The Periscope Problem Continues

Three weeks ago, I predicted that content providers would have problems with people using Periscope and Meerkat to share live events, movie previews, and premium-TV broadcasts with others who hadn't paid for the privilege. One of the first big companies to have a problem with this was HBO, whose "Game Of Thrones" premiere was being watched online by lots of non-subscribers.

Now, we have a report of dozens of people at the Mayweather-Pacquio boxing match pointing their smartphones at the ring and sharing the action with Periscope users around the world. The company, a division of Twitter, says it tried to take down any copyright-violating streams, but this is only going to become more widespread. After all, if YouTube can't keep that kind of stuff off of its massive service, no one can.

Cue the lawyers.