Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1386209
15 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 23 JUNE 2021 EUROPE THE threats posed to the funding of sport by media rights piracy is nothing new. However, as recognised by the European Parliament in its resolution published 19 May 2021, developments in digital tech- nology and the proliferation of access to digital content (in particular through IP- TV) have, in turn, increased the potential exposure of sports fans to pirated content. In its report prepared in December 2020, the European Parliamentary Research Ser- vice found that in 2019: • 6 million subscriptions were made to illegal broadcasting platforms in the EU; • these subscriptions generated illicit subscription revenues of an estimat- ed 522 million EUR; and • if the same number of subscriptions were made legally, authorised broad- casters' revenues could increase by 3.4 billion EUR each year. • Furthermore, a report published this year by Synamedia and Ampere Analysis has found that sports rights holders and streaming services lost $28.3 billion globally as a result of piracy in 2020. Background Against this backdrop, the European Par- liament has put forward its recommenda- tions to harmonise the current patchwork legislative approach to sports rights piracy across the EU. A key driver for the European Parlia- ment's proposed action to support sports rights owners is the recognition that "un- like other sectors, most of the value of a sports event broadcast lies in the fact that it is live and most of that value is lost when the event ends". The rapporteur for the proposals, Angel Dzhambazki, has also recognised "The piracy of live sport events is a major chal- lenge for sport event organisers. The prob- lem with existing measures is that enforce- ment comes too late. The report calls on the [EU] Commission to clarify and adapt existing legislation, including the possibili- ty of issuing injunctions requesting the re- al-time blocking of access to or removal of unauthorised online content". Nevertheless, the EU Parliament does, however, propose that any amended legal framework should strike the right balance between the need for efficacy in enforce- ment whilst also: • ensuring that the measures strictly target infringing content and do not lead to the arbitrary and excessive blocking of legal content; and • otherwise protecting third party rights, including those of service providers (particularly small busi- nesses, SMEs and start-ups), fans and consumers. Legislative Proposals Pursuant to its resolution, the Europe- an Parliament has requested that the EU Commission submit a proposal for legisla- tive change, which addresses, among other things, the following: • establishing a common EU-wide quality and technical reliability standard for software tools deployed by rights holders, intermediaries and other service providers, in order to identify illegal broadcasting of live sports events with a view to creating a certification scheme for "trusted flaggers"; • clarifying the requirement for the removal of, or disabling of access to, online illegal live sports event con- tent as fast as possible and in any event no later than within 30 min- utes of the receipt of notification from rights holders or from certified trusted flaggers; • allowing for immediate take down procedures targeting illegal live sports event content, provided that there is no doubt about the owner- ship of the right concerned and that the transmission was not authorised; • ensuring that the measures to be taken by intermediaries are effec- tive, justified and proportionate by making sure, for example, that the removal of, or the disabling of access to, illegal content does not require the blocking of an entire platform containing services that are legal; and • taking measures that make it eas- ier to find legal means of accessing sports content, including by regu- larly updating the list of authorised providers on the European Online Content Portal, Agorateka, and en- suring that viewers are informed of such legal means and how to use such means to access content when blocking measures are enforced. Amendments to the IP Enforcement Directive The EU Parliament has also recommend- ed amendments to the IP Enforcement Directive, which include introduction of measures to address the following: • allowing the use of blocking injunc- tions that run during the entire live broadcast of a sports event, but are limited to the duration of the live broadcast, thus blocking the infring- ing website only for the duration of the event; • harmonising legislation allowing, where live sports events are con- cerned, for the use of injunctions that should have the effect of block- ing the access not only to the infring- ing website, but to any other website that contains the same infringement, regardless of the domain name or IP address used, and without the need for a new injunction to be issued; • reinforcing cooperation between Member States' authorities, includ- ing by way of exchange of data and best practices and by creating an active and up-to-date network of na- tional authorities; and • reinforcing the cooperation between intermediaries and rightholders, in- cluding by promoting the conclu- sion of Memoranda of Understand- ing providing for a specific notice and action procedure. Debate The EU Commission will now consider the EU Parliament's proposals. Whilst the threat posed to the sports industry by pira- cy in today's digital world will remain, the recommendations by the EU Parliament would appear to be a step in the right di- rection. However, the successful imple- mentation of any enforcement regime will be dependent on technical aspects as well as legal. In the context of blocking injunctions, it should be noted that the UK has very much been at the forefront of adoption of such measures. The first live block- ing injunction was issued by the English High Court in March 2017 to tackle illegal streaming of live Premier League match footageand a similar order was issued to prevent streaming servers delivering in- fringing streams of boxing matches pro- moted by Matchroom, including those involving world heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua. Whilst dynamic injunctions have been adopted in numerous EU member states, their technical implementation has not yet been harmonised. For example, only a lim- ited number have focused on blocking the entire IP address rather than being limit- ed to mere domain name system blocking (which is commonly now circumvented). It would seem therefore that greater har- monisation is needed and, arguably, over- due. In its resolution, the EU Parliament also raised the issue of the benefit of a new pro- prietary right for sports event organisers. Whilst the EU Parliament was of the view that such a new right would not necessar- ily solve the piracy challenges it considers the sports industry to be facing, considera- tion of the merits of such new right in this forum will no doubt be of interest to rights owners. European Parliament proposes new regime to combat piracy of live sports content This article is part of a content series called Ewropej. This is a multi-newsroom initiative part-funded by the European Parliament to bring the work of the EP closer to the citizens of Malta and keep them informed about matters that affect their daily lives. These articles reflect only the authors' view. The European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.