England And Wales Cricket Board Ltd & Anor v Tixdaq Ltd & Anor [2016] EWHC 575 (Ch) (18 March 2016)
The Claimants contended that the Defendants had infringed their copyrights under Article 2(d) and (e) of Directive 2001/29/EC (“the Information Society Directive”) by uploading a considerable number of clips of broadcasts of cricket matches to one of the Defendats’ mobile applications (“the App”). The Claimants were the owners of the copyrights in television broadcasts, and in films incorporated within such broadcasts, of most cricket matches played by the England men’s and women’s cricket teams in England and Wales. The Defendants denied infringement, relying primarily upon the defence of fair dealing for the purposes of reporting current events according to Article 5(3)(c) of the Information Society Directive and secondarily upon immunities for acting as a mere conduit and hosting under Articles 12 and 14 of Directive 2000/31/EC (“the E-Commerce Directive”).
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