UK publican Karen Murphy today won a High Court appeal against a prosecution brought by English football’s Premier League for showing league football matches in her pub using a Greek satellite service rather than a service provided by the UK rights-holder, the pay-television operator BSkyB.
The victory brings to an end a six-year ordeal for Murphy but does not confer upon her, or other publicans, the right to broadcast Premier League matches in her pub using foreign pay-television services.
Murphy was fined £8,000 (€9,520/$12,700) by Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court in January 2007 after being convicted of fraudulent reception of transmission. She took her appeal to the High Court of England and Wales which referred the matter to the European Court of Justice in July 2008. Last October, the ECJ ruled that Murphy, as an EU citizen, should be free to acquire a pay-television service from any EU member state. The free movement of goods and services is a founding principle of the European Union. Like many UK publicans, Murphy had been paying for a foreign service because it was far cheaper than that provided by BSkyB.
However, the ECJ and the High Court have both acknowledged that the Premier League has a claim to own copyright in some elements of its match broadcasts, including logos, commercial marks, the Premier League anthem and, possibly, action replays. Programming with these copyrighted elements cannot be broadcast without the permission of the league.
The league announced earlier this month that it would continue legal action against UK pubs which broadcast Premier League matches from unauthorised services.