Last Friday the Federal Court ruled that phone giant Optus had breached copyright law by streaming near-live broadcasts of football matches, a decision welcomed by ARIA.
The Australian Football League (AFL), National Rugby League (NRL) and Telstra put forward an appeal which was upheld by the court against an earlier decision that allowed Optus ‘TV Now’ mobile to broadcast matches with only a two minute delay.
In February the court had ruled that it was the user and not Optus who was making the copy and therefore the user was responsible for streaming the coverage.
On Friday the court overturned that decision, deciding that it was in fact Optus who was responsible for making the copy and streaming the coverage.
ARIA are very happy with this decision as they see it as a ‘positive one for all content creators, including those in the music industry’ as ARIA CEO Dan Rosen told The Music Network.
“We hope this ruling will provide a foundation for further discussions with the Federal Government regarding the need to protect and support content creators online,” Rosen adds.