Location of server determines data jurisdiction, says court

UK judge said he can't rule on a case where data was being stored in another country

A High Court judge has ruled that UK courts can only hear online copyright infringement cases if the defendant's web servers are based in the country.

The case came about as a result of of German company (Sportradar) and its Swiss parent collating and distributing content belonging to UK-based football web site, Football Dataco Ltd (FDC).

The claimant (FDC) publish data relating to English and Scottish football matches, compiled in a database known as Football Live; while the defendant (Sportradar) collated information from FDC relating to English and Scottish football matches in a database called Sports Live Data - Sportradar stored the data on web servers in Germany and Austria.

However, because Sportradar's databases were based in Germany and not the UK, Mr Justice Floyd, the UK judge, said that he would be unable to rule on the case; even though the content was being distributed in the UK, and accessible to UK users.

Unless there is a successful appeal, the ruling means that copyright owners will not be able to sue for "making available by online transmission" in the UK unless the defendant's servers are located there.

Mr Justice Floyd held that the act of "making available to the public by online transmission" is committed only where that transmission takes place.

In the 17 November hearing, which determined key points before the main trial is held, the judge said that Sportradar could not be tried for reproducing copyright-protected material or extracted rights-protected database information in the UK.

However, the court will be able to rule on whether the defendants have authorised, or are jointly liable (with internet users) for the acts of reproduction, extraction and reutilisation of a copyright-protected information.