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Barstool Sports, owned by charismatic entrepreneur Dave Portnoy, has been hit by charges that the successful website got off the ground by allegedly stealing content from other places. According to a report in the Daily Beast, Barstool Sports did so by spreading the “borrowed” content over 40 different shadow Twitter accounts.
It is not clear at this time, however, if Barstool Sports broke any laws or did anything that could lead to civil suits as a result of its actions.
“A new investigation by The Daily Beast found over 40 more anonymous Twitter accounts that give every indication of being controlled by Barstool,” said the publication. “This network has laundered incalculable amounts of copyright-protected sports and entertainment videos and reaped billions of views over at least the last four years. For example: One anonymous account’s ripped video of The Weeknd’s Super Bowl LV performance racked up 36 million views for Barstool in less than 24 hours.”
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But Barstool Sports is not alone in this type of practice. Countless people have made a decent living with social media accounts and YouTube pages in which they largely post clips of copyrighted materials. Think of all those Twitter posts that show videos of parts of sporting events liked the Super Bowl filmed off of a television in someone’s living room. The copyright laws allow for things like this depending on the length and style of the video posted.
Barstool Sports is said to have taken advantage of this by having the dummy accounts post links to its website.
Social media content creators can also get away with things like this as long as they post links to the copyright holder, etc. And plenty of firms use fake social media accounts, known as “sock puppet accounts.”
Much of the alleged activity took place in the early years of Barstool Sports, before it became a major player in the media/entertainment scene. But the company has been sued in the past for copyright infringements. And so have social media firms, like Twitter, for allowing companies like Barstool get away with alleged infringements.
The news comes just a few weeks after Barstool Sports announced it was letting go of 25% of its employees as part of new efforts to deal with shortfalls.
And that move came just a few weeks after Dave Portnoy bought back Barstool Sports for just $1 from Penn Entertainment, which had spent a total of $551 million in acquiring it. In 2019, Penn Entertainment paid Portnoy $163 million for a 36% stake in the firm. And then earlier this year it paid another $388 million for the rest of Barstool Sports. Penn unloaded Barstool because it expected the company would lose as much as $800 million.
Founded in 2003 in Milton, Massachusetts, Barstool Sports is a digital media company that produces content focused on sports and pop-culture.
David Portnoy is an American businessman, blogger, and podcaster. He is the founder and owner of Barstool Sports, a sports and pop culture blog. Portnoy is known for his controversial and outspoken personality. He has been criticized for his comments about women and minorities, but he also has a large and loyal following.
