Airfield and the communication to the public right
Published on 16 Nov 2011 at 3:33 pm.
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Filed under Misc, Broadcasting, Digital rights, Copyright Licensing, Communication.
Author: Tony Ballard
In a judgment of remarkable simplicity of purpose and obscurity of expression, the Court of Justice has taken the next step forward in the delineation of the copyright concept of communication to the public.
In Airfield and anor v SABAM (Case C-431/09), 13 October 2011, and a parallel action involving Agicoa, the Court decided that satellite platform operators may need to seek separate authorisation from rightsholders to provide their customers with access to broadcast channels carried on their platform, on the basis that providing access in this way is a separate communication to the public. The main reason for the decision is that the platform operators’ customers are likely to be a “new” public, that is to say a public wider than that targeted by the original broadcaster and therefore a public that was not taken into account by the rightsholders when they granted rights to that broadcaster. (more…)
Published on 16 Nov 2011 at 3:33 pm.
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Filed under Misc.
“Appropriate” remuneration for copyright owners: an unexpected consequence of the pub football cases
Published on 12 Oct 2011 at 4:44 pm.
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Filed under Misc, Broadcasting, Internet, Geoblocking, Territorial Exclusivity.
Author: Tony Ballard
Copyright owners reading the judgment of the Court of Justice in FAPL v QC Leisure and Murphy v Media Protection Services can be forgiven for being startled by the Court having held that copyright owners are entitled only to reasonable remuneration for their rights. Does this foreshadow price regulation of royalties? (more…)
Copyright clearances and the internet
Published on 30 Aug 2011 at 2:19 pm.
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Filed under Misc, Copyright Licensing.
Author: Tony Ballard
A new dimension has been added to the vexed question of internet copyright clearances.
It had seemed that the internet was a domain in which the use of content would be regulated primarily by the (relatively) new communication to the public right, unlike traditional forms of exploitation such as book publishing and even film distribution which are regulated primarily by the reproduction right. This development seemed entirely appropriate in the new world of networked distribution, even though some fundamental issues remain to be worked out, not least of which is the question where the act of communication takes place, which has been referred to the Court of Justice in Football Dataco v Sportradar.
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Goods and services in the digital domain
Published on 17 May 2011 at 3:31 pm.
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Filed under Digital Britain, Digital rights.
Author: Tony Ballard
Is the supply of digital content a supply of goods or of services? Until recently, few would have had any difficulty in giving an unqualified answer to this question. Recent developments, however, suggest that the position may be changing.
The distinction between goods and services underlies a good deal of current law and regulation. In IP law, for example, the exhaustion of rights principle and the prohibition on parallel imports applies to goods but not to services. In consumer law, the consumer’s rights differ according to whether the consumer is buying goods or services. (more…)
Geoblocking: a hardcore restriction or objectively justifiable?
Published on 6 Apr 2011 at 4:23 pm.
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Filed under Misc, Broadcasting, Internet, Digital rights, Geoblocking.
Author: Tony Ballard
Addicts of overseas soap operas who live in the UK will be familiar with the difficulties in getting internet access to the latest episodes. They may be available on a site in the country of origin, such as France or the US, but access is often blocked. This is because the overseas website, when receiving a request for the episode from a UK computer, will look up the computer’s IP (Internet Protocol) address in publicly available tables and, finding it among the addresses allocated to an ISP located in or serving the UK, will decline the request. The blocking can be circumvented via proxy sites or other technical measures but in general the underlying geolocation software limits access to users who are located in the appropriate territory or region. (more…)
Public service broadcasting: Net neutrality and the “must carry” rules
Published on 6 Apr 2011 at 4:21 pm.
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Filed under Misc.
Author: Tony Ballard
Once upon a time the BBC owned its own transmission network. Under Government pressure, it sold the network and now buys from the new owners (or rather their successors) the transmission services it needs to deliver its broadcast output to viewers. Now, however, its output is also available on the public internet, which consists of networks over which it has no control. How then can it achieve universal availability and high technical standards for its online viewers? How can it at least be sure that its content will be treated equally with all other internet traffic? These were questions posed by Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, at the Oxford Media Convention this week, emphasising that the net neutrality debate is a real one. (more…)
Public service broadcasting: Net neutrality and the “must carry” rules
Published on 21 Jan 2011 at 3:20 pm.
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Filed under Misc, Broadcasting, Internet, Broadband, Net Neutrality.
Author: Tony Ballard
Once upon a time the BBC owned its own transmission network. Under Government pressure, it sold the network and now buys from the new owners (or rather their successors) the transmission services it needs to deliver its broadcast output to viewers. Now, however, its output is also available on the public internet, which consists of networks over which it has no control. How then can it achieve universal availability and high technical standards for its online viewers? How can it at least be sure that its content will be treated equally with all other internet traffic? These were questions posed by Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, at the Oxford Media Convention this week, emphasising that the net neutrality debate is a real one. (more…)
Is online retransmission of a broadcast an infringement of copyright?
Published on 7 Dec 2010 at 4:27 pm.
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Filed under Misc, Broadcasting, Internet, Copyright Infringement.
Author: Tony Ballard
It is a remarkable feature of our UK copyright law that no-one yet knows for sure whether broadcasters are entitled to prevent the retransmission of their broadcasts over the internet.
More than ten years ago, iCrave TV launched a Canadian website which streamed US and Canadian TV stations to audiences in the US and Canada. It crumbled under the weight of litigation launched by outraged broadcasters even before the matter reached the courts, which was perhaps fortunate for the broadcasters since, as a matter of law, it was not apparent how its activities infringed.
Super Wi-Fi – a new market beckons
Published on 10 Nov 2010 at 6:03 pm.
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Filed under Misc, Wi-Fi, Super Wi-Fi, White Space.
Author: Tony Ballard
Ofcom is opening the way to Super Wi-Fi, which will mean that low power devices will be able to transmit high bandwidth signals over much greater distances than current Wi-Fi routers. Who, though, will pay for the geolocation databases that are necessary to support it? We suggest that that the BBC might kickstart what appears to be a very promising market.
In September, the FCC announced that it would free up vacant TV airwaves for “super Wi-Fi” technologies. Ofcom has now followed suit with its announcement on 9 November of its final consultation on the UK equivalent, with proposals for the technical and legal arrangements that will enable anyone to use the vacant spectrum or “white spaces” in the UK digital television bands without a wireless telegraphy licence. (more…)