No more footy on optus, thanks Full Court of th FCoA, NRL, AFL & Channel 7

[pies4spoon]

Hi all
Just an update that today, the AFL, Telstra and the NRL won their appeal at the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia against optus. This is an appeal from a single justice of the Federal Court, Justice Rares, who ruled that Optus' recording of a telecast and then streaming was akin to recording a TV show on a VCR and replaying it later. This is covered under Copyright Act 1968 s111 (links will be below). Thus it seems that Optus customers from 4/5/2012 will no longer be able to watch either NRL nor AFL on their mobiles.

For those with a non legal background; the Federal Court of Australia deals with Commonwealth, non criminal (criminal such as importing a prohibited substance etc), non family cases, usually patents and copyright as well as corporations law (tax i THINK), and has a single judge, no jury, decide on a ruling. If the losing party feel that the single judge made an error of law, they can appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia, which again has no jury, but has 3 Federal Court Justices' to hear the case. Lastly these can be again appealed to the High Court of Australia.

However, I wouldn't be surprised to see this be appealed to the High Court of Australia, however application for leave to the High Court often takes a while. 

Copyright act S111 http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/s111.html
Optus V Telstra, AFL, NRL @ Federal Court http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2012/34.html
Telstra, AFL, NRL V Optus @ Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2012/59.html