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NFL v. churches: a Super Bowl tradition

By Mark Obbie

It's become as much an annual rite as the hype over Super Bowl TV commercials: the NFL's copyright stance against churches that hold Super Bowl parties and show the game on a big screen. All too often, such stories take the lazy route, painting the NFL as a bully acting arbitrarily and greedily, with no explanation of the law. Football-loving church members are justifiably perplexed, and outraged, at the NFL's heavy handed tactics. Which provides us a perfect opportunity to examine the law and the strategy. Alas, that rarely happens. Jacqueline Salmon's front-pager in the Washington Post today is better than that because it at least attempts to explain where the law comes from (statute) and that it's up to Congress to decide whether to exempt churches as it has exempted bars. But Salmon makes no attempt to explain the NFL's strategy, and what copyright lawyers might argue is its duty to stake absolute positions to avoid forfeiting its enforcement rights altogether. She also doesn't explain the economic and policy rationales for controlling public performances of a copyrighted work like the Super Bowl. I'm no expert, but I'd bet experts are out there and willing to be quoted on what is really going on here. Instead, we're treated to pretty much the same old mockery of the NFL's copyright extremism -- justified, perhaps, but not proven with a full explanation of the facts.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on February 01, 2008 (boomark / email).