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Pub landlady Karen Murphy wins TV football court case

NaijaSpurs

NaijaSpurs

Les Ferdinand
A pub landlady has won her court fight with the English Premier League over using a Greek TV decoder to screen games.

Karen Murphy has paid nearly ?ú8,000 in fines and costs for using the cheaper decoder in her Portsmouth pub to bypass controls over match screening.

But she took her case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

It found partly in her favour, and now the High Court in London has also found in her favour.

The case has been closely watched as it could trigger a major shake-up in the way football TV rights are sold, and potentially pave the way to cheaper viewing of foreign broadcasts for fans of top-flight English games.

Ms Murphy has spent six years fighting a prosecution for showing live football at the Red White and Blue pub without a Sky subscription.

The High Court in London on Friday ruled that Karen Murphy's appeal over using the decoder to bypass controls over match screening must be allowed.

But a judge made clear that many other complex issues regarding the wider legality of screening matches would have to be decided "at a later date".

The High Court had originally sent the case to the European courts for advice on numerous points of law.

The ECJ said last autumn that national laws that prohibit the import, sale or use of foreign decoder cards were contrary to the freedom to provide services.

The European judges also said the Premier League could not claim copyright over Premier League matches as they could not be considered to be an author's own "intellectual creation" and, therefore, to be "works" for the purposes of EU copyright law.

But it did offer some comfort for the Premier League, which receives vast sums through its exclusive broadcasting deals with Sky and ESPN.

The European court said that while live matches were not protected by copyright, any surrounding media, such as any opening video sequence, the Premier League anthem, pre-recorded films showing highlights of recent Premier League matches and various graphics, were "works" protected by copyright.

To use any of these extra parts associated for a broadcast, a pub would need the permission of the Premier League.
 
Isn't this pretty much the same as the last decision?

She can show the games as long as the greek channel doesn't show any of the Sky logos. Sky will simply make it part of their contracts with the overseas customers that the Sky logo is shown at all times.
 
scaramanga said:
Isn't this pretty much the same as the last decision?

She can show the games as long as the greek channel doesn't show any of the Sky logos. Sky will simply make it part of their contracts with the overseas customers that the Sky logo is shown at all times.
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Yes, but then the pub could just put a black square over any sky logo.
 
scaramanga said:
Isn't this pretty much the same as the last decision?

She can show the games as long as the greek channel doesn't show any of the Sky logos. Sky will simply make it part of their contracts with the overseas customers that the Sky logo is shown at all times.
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Is it about Sky? More about the Premier League, surely?
 
Richie said:
Yes, but then the pub could just put a black square over any sky logo.
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They would then have to turn it off at half time, turn it off during replays, build ups to the game etc. any time a sky logo is shown. I wouldnt sit in a pub watching a game if that had to happen. As much as I hate Sky, I'd so like them to get one up on that bitch.
 
Wriggly said:
They would then have to turn it off at half time, turn it off during replays, build ups to the game etc. any time a sky logo is shown. I wouldnt sit in a pub watching a game if that had to happen. As much as I hate Sky, I'd so like them to get one up on that bitch.
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Why would you want Sky to get one up on her, she's fighting for the right to put on any game rather than just the one that Sky deems to be the one people want to watch and making it affordable at the same time. Sky charge huge fees for a pub license, it's a tinkle take and I'm glad she's standing up to them.

on a technological point, it would be fairly easy to provide a service from somewhere in europe that shows all the games with a couple of minutes delay to allow time to cover up any sky copyrighted material and if I had a pub I'd sign up to that in a heart beat.
 
Read something last night about the PL considering not selling Saturday 3pm to foreign broadcasters. That would mean no more rivers.

The people in charge of the PL are so stuck in the past, it's ridiculous. There is a HUGE market out there for PPV. Why don't set up their own streaming service? Money would be flooding in.

The possibility to watch a match at home or even in the pub has little impact on attendances compared to factors such as entertaining football and ticket prices.
 
Surely all that will happen is the EPL will charge those that sell to overseas customers exorbiante prices.

So instead of getting it from the pub they will get it from the tv companies willing to sell a product that not theres overseas, in return to get there money they will end up charging the pub what sky wanted all along... either large amounts of dosh or not showing it at all.
 
Jordinho said:
Read something last night about the PL considering not selling Saturday 3pm to foreign broadcasters. That would mean no more rivers.

The people in charge of the PL are so stuck in the past, it's ridiculous. There is a HUGE market out there for PPV. Why don't set up their own streaming service? Money would be flooding in.

The possibility to watch a match at home or even in the pub has little impact on attendances compared to factors such as entertaining football and ticket prices.
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It would mean moving to a US model, unless the game is sold to a number of spectators there would be a black out of that game.

The problem arises when you would need a deal in place where every club still takes there 3% and not a situation as raised by Liverpool at the start of the season where they wanted to be rewarded in line to how many fans worldwide would be watching Liverpool and not the same ?ú?ú?ú as Wigan for what fans worldwide they would bring, this would be very vital IMO
 
Jordinho said:
Read something last night about the PL considering not selling Saturday 3pm to foreign broadcasters. That would mean no more rivers.

The people in charge of the PL are so stuck in the past, it's ridiculous. There is a HUGE market out there for PPV. Why don't set up their own streaming service? Money would be flooding in.

The possibility to watch a match at home or even in the pub has little impact on attendances compared to factors such as entertaining football and ticket prices.
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The problem is, and always has been, that if the premier league goes PPV then it will have a big implication on attendances in the lower leagues. Why go to a league 1 or 2 match when you can stay in front of the tv and watch the premier league.
 
Wriggly said:
They would then have to turn it off at half time, turn it off during replays, build ups to the game etc. any time a sky logo is shown. I wouldnt sit in a pub watching a game if that had to happen. As much as I hate Sky, I'd so like them to get one up on that bitch.
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Look at most rivers, there is rarely any build up or half time show anyway. The halftime is just a loop of the stats of the game.

Remember this has nothing to do with Sky, it isn't the sky logos she would need to black out, its the premier league logos. Sky, by and large, don't sell their coverage overseas. Almost all streams from a foreign country are premier league coverage, hence often having different commentators to the coverage shown on Sky for the same game.
 
Jordinho said:
Read something last night about the PL considering not selling Saturday 3pm to foreign broadcasters. That would mean no more rivers.

The people in charge of the PL are so stuck in the past, it's ridiculous. There is a HUGE market out there for PPV. Why don't set up their own streaming service? Money would be flooding in.

The possibility to watch a match at home or even in the pub has little impact on attendances compared to factors such as entertaining football and ticket prices.
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Nothing to do with the market out there. Its the law that they can't show 3pm games, would need to go through the MPs and would likely get shot down as it would cripple lower league football
 
The PL need to tread extremely carefully down their next path. After all, them and Sky have, by a mixture of luck and design, kittend themselves in order to become "the greatest in the world". Despite the more jingoistic pundits and redtops thinking the universality of the English language plus oil and tv money in football equates to England being a sporting master race, they would be surprised at how quickly events could unfold to change all that.

It is a precarious situation for them, and with German football looking very healthy in almost all aspects, the whims of the ego billionaires and the Chinese viewer are anything but concrete.
 
Leeds Spur said:
Let the clubs sell individual rights.

Good for Spurs
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why would it be good for spurs?

Yes we may get more revnue widening the gap between ourselves and bolton / villa etc. but how many more subscriptions will Man U / Liverpool / Arsenal / Chelsea sell than us?

We may have more money nominally than we do now, but compared to these 4 will the gap widen - think so.
 
r-u-s-x said:
why would it be good for spurs?

Yes we may get more revnue widening the gap between ourselves and bolton / villa etc. but how many more subscriptions will Man U / Liverpool / Arsenal / Chelsea sell than us?

We may have more money nominally than we do now, but compared to these 4 will the gap widen - think so.
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Exactly.

Bad for Spurs.

Even worse for English football as a whole.
 
I hope this is a step towards the end of the ridiculous rule that Saturday 3pm matches can't be shown.
 
r-u-s-x said:
why would it be good for spurs?

Yes we may get more revnue widening the gap between ourselves and bolton / villa etc. but how many more subscriptions will Man U / Liverpool / Arsenal / Chelsea sell than us?

We may have more money nominally than we do now, but compared to these 4 will the gap widen - think so.
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Good point, and you would be surprised how much a few signings from strategic nations could affect the monies available (S Korea, China etc), illustrating further the perhaps unhealthy nature of this financial crutch.

It may not be a realistic option, but I am a big admirer of how American sports keep things interesting with the draft system.
 
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