Put your phone away!
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A Dundonian publican has been found by the Court of Session to have infringed Sky TV’s copyright when he allowed punters to stream live football matches on their laptops and mobiles from their Sky Go apps whilst in his pub.
Many of us are familiar with the small pint glass that is shown on pub TVs broadcasting Sky Sports, signifying that the pub has paid for the more expensive commercial subscription package, allowing many customers to watch Sky TV’s copyright material within the single pub.
However, this case highlighted a more modern copyright issue faced by Sky TV in an era where we all have the capability to stream sports live from our mobile phones.
The legal argument from Sky TV was that because the copyrighted Sky material could be viewed by anybody who wandered into the pub, the publican was said to have been communicating the copyrighted material to the public. It did not matter whether or not that communication was made via the pub’s own TV. It is enough that the publican had allowed customers to stream the copyrighted materials inside the pub to a wider audience, albeit on their own devices.
In this particular case, no damages were awarded to Sky TV and instead the publican was ordered to pay part of Sky TV’s legal costs. It would appear that Sky TV’s impetus in raising this court action was to reaffirm the key provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and to remind publicans that this extends itself to capture modern streaming methods. The pub in question, the Troll Inn, with its – you guessed it – troll-themed décor will likely in future be hesitant to allow customers to stream the football on their phones or laptops, and indeed publicans across the country should be heeding the same warning.
Copyright (and wider intellectual property) is a developing area of law in response to the proliferation of social media and streaming in our day-to-day lives. For owners of intellectual property, it is important to properly protect and exploit your intellectual property. For users of such intellectual property, it is crucial to understand how exactly it can be used without risk of infringement.
Holmes Mackillop regularly advise on such intellectual property matters. Please contact any of our Ralph Riddiough, Finlay Swan or Rachel Loose for further information.