Satellite soccer - sort it out

Some people believe in UFOs. Some believe that miracles really do happen. And some believe that you can show football from a foreign satellite station without breaking the law.

Many licensees are encouraged in this mysterious belief by a number of things: the thousands of other licensees taking foreign transmissions; the blind eye turned by big managed chains and some family brewers to their licensees' screenings; the lax policing policy adopted by the authorities, which means they're unlikely to be caught; the failure of courts to prosecute successfully on every occasion when legal action is taken; the suggestion that this means there is a legal loophole which no self-respecting businessmen would failt to exploit; the persuasive sales patter of the foreign satellite salesmen; and a general sense that Sky is so unaffordable and arrogant that it entitles them to find a cheaper option.

This is a heady combination, and it's little wonder that so many licensees are cutting out Sky and taking the cheap option. Legally, you may just be right, is the general feeling. On balance, the risk of a hefty fine seems well worth the gamble.

What's harder to understand is why the Football Association, which owns the rights to football broadcasting, and Sky itself aren't doing more to support the licensees who are doing the right thing and paying lots of hard-earned cash to screen these games. It must be incredibly galling for the legit operators to fork out thousands for their Sky packages only to see rivals blatantly advertising foreign transmissions and closed-period screenings of live Saturday-afternoon football.

The failure of these two organisations to clear up decisively any misunderstandings about the legality of foreign transmissions is very damaging. It only encourages licensees to believe that there is indeed a legal loophole that modern technology is capable of exploiting, which wasn't conceived of when the 1988 Copyright Act was passed. And every failure to win a court battle strengthens that feeling.

As the MA has pointed out before, just because a driver gets off a drink-driving case on a technicality does not mean you can drink-drive.

So it is with foreign transmissions. And there have been so many successful prosecutions of licensees over the past decade or more that it's extraordinary such confusion - if that's what it is, rather than brazen bravado - still remains.

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