Live streams of sport broadcasts facilitate copyright infringement

The national football association of the Netherlands, KNVB, has won a lawsuit against a live streaming website that offers links to broadcasts of live sports events. The Football Association had collaborated with a number of other sports organizations in an interlocutory proceeding against the live streaming platform MyP2P. MyP2P offers streaming services that allow users to watch live television and sporting events. The court found that making available these images is unlawful, because the links facilitate copyright infringements.

Myp2p was summoned to delete the streaming service for sport broadcasts from their website within 24 hours. In case MyP2P were to ignore this interim measure, they will be fined. The KNVB will now consider further steps to recover the damage. It will be interesting to learn what judges will decide in the standard procedure that will follow this interim measure. At this time it is unknown when this case will be resolved in court.

The case was handled by a lower court in The Hague, where judges confirmed that the recordings of live sporting events are protected by copyright. It is fascinating to see how case law around streaming develops. In this case, offering a live streaming channel for viewing copyrighted footage is not an infringement. 

The court ruled that, although the placement of links or streams to pages that contain copyright infringing material is not in itself a copyright infringing act, the sports streaming service of my2p2 is unlawful because it facilitates copyright infringement and is damaging to KNVB and other sports organizations.

Mark Boetekees, general counsel and board secretary of KNVB said: "We are delighted with this decision. It is clear to us that the court will establish that live broadcastings of sports events should be protected. We consider this an important step in the right direction. We will remain alert and continue to take action to protect our rights where these are being infringed."

Source: KNVB, District Court of The Hague (Rechtbank 's-Gravenhage)