Would you get mad about this?
Tim McGraw was in Cincinnati last week for a concert at Riverbend Music Center, where he went viral after taking a tumble on stage.
While performing his 1996 hit “I Like It, I Love It,” Tim stepped up on what appears to be a speaker in front of the stage. It looks like his boot got caught in a hole in the speaker, and Tim fell backwards onto the stage.
Luckily Tim bounced back up pretty quickly, laughing it off and joking about the situation:
“There’s a hole there.”
Well obviously video of the fall quickly began making its rounds, with Tim (or probably more accurately, his team) even posting the video to his own social media:
@timmcgraw Cincinnati, you started our weekend off on the right foot even if I couldn’t stay on mine 😂 We appreciate you coming out and singing along! Detroit, you’re up!
(The top comment on the video is “TIMber,” which is great and deserves to be appreciated).
Apparently though, the concertgoer who took the original video isn’t happy about Tim using her video without credit.
Sheena Wethington posted one of the most viral videos of the incident, which has racked up over 360k views so far and been picked up by media outlets like Fox News and Page Six. The video appears to have since been licensed to Storyful, a platform where users can submit and monetize their videos and publishers can buy licenses to use viral videos. But apparently, Tim’s team didn’t reach out to the creator before using her video:
“Tim McGraw stole my video. Well, maybe not him specifically, but someone in his team.”
According to Wethington, she first became aware of Tim’s accounts using her video while scrolling social media:
“Other people have reposted it but gave me credit for reposting or asked me if they could repost. So I’m scrolling on social media on Friday night and I see that Tim McGraw posted, and I’m like, that video looks very familiar.
And also the sound on that video was also the same sound, the popular sound that I used.”
The sound she’s referring to is the freeze frame “Yep, that’s me, you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation” that’s frequently used on viral videos, which Wethington used on her original video. And apparently McGraw’s team edited her video – using the same sound – before posting it to his social media:
“So they took my video, re-edited it, and then did the same exact sound that I used, stole my idea, and then reposted it on Tim McGraw’s page.
Never did they ask if they could use the video. Never did they credit me.”
Wethington admits that she’s “mad” about his team using her video, while asking her followers if she’s justified to be upset:
“Is this something I should be mad about, or is it just the nature of the beast on posting on social media?
Let me know if I shouldn’t be mad about this, cause I kind of am.”
@mrssheenaw Would you be mad too? @Tim McGraw #timmcgraw #concertvideo
Well she quickly got her answer in the comments, as most of the responses were from folks claiming they wouldn’t be upset about an artist reposting a video of themselves:
“Would I be mad? No, I would be bragging.”
“So you want money. So does everyone else.”
“You posted it on social media as you stated. Everything’s fair game. It’s unfair, but it’s fair game. Also it’s Tim McGraw. If it’s him he can post himself.”
So what do you think? Is she justified, or is that just what happens when you post – and tag – a video of an artist? Would you be upset? Let’s hear it.
