Yahoo! versus the Football League

As reported earlier today the UK Football authorities are taking Yahoo! to the High Court to stop it publishing fixture lists on its website without permission.

Currently sites such as Bulls News are not allowed to publish fixture lists unless given permission by the club they cover, in our case Hereford United, or pay an exhorbitant licence. The rules are specifically designed to raise money for the clubs, protect their websites and stifle reporting on the smaller sites. Only in editorial are 'smaller sites' allowed to mention forthcoming fixtures and then more than one or two mentions can be frowned upon by DataCo, the company that regulates the licences.

Most sites get around the ruling by having a link to, for example, their club's fixtures on BBC Sport.

Yahoo has been accused by the Football authorities of infringing their copyright and database rights. So the authorities are seeking an injunction to stop it and are claiming unlimited damages.

The Football League and its law firm, DLA Piper, declined to comment on the action, while Yahoo! said: 'We can confirm that Yahoo! UK is engaged in an ongoing legal dispute with the FA Premier League in relation to the use of football fixtures.'

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