Sky legal question

maccaz

Hi
I'm involved with my local golf club and we have sky package costing us £3700 per year, I phoned up to try and get a reduction but was told that there was no scope to give us a better deal!!

We are a small club so £300 a month is a lot of money, we have been approached about installing a dish that will receive foreign channels and a fraction of the cost.

My question is - Is it illegal to install one of those dishes that can receive football from foreign channels?

The secretary of the club doesn't, and won't do anything illegal, do you know where I can find out for sure, that if we have this installed that it is not illegal.

Thanks

PS if this the wrong board please move.

Heinz

If the channels are FTA, I can't see how there'll be a problem but Sky will get very tetchy about reception of foreign satellite subscription channels and (see HERE) have, in cahoots with the Premier League, had people prosecuted before now.

maccaz

Thanks Heinz
I was thinking about the landlady from Portsmouth who won her case against Sky earlier in the year. Do you think will this open the door a bit for the rest of us?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353341/Portsmouth-pub-lady-wins-fight-televise-UK-football-games-Greece.html

davemurgatroyd

maccaz wrote: »

Thanks Heinz
I was thinking about the landlady from Portsmouth who won her case against Sky earlier in the year. Do you think will this open the door a bit for the rest of us?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353341/Portsmouth-pub-lady-wins-fight-televise-UK-football-games-Greece.html

The case has not been won yet - we are still waiting for the final decision. There is also the point that the only foreign subscriptions available from dealers in this country are private subscriptions. No foreign broadcaster will sell commercial subscriptions yet and I personally am dubious that any will ever offer them. The whole issue of foreign subscriptions for use in this country is a very grey area but the use of private subscriptions in commercial premises is definitely illegal.

Heinz

davemurgatroyd wrote: »

The whole issue of foreign subscriptions for use in this country is a very grey area but the use of private subscriptions in commercial premises is definitely illegal.

Or is that the same as using a private Sky subscription in a commercial premise - a breach of contract (with the providing satellite company) but not criminally illegal?

moonrakerz

davemurgatroyd wrote: »

The whole issue of foreign subscriptions for use in this country is a very grey area but the use of private subscriptions in commercial premises is definitely illegal.

That is not correct. Even "hacking" the encrypted broadcasts of a "foreign" broadcaster is not illegal.
The only recourse the broadcaster has is to sue the individual, the police are not interested in this.

The case of the landlady in Portsmouth is over an entirely different aspect of this area.

davemurgatroyd

Heinz wrote: »

Or is that the same as using a private Sky subscription in a commercial premise - a breach of contract (with the providing satellite company) but not criminally illegal?

I believe you will also find it is a breach of copyright to display private subscriptions in commercial premises, regardless of country of origin of the broadcasts.

mr.brightside87

Wasn't there a case recently that had the verdict that it was fine?

I see lots of places doing it now. It was a woman that owned a pub who kept showing Portsmouth games on foreign stations.

davemurgatroyd

mr.brightside87 wrote: »

Wasn't there a case recently that had the verdict that it was fine?

I see lots of places doing it now. It was a woman that owned a pub who kept showing Portsmouth games on foreign stations.

That is the one we are still waiting for the European Courts decision - the Portsmouth landlady, Please do keep up.

maccaz

Thanks davemurgatroyd,
it looks like we'll have to wait for the out come of her case.

Pity tho', it would have been great, after a round of golf on a Saturday morning, to come in and have a few pints :beer: while watching a bit of footie