Qatar’s satellite broadcasts have no copyright protection in Sweden

Two men were charged as representatives of a company in Malmö. Violation of copyright law. According to the indictment, they illegally rebroadcast television broadcasts from a company in Qatar. The program-carrying signals were sent by the company in Qatar via fiber cable to France and then, via uplinks in Spain and Great Britain, to satellites, which relayed the signals to the ground for reception.

The question before the Supreme Court was whether TV broadcasts were protected by Swedish copyright law.

As a starting point, copyright law only applies to broadcasts in Sweden. However, it may also be used for broadcasts in other countries affiliated to the International Convention of Rome Convention. At the time of the broadcast, Qatar was not a party to that convention. On the other hand, it is France, Spain and Great Britain.

The Supreme Court held that all links in the chain of technical transmission of program signals should be considered to constitute a single transmission to the public via satellite. The broadcasts are therefore considered to have been made in Qatar, where the transmission of signals carrying the program was initiated. This means that the broadcasts are not protected by copyright law, so the defendants cannot be punished for violating that law.