Sky 'alternatives' are not legal
I make no apologies for returning to the subject of pub screenings of Premiership football and the like, because my postbag is still full of enquiries about alternatives to Sky.
The fact that licensees find the charges on the high side is, of course, a separate issue from the copyright one, but it does mean that a number of readers are looking at less expensive alternatives. And they tend to want to believe the salesman when he says that it is all perfectly legal.
This is the blind leading the blind. The salesman is not a global copyright lawyer and he wants to sell you the decoder. He isn't going to say that what you are planning to do is illegal, and he has a perfect sales pitch that is full of plausible reasons why Turkish or Albanian-routed signals are outside the control of the UK agencies or Sky!
It's completely untrue. Sooner or later someone is going to come knocking with a summons, and your protestations that the 'man told you it was OK are not going to wash with the court.
There is also a common theory that, for technical reasons, Sky is not actually prosecuting anyone, so you will get away with it for at least a season. That is not what I hear and, again, when the summons comes in it is not going to do you much good.
Copyright is a universal protection, so there is no benefit in running screenings 'in private or forming a Saturday afternoon club. In fact, even members' social clubs are covered by copyright laws, and they have to pay PRS and PPL as well as Sky for that very reason.
There are no exemptions, because copyright exists in the material that is beamed down to you, rather than the equipment that you use. So the clever sales pitch, which tries to convince you that certain countries are 'outside the European Copy-right Convention, or that 'Copyright has already been paid in the country of origin are just a load of hot air.
I would also remind you once again that even Sky cannot show live Premiership matches during the closed period on Saturday afternoons, and this applies in most European countries as well. That is a separate UEFA rule to protect the turnstiles, and it means that another sales pitch from the man with the decoder bites the dust!
