Is It Legal For A UK Pub To Access A Greek Satellite System To Get Cheaper Football Games On TV?
from the we'll-soon-find-out dept
cc alerts us to a very interesting legal case in Europe that's now going before the European Court of Justice. It involves a UK pub, which thought the rates that satellite TV provider Sky Sports was offering for Premier League football were ridiculously high -- and instead went and got a satellite card from a Greek satellite TV provider who offered Premier League matches for about 1/10th the cost. The Premier League, who is notorious for over-aggressively trying to limit people from watching the games except through (expensive) approved methods sued. The pub is arguing that this is a restraint on basic free trade principles:"If I wanted to go and buy a car, I could go to any garage I like. Me, as a publican, if I want to show football, I can only go to the Sky garage, and have to pay ten times the price of anybody else [in Europe]. I don't believe that's fair."This could be a huge deal if she wins. Currently, in Europe, each country has entirely different licensing schemes and systems for all sorts of content, creating something of a mess at times. There's long been an effort underway to create pan-European licensing, and a ruling in favor of the pub owner here might take at least some aspects of the content market to a point where there's now a de facto open market across borders. Copyright holders will scream bloody murder if this happens, but they also screamed bloody murder when the VCR was introduced, so sometimes it's a bit difficult to take them seriously on such things.
Murphy's case rests on her freedom to trade, as she argues that restricting her choice of satellite TV provider to just Sky contravenes the principles of free movement of goods and services between countries in the EU.
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Filed Under: copyright, football, satellite
Companies: premier league
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OMG... you mean....
:-)
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Re: OMG... you mean....
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the pub owner is paying! It's not like he hacked into a satellite feed and he's getting the games for free.
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Don't have much hope for the pub owner
Copyright control is left to each EU member. Most likely the court will pass on the issue by saying this is not a matter of trade because no good or service is being sent across borders. Rather, it is a matter of copyright licensing.
Even so, one can always hope. I lived a year in England and SKY's rates were ridiculous. (Which is why I opted for equally, yet differently ridiculous Virgin cable.)
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Why is this a question?
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Competition
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Re:
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Wrong target
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Besides even if they loose what they will do is charge the same fee everywhere and kill the viewing of those things in places where people are not willing to pay, maybe that is a good thing as they loose exposure.
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There should be no fiefdoms carved out by "licensing".
...
(There. Got through that without saying that anyone watching sports, especially in a bar, is a dolt, and I don't care how much they pay for the privilege...)
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Disregard any parenthetical comments that seem to be mine.
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1st - there are probably some broadcast related taxes that are included in any UK satellite subscription that aren't included in the Greek subscription (i have not researched that so please correct me if im wrong)
2nd - I thought of customs, so one needs to check with the free trade agreement.
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Re:
AFAIK the only broadcast related tax is the BBC license fee - and I'm pretty sure that the pub will be paying that anyway.
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Down, peasants!
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Re: Down, peasants!
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please keep us updated
i believe same applies here. most likely the address provided by her when she subscribed was a Greek one instead of the UK otherwise she could not get the service most likely.
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looking forward to the result.
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Seems like they screwed themselves by allowing different prices and rates in different regions. Reason three hundred and fifty tow as to why you just don't make up different prices for different people.
Finally under what law are they being sued under? They paid for the service...? So it must be the hey you can only use that somewhere else law?
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Objecting to this is ridiculous
Hell, I don't even object to cracked satellite boxes. That's the cost of broadcasting a signal in a blanket over a continent. People are free to do what they wish in their own homes - even if that includes decoding your sat signals without your permission.
If it's broadcast to me, I can use it. Tough love.
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paul@sportssatellitesystems.co.uk
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