That particular case was quite complicated, because it touched on a lot of things.
For instance, a prohibition on the import or use of foreign decoder cards was found to be against the regulations about freedom of supply of services.
And, football matches, in themselves, aren't intellectual property, so don't fall under the ambit of copyright law in that way.
But "surrounding media" might count as copyright - opening sequences, logos and so on. And the Premier League could restrict the distribution of those.
There's a summary of the case from BBC news which mentions this. In the case of other material, say a film or a drama series, or a musical work, then under the current rules, it would appear that the owner can say "no," because it certainly is a disctinct creation that they are allowed to control.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
