Sorry, this media is not available in your territory."

[hegeland]

Well in any case WSA and Betfred should thank them for it, providing coverage to people that would not have been able to watch otherwise. And it's not like I'd switch my Eurosport HD for that, so no one is really losing anything. As long as no one has come up with a 'legal' way to give coverage to around the world, this is second best for everyone.

[poolqjunkie]

Without these channels I could not have been able to watch any snooker live even if I am willing to pay to view them. Channelsurfing.net has been around for a while I am not sure if they pay BBC for the right. I just look at it like going to the library--I am not buying the books but I have the legal right to read the books for free. To me, the channel boardcastors are like the library, who provide a service at no charge.

What about youtube, is that illegal since they play these BBC snooker coverage all over the world? I would imagine they be sued many times already if that is illegal...

On the other hand, the sponsors of the championship get much more exposure to market segments which would otherwise not be exposed to such advertising. If someone needs to pay for this, should they then be paying the boardcastors for increasing their exposure? I mean, I am sure when they paid BBC for the sponsorship, Canada was not one of the countries where they expected to gain any exposure in.

Legal or not, on one side, some viewers gained the benefits of viewing live snooker in countries that would not have boardcasted--on the other hand, promotors and sponosors gained monetery benefits from an increased exposure which they did not pay for.

[Templeton Peck]

Under British law for a prosecution to be successful in a copyright infringement case the plaintiff has to demonstrate a loss of income or a probable loss of potential income as result of the infringement. Therefore, if the BBC don't have the rights to broadcast snooker internationally then it's no skin off their nose if people pirate their streams so they can't sue. In the case of the WSA, they clearly haven't lost any income since they don't provide a legal source (unless the region has Eurosport coverage), so unless they could prove that the piracy had damaged their chances of procurng a broadcaster then they couldn't win a copyright infringement case either. In that sense it isn't illegal, because income from the copyrighted work hasn't been affected and that's what UK copyright law protects.

[Brijacq]

Living in Australia - i too have gone through the various methods to watch the snooker live over the internet. The proxy server worked for a while but became congested depending on who was playing, then the bbc got wise and blocked it. Last year there was a company who let you watch all the bbc channels (For a 50 pound fee). Again this was shut down by the bbc. So i am now onto another method, this costs 10 US$ per month and you can choose only to pay for 1 month, this has been very reliable and i have watched any match i have wanted. It allows you to watch the red button streams as well as the bbci if required.
If you want more info send me a PM

Brijacq

[CTquick147]

Have you tried the Eurosport player? It's quite cheap - about £4 a month but I have no idea if it would work in Canada.

Sadly Eurosport player isn't available to users in Canada, if there was a service, cable or on-line I'd gladly pay it.

Some people have mentioned that sites like channelsurfing or justin.tv are easy to find and so this isn't really an issue. I have to disagree on the basis that these sites are known mostly to the users of this site, and we are are snooker fans already, the game needs to grow, and gain interest around the world, and should therefore be made widely viewable and shown in as many places as possible, on traditional modes of viewing like cable.

[dantuck_7]

Why doesn't world snooker just embed to the BBC coverage into it's website and charge people to watch the tournament abroad. Small fee of say $10.

[darrus]

Well, I've paid for Eurosport player and it really is a great service. But I prefer the BBC commentary - so... Proxies. Work absolutely fine, though I've had to change the proxy twice so far.
And I would have gladly paid some fee to BBC to watch it legally. But...

[poolqjunkie]

Sadly Eurosport player isn't available to users in Canada, if there was a service, cable or on-line I'd gladly pay it.

Some people have mentioned that sites like channelsurfing or justin.tv are easy to find and so this isn't really an issue. I have to disagree on the basis that these sites are known mostly to the users of this site, and we are are snooker fans already, the game needs to grow, and gain interest around the world, and should therefore be made widely viewable and shown in as many places as possible, on traditional modes of viewing like cable.

Yes, I totally agree.