RUFC - The Great Fixture Rip Off

New season in a new ground, we are all excited about who and when we will be playing - but, we aren't able to tell you all in full.

Why?

Because the great fixture rip off continues!

If we wanted to publish fixtures on Vital Network Ltd it would cost us nearly £20 000 (with no commercial gain) or £200ish per individual site + VAT.

These are OUR fixtures! The games that we readily advertise for our clubs who make much needed revenue from us giving free ticket information with no advertising costs.

And yet Dataco are still fighting the courts who have twice now ruled this charge not to be right.

See: www.bbc.co.uk

European Judges said: 'A football fixture list cannot be protected by copyright when its compilation is dictated by rules or constraints which leave no room for creative freedom."

The case was referred from the High Court in London to the European Court to "assess, in the light of the considerations set out by the [Luxembourg] court, whether the football fixture lists concerned are databases which satisfy the conditions of eligibility for copyright protection'.

The European judges added: 'However, the court adds that unless the procedures for creating the lists concerned as described by the national court are supplemented by elements reflecting originality in the selection or arrangement of the data contained in those lists, they do not suffice for those lists to be protected by the copyright laid down in the directive.'

However, the Premier League said there were elements of the case which indicated that football fixture lists were 'capable of database copyright protection'.

So the fight goes on.

Click here to go to the Official Site for the fixtures





Don`t forget, you can also catch Vital Rotherham on Facebook and Twitter!

Vital Rotherham on:

Vital Rotherham on:

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.