This case concerned the distribution and use of Greek satellite decoders in the UK and exclusive territorial licences granted by the FA Premier League (FAPL) of the rights to broadcast Premier League matches.
The ECJ answered specific questions referred to it by the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Chancery Division (The High Court).
Copyright law
The ECJ ruled that copyright law will apply to even transient fragments of a work within the memory of a satellite decoder and on a television screen where those fragments contain elements which are the expression of the authors’ own intellectual creation.
Sporting events, including football matches, cannot be regarded as intellectual creations in terms of copyright law as they are subject to rules of the game, leaving no room for creative freedom for the purposes of copyright.
In the particular case Ms Murphy did not breach any rights by receiving the transmission of the football match via a Greek decoder. However by playing/showing the football match (which contained elements that were the copyright of FAPL such as graphics and pre-recorded highlights) on a pub TV this was considered to be communication of the copyright work to the public which is an act restricted to the copyright holder.
It would appear then that the effect of this is that using such a foreign decoder privately is not in breach of any licence or copyright but communicating the football match to the public in a student union, for example, is likely to be a breach of copyright.
Free Movement of Services
The ECJ held that any legislation which is designed to make it unlawful to use in a Member State foreign decoding devices which give access to copyright protected content in an encrypted satellite broadcasting service from another Member State State is contrary to Article 56 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (essentially provisions in The Lisbon Treaty which prohibit restrictions on free circulation of services within Member States).
Anti-competitive Licence Provisions
The exclusive territorial restrictions in the FAPL's broadcaster licences constituted a restriction on competition prohibited by Article 101 TFEU (the free competition provisions).
Citation
Football Association Premier League Ltd & Ors v QC Leisure & Ors (C-403/08) Murphy v Media Protection Services Ltd (C-429/08)