Licensee protests she's just a 'pawn in big boys' game'
A Portsmouth licensee faces a fine of almost £8,000 after being found guilty of showing foreign satellite football .
Karen Murphy, of the Red, White and Blue in Southsea, was found guilty of two offences relating to breaching the FA Premier League's copyright after she was caught showing Premiership matches using the Greek satellite channel NOVA Supersport.
Murphy - acquitted of a similar offence in June last year by the same judge - argued that she sought legal advice after the trial and was told by her solicitor , Paul Dixon of Molesworth, Bright & Clegg, that she was not acting illegally and could continue .
However, Judge Anne Arnold ruled that Murphy - who she acquitted last time because it was not proven she had acted dishonestly - should have taken notice of the judgement and a letter she received soon after from her brewery, Fuller's, telling her the system was illegal.
Judge Arnold said Murphy should have been aware her solicitor was also representing foreign satellite suppliers and added : "Those solicitors were not by any standards to be regarded, as Mrs Murphy claimed, 'impartial' providers of legal advice."
Murphy - who plans to appeal - said: "It's a travesty. It's all about money at the end of the day. I am a pawn in a big boy's game. If it is deemed so illegal how come the FAPL ha s not prosecuted the broadcasters and system providers, as that would surely solve any problem at source."
FA Premier League spokesman Dan Johnson said: "Although we don't take any pleasure in taking publicans to court, where they choose to ignore the law we feel there is little option. We are delighted with the clarity and strength of this ruling and hope it lays to rest once the so-called debate over the illegal use of foreign satellite systems."
l Letters - p17
judge rules foreign signals are subject to UK copyright laws
Judge Anne Arnold ruled that foreign satellite signals of Premiership football are covered by UK copyright laws because they originate in the UK.
Murphy's defence argued the signals were broadcast from Greece after the Greek station took the Premier League's "clean feed" from a satellite and added its own programming details.
Judge Arnold said: "The signals received I find are the same signals introduced into the clean feed, subjected to nothing more than normal technical procedures which... should not be considered as interruptions to the chain of broadcasting." She said she was satisfied the transmission of the "visual images and sounds of the football matches" amounted to a broadcast of a programme included in a broadcasting service provided from the U K .