The Appellate Division has issued an interesting opinion on whether OPRA requires release of Rutgers’ “All-22” videos of its football games. Caroff v. Rutgers. This type of video is used by professional and college football teams because it shows what all players did during a play. According to the court, the specific video requested from Rutgers is an “edited, compilation of digital video recordings” of a football game, with footage showing “a wide-angle sideline shot focused to include all twenty-two players on the field,” plus a second shot “focused to capture the line formation for each given play.”

The Appellate Division held that this video is exempt from disclosure under OPRA under three exemptions: proprietary information; disclosure that would give competitors an advantage; and exempt under federal law.

The court determined that the video is proprietary, based on Rutgers’ explanation that the coaching staff uses the video in evaluating and refining the team’s plays. In addition, the football program “obtain[s] scouting information on their opponents by providing access to their proprietary All-22 videos to their opponents in exchange for their opponents’ reciprocal grant of access to the opponents’ proprietary All-22 videos.”

The necessity of trading All-22 videos with opponents also means that the competitive disadvantage exemption is applicable. Making the videos public would destroy Rutgers’ ability to obtain their competitors’ videos. The court explained that if Rutgers’ videos were publicly accessible through OPRA, then other teams would simply obtain them that way, and would have no incentive to exchange videos with Rutgers.

The court also said that the video is exempted from disclosure under federal law, because it is a copyrightable work of Rutgers. This is a ruling of first impression–there is no case law dealing with the issue of whether a record that has been copyrighted may be withheld under OPRA. However, in addition to the opinion being unpublished, and therefore not precedential, it contains no analysis of the interplay between OPRA and copyright law. The court simply stated that the video fell within OPRA’s exemption for federal law confidentiality, due to its status as a copyrighted work.