That supposes the academic venue would hand over a copy willingly I guess. That's where the Fair Use aspect comes in, in that the venue's possession of the phys

That supposes the academic venue would hand over a copy willingly I guess. That's where the Fair Use aspect comes in, in that the venue's possession of the physical copy / tapes doesn't constitute actual theft of property. The ex-NFL lawyer makes it sound like a slam-dunk on the 'NFL owns the property on the tapes' subject, but I'm not sure the NFL could compel the venue to hand over the property itself when no crime has been committed (and won't be due to the Fair Use exemption). I'm a big fan of copyright reform in several different aspects, which is why these are interesting cases. Rarely do they go to court though. So basically we all get to, ahem, 'armchair quarterback' the facts, laws, and interpretations in front of us!