By Mark Baber
July 17 – The Premier League, supported by UEFA and other sports organisations, secured a landmark judgment in the High Court on Tuesday requiring the six main UK-based Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to live streaming site First Row Sports.
The judgment requires the six main UK-based ISPs – BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk, Be and O2 – to block access to First Row Sports. This is the first time that an order has been granted against a website that facilitates access to other streaming sites, with Mr Justice Arnold ruling that, by indexing and providing access to third party sites through a pop-up, First Row Sports was acting jointly with third party streaming services to communicate to the public live footage of Premier League matches in breach of the Premier League’s copyright.
According to Justice Arnold: “FirstRow aggregates together a large number of streams from a variety of streamers, indexes them for the convenience of the user and provides a simple link for the user to click on in order to access a specific stream. It is true that the technical effect of clicking on the link is to direct the stream from the user-generated content site to the user’s computer, but even so the stream is presented in a frame provided by FirstRow. In all the circumstances, I consider that FirstRow is responsible for the communication.”
A Premier League spokesman said: “We are extremely pleased that the order blocking this website has been granted and we will be enforcing it, in conjunction with the ISPs, ahead of the 2013/14 Barclays Premier League season.
“It is absolutely imperative that content industries are afforded protection under the law if they are to continue investing in the sort of quality talent and facilities that has made them successful and of interest in the first place.
“The judgment recognises the parasitic nature of the enterprise; this was an out and out commercial operation with estimated revenues of up to £10 million a year, whilst giving nothing back to the sport.
“The content industries are playing an increasingly significant role in the UK economy, so it is pleasing to see that the courts recognise this and prevent continued abuses of copyright.”
The practice of pubs to use First Row Sports to screen Premier League matches in their premises looks likely to come to an end as Justice Arnold ruled any publicans using First Row Sports are communicating copyright works to the public, which would put them in breach of Section 20 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A Premier League spokesman said: “Publicans should know that the only broadcasters entitled to show live Premier League matches in the UK as of the coming season are BSkyB and BT Vision.
“Mr Justice Arnold’s comments serve to add further clarity to this point.
“The Premier League will be significantly upping its enforcement activity in this area in the coming months, so any publican who is being offered a service that is not either BSkyB or BT Vision should be aware that these are illegal and they open themselves up to the possibility of prosecution.”
FirstRow is disappointed by the outcome but sees the blocking order as meaningless, since the public have many options to circumvent it. The site denied that the site was making between £5,360,680 and £9,505,564 in annual revenue, as estimated by the Premier League’s expert witness Dr David Price, claiming the true figure was around £6,000 a month, with £4,000 spent on server costs.
The judge himself recognises the measures are unlikely to be 100% effective but says: “The orders are narrow and targeted ones, and they contain safeguards in the event of any change of circumstances. While they are unlikely to be completely efficacious, since some users will be able to circumvent the technical measures which the orders require the Defendants to adopt, it is likely that they will be reasonably effective.”
The ruling comes ahead of the new season as BSkyB and BT pay record amounts for broadcast rights.
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