Streaming sports online can sometimes come with a heavy price. That’s what a British man named Waqas Rasheed discovered last week when he was found guilty of infringing the copyright of Europe’s Sky satellite TV network.
Like most television networks that carry live sports coverage, Sky pays billions of dollars to professional leagues and clubs for the rights to their games. Given that hefty investment, the network doesn’t love when people try to circumvent its subscription model and stream sports for free.
Between Mar. 3 and Apr. 1, 2017, Rasheed shared coverage from two Sky Sports channels on a subscription streaming site called IPTVdonations.com. In his defense, Rasheed claimed that he had accidentally created those streams while searching for free content himself. That excuse didn’t fly with the judge, who handed down a £45,000 ($60,000) fine on Wednesday, one day before World Intellectual Property Day.
According to Kieron Sharp, the CEO of the Federation Against Copyright Theft, a British organization that works to protect intellectual property rights, the case shines a light on illegal streaming.
“If you are accessing content for free that you’d usually pay for, or you’re creating the streams online to allow others to do so,” Sharp said, “you are breaking the law.”
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SportTechie Takeaway
This decision reinforces Sky’s right to control how its content is watched. Sky is already battling with social media services and other networks to broadcast its marquee Premier League matches. A couple of years ago the network won a similar infringement decision against a startup that published eight-second clips of live Sky Sports events, and last year England’s High Court issued an order requiring internet service providers to block servers illegally live-streaming matches.
While Sky often partners with Twitter on aspects of its live coverage, the network is wary of Facebook. The social media behemoth has dodged questions about its plans in the sports streaming arena, leading to speculation that it may bid for the rights to EPL games.