Premier League tops rankings for UK copyright suits
The Premier League filed the highest number of copyright-infringement claims at the UK High Court in the year from March 2018 to March 2019, according to new research.
According to a release from London-based law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, released today June 17, the Premier League filed 36 complaints with the court in the year.
Other frequent filers were music bodies, such as the Performing Rights Society, which made 25 claims in the time frame.
The firm said that many of these claims were brought against the owners of pubs, bars and restaurants, who are alleged to have shown football matches or played music without a licence.
It said that at times, the businesses had used internet-based illegal streaming platforms to avoid paying a subscription fee to official providers.
In January this year, three business owners were jailed for providing illegal streaming access to Premier League football matches to over 1,000 pubs, bars and homes in England and Wales.
Paul Joseph, a partner at RPC, said that while football authorities have made a “concerted public effort to let illegal streamers know that they are on their case”, they have also started to work with internet service providers to stop infringers.
“The internet created huge, almost existential, challenges to business models of owners of music, films and other content so it’s not surprising that rights owners and bodies that represent them do all they can to protect their businesses.”
One way in which rights holders are preventing people from viewing content illegally online is through “live blocking orders”.
In July 2017 the Premier League received a High Court order requiring internet service providers to use live blocking to shut down illegal streams of its matches. It has now obtained an extension to the High Court order for the 18/19 season.
Ben Mark, a partner at RPC, adds: “The responsibility of combating illegal streaming is changing hands. The onus increasingly lies with internet providers, who have been ordered to stop streams at their source.”
Mark said: “It could be that the success of the Premier League’s live blocking order opens the floodgates for other rights holders to use the same tactic.”
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