Premiership Wants Clamp Down on Copyright Law - 30/09/2007

The Premiership wants a shake-up of copyright law amid concerns that the government needs to do more to protect the increasingly valuable media rights that football's top flight is attracting. For example, internet and mobile phone rights have been sold for £400m over the next three seasons. However, the Premiership could be victims of their own success. Premiership supremo Richard Scudamore fears the increasing value of the rights will lead to more cases of copyright infringement and does not believe the law is robust enough to defeat piracy. He is also concerned about the status of news clips of Premiership action. If news agencies were able to successfully argue that such content should be provided for free, the league's commercial basis would be damaged. Scudamore complained to the Financial Times, 'You're there selling your rights through the front door and someone's coming in through the back door, stealing all your pictures, images, putting it all round the world in a form that's easily accesible.'

Some fans might argue that that was no bad thing. Copyright law has always been a legal minefield. It was difficult enough when one was dealing just with print media or even television, but the law does not really take account of new forms of piracy such as internet streaming. The Premiership has marshalled sports bodies and music publishers behind a class action lawsuit against YouTube and Google. But Mr Scudamore believes that intellectual property law is largely untested, that the media rights regime is complex, and that proving that suspected pirates were 'knowingly dishonest' is problematic. Even if one can get the legal formula right, enforcement has always been a problem in relation to copyright law. Enforcement authorities often have bigger fish to fry. Although trading standards officers are empowered to investigate and prosecute copyright theft, the Premiership do not believe they, the police of Revenue and Customs are exercised about it. Some might see this as another example of Premiership 'greed'; others would say that in a market economy a commercial enterprise has the right to exploit and protect its intellectual property.