EU foreign satellite judgment due in Spring.

[sob1467]

I got this from "Morning Advisor"
"EU foreign satellite judgment due in spring
By Gemma McKenna
14/07/2010 15:10

European courts are set to make a judgment on a landmark foreign satellite case in the spring of 2011.


Morning Advertiser understands that once licensee Karen Murphy?s appeal at the European Court of Justice is heard on 5 October, it will take until the spring for the judge to make his decision on how EU law should be implemented.

Murphy, of the Red, White & Blue in Portsmouth, was appealing against her conviction for screening Premiership football via Greek channel Nova Supersport. She first took up the case in June 2006.

Since there have already been fairly lengthy written arguments presented to the European Court from both sides, the actual hearing on 5 October should last no longer than a few hours, according to general procedures.

From there, it will take a couple of months for an advocate general to return an independent opinion to the court, and the judge will consider this recommendation before returning his own judgment three to six months later.

The judgment will take the form of answers to the questions posed by the High Court in England, about how EU law should be interpreted in this case.

It is then up to the High Court to apply the law, as defined by the EU, to Murphy?s case, and reach its own conclusion. "

[alec]

There will probably use Murphy?s law.

[chalky 4]

SmartAlec

[sob1467]

The verdict of this case has been delayed again. Until next month.

The Publican - Home - Murphy ECJ footy verdict delayed

[Schnuffi]

Sorry I am not familiar with this are they judging on weather people can receive transmitions from other countries.
For example I live in Germany can I then receive say sky UK
if they judge in favor. Sorry if I am not clear.

[batman44]

Sorry I am not familiar with this are they judging on weather people can receive transmitions from other countries.
For example I live in Germany can I then receive say sky UK
if they judge in favor. Sorry if I am not clear.

Its not a crime to receive transmissions from other sats but it depends on what you use for decryption, this is what the case is about -is it ilegal to buy a card from a european provider say Nova, legally and watch broadcasts from another country via Nova, me thinks yes! as they paid for the right to broadcast, Sky say No and spat its dummy out so the courts have already said to Sky that there are open borders in the EU for trade including cards from all providers given the chance SKY would sell to the EU this is called fair trade and Sky cannot obstruct this. The time is here when we all can buy a card to watch any match on a saturday. What will Sky do? multiple sport channels like Sky germany/Sky Italy I hope.

[dctyper]

its not illigal to do the above but it is against the t&c of the provider. its the premiere league that is causing the issue

[batman44]

Avocate general has advised judges that no broadcaster can block the sale of foreign cards in the EU no matter what country. Big blow for S*Y ecellent news for the punter as we may now get 3pm football on sky and shop around for the cards at the cheapest price. Sk* will sell this as well to any EU country if the judges rule the same. Wonder how much Murdoch will pay them me thinks?

THE FULL JUDGEMENT:

With regard to possible justification for the restriction of the freedom to provide services, the Advocate General examines the protection of industrial and commercial property and, in particular, addresses the question whether live satellite transmissions of football matches involve rights the specific subject-matter of which requires a partitioning of the internal market. In this connection she first states that the specific subject-matter of the rights in live football transmissions lies in their commercial exploitation. In the present cases, the live transmission of Premier League football matches is exploited, in particular, through the charge imposed for the decoder cards. Advocate General Kokott takes the view in this connection that the economic exploitation of the rights in question is not undermined by the use of foreign decoder cards, as the corresponding charges have been paid for those cards. Whilst those charges are not as high as the charges imposed in the United Kingdom, there is, according to the Advocate General, no specific right to charge different prices for a work in each Member State. Rather, it forms part of the logic of the internal market that price differences between different Member States should be offset by trade. The marketing of broadcasting rights on the basis of territorial exclusivity is tantamount to profiting from the elimination of the internal market. Consequently, the specific subject-matter of the rights in the transmission of football matches does not justify a partitioning of the internal market, and thus also does not justify the resulting restriction of the freedom to provide services.
Advocate General Kokott further takes the view that the contractual restriction on using decoder cards in the State of origin only for domestic or private use, but not for commercial use ***8211; for which a higher subscription charge is payable ***8211; also cannot justify a territorial restriction of the freedom to provide services. The Member State concerned may, however, in principle make provision for rights which allow authors to object to the communication of their works in pubs.
So far as concerns the question whether the showing of live transmissions of football matches in pubs infringes the exclusive right of communication to the public of protected works within the terms of the Copyright in the Information Society Directive1, the Advocate General explains that, as EU law stands at present, there are no comprehensive rights which protect the communication of a broadcast to the public where no entrance fee is charged.
Advocate General Kokott further expresses the view that the application of the principle of the freedom to provide services is also in line with the Satellite and Cable Directive2 and with European competition law. Equally, neither does the Conditional Access Directive3 constitute a barrier to the use of foreign decoder cards.