SKY and BT Sport, who together spent a record £3bn to show three seasons of live Premier League football.
Meanwhile, The Sun newspaper charges £8 a month in subscription fees for its Sun+ service, which hosts goals online immediately after they are scored.
The most popular football Vine accounts have hundreds of thousands of followers. With so many users on the service uploading copyrighted football goals, it seems that the Premier League will have a tough time tracking them all down.
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