As the chairman of the Sports Rights Owners Coalition (SROC) and former chief executive of the Ladies European Tour golf championship, Mark Lichtenhein welcomes this weeks’ European Parliament’s overwhelming support for EU measures against the illegal streaming of sports events. SROC has worked for years, with the help of MEPs, to obtain this result : it is now up to the European Commission to put forward a proposal, as soon as possible, says Mark Lichtenhein, who stresses that « piracy feeds crime ». What are your thoughts on Tuesday’s vote at the European Parliament, asking the Commission to act against sports’ events piracy ? It is definitely a milestone! It is the first time that we have had serious recognition, at European level, of the piracy issues that affect sport. Nearly all the value in sports events is in the live experience, and piracy dangerously undermines that value. It is great to have a parliamentary report that recognises that fact, and stresses the need for a sectorial remedy for sport. We tried to secure the basis for such a remedy during the Copyright Directive process, but in the end that text did not take sports into account. Hopefully, Tuesday’s vote will motivate the European Commission to…
