AusLeisure

The heads of Australia's major sports have met members of the Government and opposition in a bid to expedite changes to Australia's copyright laws.

The chief executives of the AFL, Australian Rugby Union, Cricket Australia, Football Federation Australia, the National Rugby Leageue, Netball Australia and Tennis Australia met Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, Sports Minister Mark Arbib and Attorney-General Nicola Roxon to propose a "simple" amendment to the copyright act.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said that the Prime Minister Julia Ms Gillard had "stopped by the meeting".

Lobby under the umbrella of the Coalition of Major Participant and Professional Sports, the sports expressed their concerns over last week's court ruling that allows Optus to broadcast delayed video of matches to its mobile phone network.

Coalition Executive Director Malcolm Speed was also at the meeting and told The National Times the meeting was very positive and that "the Government understands the problems the sports face."

Last week, Optus won a landmark copyright case in the Federal Court, when the court ruled the company could record and transmit free-to-air television coverage of football and cricket matches over the internet to its customers.

The AFL, NRL and Telstra were seeking an injunction against Optus' TV Now service, that allowed Optus to transmit TV footage - such as live AFL and NRL matches - on delays of one to two minutes to Apple mobile devices.

The decision infuriated Telstra and major sports who have exclusive billion dollar broadcast rights deals.

The group, which also met the opposition to seek bi-partisan support, are seeking to clarify a provision in the copyright act for sports to maintain the right to exclusively sell their digital content to broadcasters.

Speed said a major concern of the decision was the impact it would have on the future broadcast rights fees that would flow back to the sporting codes.

2nd February 2012 - OPTUS RULING TO HIT SPORTING RIGHTS VALUES 

13th December 2011 - PRIME MINISTER CREATES NEW DEPARTMENT OF REGIONAL AUSTRALIA, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, ARTS AND SPORT

14th October 2008 - SPEED ON SPORT MANAGEMENT

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