* Pub landlady cleared over screening foreign coverage of UK
football

* Related ruling closes loophole, protects Premier League
and BSkyB

* Broadcaster warns publicans of risks they face

By Keith Weir

LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) – British satellite
broadcaster BSkyB and the English Premier League said
they would pursue publicans showing soccer matches on the cheap,
despite a legal victory for a landlady who screened action via a
Greek network.

On Friday the High Court in London overturned the conviction
of Karen Murphy, who runs a pub in Portsmouth, on England’s
south coast.

Murphy had been ordered to pay almost 8,000 pounds
($12,600)in fines and costs for using a foreign decoder to
access English games shown live in Greece.

Hopes that the long-running case would drive down the price
of screening games in pubs across the land have been dashed by
the technicalities of rulings on the issue.

Murphy had won a partial victory last October in the
European Court of Justice, which said it was not illegal to
import a foreign decoder, a ruling that allowed her to clear her
name on Friday.

However, a related test case has asserted that the Premier
League retains copyright control over some of the material that
goes on screen during matches.

Tony Ghee, a lawyer with London firm TaylorWessing, said
that nuance meant those trying to undercut BSkyB had “fallen at
the last hurdle”.

He noted that official Premier League logos and anthems were
protected by copyright and that would outlaw the unauthorised
transmission of broadcasts intended for foreign markets.

“They need clearance from Sky and the Premier League to show
those bits,” he said. “Next season’s coverage will have as much
of that kind of material in there as they can stuff in.”

BSkyB had already started writing to publicans warning them
against using imported foreign broadcasts.

“The UK courts have already ruled that the unauthorised use
of the Premier League’s copyrighted material via foreign
satellite systems in pubs infringes copyright and is therefore
illegal,” a Sky spokesman said.

“This remains the case following the ruling in the Murphy
case. We will continue to protect our legitimate customers by
supporting action against licensees who break the law.”

The spectacular growth of the Premier League over the past
two decades has been underwritten by its partnership with the
satellite broadcaster.

BSkyB has an estimated 44,000 pubs, clubs and offices signed
up to its Premier League soccer services and they pay around
1,000 pounds per month.
($1 = 0.6369 pound)

(Reporting by Keith Weir; Editing by Will Waterman)