Nfl V. Primetime 24 Joint Venture

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