A few days ago the site has collapsed. I don't know the reasons behind, but the entire site stopped to exist after the break down. Sadly. I was a member there, and since it's members couldn't be anymore part of that community, they started to search for new forums, hence why a good number of former Soccerpulse members came here recently.
It was having financial problems for quite a while. That is before we discuss the legality of their videos.
From wikipedia: "In early October of 2009, news emerged that the website's hosts were charging (website creator Chris) Meisner excessive fees for various reasons, fees which he admitted were simply too much for him to continue operating the site any further. As a result, on October 6th, 2009, SoccerPulse closed its doors forever."
As a former admin of the site, I can confirm that financial reasons were what closed it down, unlike Big Soccer it wasn't backed up by a company or an online shop, nor did it have deals with the likes of Fox or the MLS so it was always running on a knife edge. The exact financial reasons are being kept private, as they should be but it was financial issues and nothing to do with the videos that closed it down. During my time adminning there, there were a few occasions when the likes of the FA got uppity about google ads advertising unlicensed tickets sales (strangely they didn't seem to grasp the idea that google was responsible for said ad content and not us but I digress) but it was never about the videos because ultimately they didn't have a leg to stand on and never persued it. Soccerpulse never hosted ANY of the videos, we merely provided forums where members linked videos and discussed them, much like the loophole that allows torrent sites to exist as they are merely indexing user generated content, if users wanted to post content for which they didn't have the rights to then that was their choice. If the rights holders wanted us to remove said content, then it was removed immediately, what SP was doing wasn't illegal and we never really had any serious issues with it during my time there. It's a shame the site closed, even though I havn't been a regular on there for about a year but times move on.
So there is no possibility christoval will ever re-open it like he did before when it crashed and whatnot?
Not as it stands, I think Chris has reached a point in his life when he wants to do something other than SP and not have it eat up every single spare moment of his life.
SoccerPulse is back A bunch of SP members have made a forum with identical features on www.SoccerPulse.org So far many cappers putting their videos there!
fwiw we offered many times to support them with ads or our shop, or our hosting, but they didn't want to talk to the "big bad guys"
Friend of a friend showed me this, and I felt I could shed some light on things. 1) SP was closed on the day it was closed, because I had 6 years of eye surgeries upcoming, which for 8 months left me blind. I didn't feel that was anyones business, but since i was not working, I could not pay my rent, and keep Soccerpulse alive. I trust anyone else would do the same in my spot. 2) Videos had nothing to do with anything. Some members posted video links and worked very hard to make SP popular around that base. It is wrong to take any credit for their work, or to suggest any wrong doing on their behalf. It was above board, and they were champs for their efforts. 3) Big soccer and I, a long time ago, did talk, and we did have our disagreements. I was naive and young, and very reactionary, but I also believe that Big soccer at one point, near 2009, offered $14,000 for the entire site. I believe at that point, they saw, rightly that I was naive and young and tried as anyone should and would to, to take advantage in a business deal. I personally hold nothing against this site, and used it as a rallying cry of sorts to amass support for a site i felt would be going somewhere, had it not meant an untimely end. Lastly, Its nice to see the welcome2018.com site looks amazingly like SP did. If only I had better design abilities back then. Given another chance, and the time, I might start another site, but the internet has changed alot and forums like this, and reading things longer than two paragraphs is not commonplace. I am also very busy with a deeply sport related company that ties into all pro sports, so I get my kicks there. I hope this clears things up, albeit, forever and a day late.
Was a great site Chris, best of luck. Many tried resurrecting former members at other sites (Tiki Taka at one point, I recall) but now former members can be spotted in random forums here & there Still think there is a big interest in forums like those, FWIW