NFL v.

PrimeTime 24 Joint Venture

Second Circuit Court of Appeals
211 F.3d 10 (2d Cir. 2000)

Keywords Search Terms: copyrights, satellite, television, broadcasts,

transmission

Facts
NFL televised live broadcasts and simultaneously made videotape recordings of
every NFL game. The recorded games are then registered with the U.S.
Copyright Office. Defendant PrimeTime 24 Joint Venture is a satellite carrier
that makes secondary transmissions of copyrighted television network
programming to owners and renters of satellite dishes. PrimeTime has a
statutorily granted license to make satellite transmissions to its subscribers in
U.S. households that do not have adequate over-the-air broadcast reception
from primary television stations. PrimeTime also serves retransmitted material
to unserved households in Canada. Without securing permission from NFL,
PrimeTime made secondary transmissions of football broadcasts to its satellite
subscribers in Canada. NFL officials wrote PrimeTime demanding the practice
to stop. PrimeTime, believing United State copyright laws did not apply to their
Canadian services refused to comply.

Issue
Did PrimeTime by transmitting recorded games to Canada publicly perform or
display NFL's copyrighted material?

Holding
PrimeTime argues that capturing or uplinking copyrighted material and
transmitting it to a satellite does not constitute a public display or performance
of that material. PrimeTime argues that any public performance or display
occurs during the downlink from the satellite to the home subscriber in
Canada, which is in a foreign country where the Copyright Act does not apply.
The Second Circuit decided the most logical interpretation of the Copyright Act
is to hold that a public performance or display includes “each step in the
process by which a protected work wends its way to its audience.” Using this
definition, the court found that PrimeTime's uplink transmission of signals
captured in the U.S. is a step in the process by which NFL's protected work
wends its way to a public audience. Since PrimeTime publicly displayed
material that the NFL had a copyright on without the NFL’s permission,
PrimeTime infringed the NFL’s copyright.

Summarized by: Matt Bower