Obsessive cricket fan wins copyright stoush with Cricket Australia

Aaron Finch...helped lead the fightback on behalf of cricket fans Photo / Photosport

Cricket tragic Rob Moody is the little guy who fought back, with some help from friends in powerful places.

Moody, from Melbourne, is an obsessive recorder of cricket and has uploaded more than 2000 clips over the past 11 years winning him a legion of followers who love to celebrate the game.

The trouble is, most of the footage belongs to Cricket Australia, and Moody's Twitter account was locked this week after a copyright enforcement company stepped in.

"This was a crap start to the day…I'll keep my footage to myself in the future, unfortunately," groaned Moody, who has nearly 40,000 followers, after getting the news.

Moody scoffed at the idea he could take so many videos down after the Bangalore-based Copyright Integrity International – acting for Cricket Australia – had issued the takedown notice.

Unhappy fans unloaded against the order on Moody's Twitter and YouTube accounts. Australia's T20 captain Aaron Finch was among those to express astonishment at the decision, saying he loved Moody's work.

And former international Tom Moody tweeted: "Ridiculous…so short sighted. Rob has done a wonderful job in celebrating our game and keeping our memories alive."

Even Cricket Australia chairman Earl Eddings declared himself a Moody fan, and was unaware of the copyright drama.

CA released a statement saying the copyright claims had been made in error.

"The videos should be back up and running soon. We've got no plans to shut down Rob's old gold and will follow up on the processes around this," CA said.

Moody is believed to have footage of almost every match played in Australia for over 30 years.

Operating as Robelinda2, his clips have notched up millions of views. He has transferred material from old VHS tapes on to thousands of CDs.