Intellectual Property Law

What do the NFL, 55-Inch Televisions, and Prayer Have In Common?

By Brian Wm. Higgin

     The National Football League (NFL) has campaigned against large-group events that show the Super Bowl on TVs wider than 55 inches, citing federal copyright laws. That policy impacts churches that hold Super Bowl parties (the NFL only makes an exception to its policy for large-scale viewings at sports bars).

     Currently, the copyright law makes exceptions to copyright exclusivity for certain types of "fair uses," reproduction by libraries and archives, transfers of particular copies or phonorecords, certain performances and displays, secondary transmissions, and ephemeral recordings. See 17 U.S.C. 107-112. However, broadcasts of the big game by churches are not exempted.

     Enter Arlen Specter (R-PA), who introduced S. 2591 on February 4, 2008 (the Super Bowl was February 3, 2008), in the Senate “to provide an exemption from exclusive rights in copyright for certain nonprofit organizations to display live football games, and for other purposes.” The bill is quite simple:

`(C) communication by an entity defined under section 3121(w)(3)(A) or (B) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 [i.e., church-controlled organization] of a transmission or retransmission embodying a performance of a professional football contest intended to be received by the general public, originated by a radio or television broadcast station licensed as such by the Federal Communications Commission, or if an audiovisual transmission, by a cable system or satellite radio, if--

`(i) no direct charge is made to see or hear the transmission or retransmission;

`(ii) during the communication no money is accepted or received by the organization; and

`(iii) the transmission or retransmission is not further retransmitted by the establishment where the transmission or retransmission is received.'."

The bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 4, 2008.

Full post as published by Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog on February 24, 2008 (boomark / email).