NFL – "National Football League" or "No Fun League"?
Last year the NFL prevented an Indianapolis church from holding a family friendly Super Bowl party as a fund raiser claiming plans to show the game on a big screen and to charge admission constituted copyright infringement. The church offered to drop the admission fee, but the NFL told the church the big screen projection TV also had to go. It said the church would, however, be allowed to show the game on one TV that was no bigger than 55 inches. Not surprisingly the church cancelled the party.
Does the NFL really have this power? Yes - because it owns the copyright in the broadcast of its games it can control how the broadcasts are used. Copyright owners can prohibit public performances of their copyrighted works. A TV showing the game at the church’s party would have been an unauthorized public performance.
But why would one 55 inch TV be acceptable? A 1998 amendment to the copyright law provides that "establishments" can "publicly perform" TV broadcasts without a special license as long as the establishment: (1) has less than 2,000 sq. ft. (or 3,750 sq. ft. for bars and restaurants); (2) uses no more than 4 TVs with no more than 1 TV per room; (3) does not use any TV with a screen greater than 55 inches; (4) uses no more than 6 speakers of which not more than 4 are in any one room; and (5) does not charge admission.
Isn’t it amazing how far we’ve come from the Copyright Clause of the Constitution which simply provides that "Congress shall have the power:
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."