For me, I think that filming teams during actual games is fine and should be allowed. I am not necessarily keen on setting a precedent that teams can request their games to not be filmed. There is a lot we can learn about how ultimate can be played by watching games and game film also helps promote the sport. I do also think that a team should be allowed to film an opponent’s games for scouting.
I also believe, however, that teams are allowed to request their practices or warm-up sessions not be filmed, and the only filming should be of games. I would go even further as to say filming practices or training of other teams shouldn’t be allowed. Filming of practices could lead to these teams being at a competitive disadvantage especially if these videos are posted online. I do also think that filming youth also requires slightly different rules and maybe more discussion as far as consent to film.
As far as the other conversation about who should be allowed to film, I think this is a very interesting question. Technically, most professional sporting competitions require photographers to get credentials to film part (not all) of the games), and the general expectation is the photographers will film some but not all of the game so people will then want to view the full games later. Right now, I don’t think there are those restrictions on anyone from filming ultimate.
I think it also comes down to the value of the game film (beyond of course scouting). I believe ultiworld allows people to pay subscriptions to view full ultimate games on a streaming platform, but would people be willing to pay for this if they could find extended highlights of the same game (for free) on Youtube? The other thing is whether should teams get compensated for this as without them, there would be no game to even film.
It would be interesting to know which teams have the resources to film their games and who should own the rights especially if ultimate becomes popular and people are more willing to pay to view these games online.
Interesting topic!