2012-13 Fixtures: First Up...Bolton at Home!

The fixtures have been released for the 2012-13 season. Vital Burnley as the club`s nominated preferred fanzine are allowed to publish these in full and comment on all the games in advance without having to worry about copyright and full DataCo payment. We publish below in this article the background to DataCo`s copyright situation but in the meantime we can now answer all those questions Clarets fans will want to know about next season`s Championship games ahead.

What will be the opening Championship game of the season?

Incredibly and what a juicy start to the season, Owen Coyle returns to Turf Moor with his relegated Bolton side. The game will be played on Saturday August 18th (Kick-Off: 3pm)

What will be our first Championship away game of the season?

It will be against Middlesbrough on the night of Tuesday 21st August (Kick-Off: 7:45pm)

Who do we play over the Festive Season?

Derby County at home on Boxing Day

Leicester City at home on Saturday 29th December

Sheffield Wednesday away on New Years Day

So what about the key question all Burnley fans want to know?

When do we play Blackburn Rovers and Bolton?

Blackburn Home: Saturday 1st December

Blackburn Away: Saturday 16th March

Bolton Home: We know-see above!-Saturday 18th August

Bolton Away: Saturday 9th February

Clarets fans might also be interested in our other local derbies against another B-side Blackpool.

Blackpool Home: Saturday 20th October

Blackpool Away: Saturday 13th April

To look at the full fixtures please click this link to the Official Site for the moment.

Burnley Fixtures 2012-13

Vital Burnley will be developing its own fixture page soon with a link from our Vital Burnley Menu

The Background to DataCo Copyright

Vital Burnley have been designated the club`s preferred fanzine this season which allows the site to publish the copyrighted fixtures in full for a nominal fee of just £1 plus VAT. It is just as well!

If we wanted to publish fixtures across the whole Vital Network Ltd it would normally cost nearly £20,000 (with no commercial gain) or about £200 per individual site + VAT. DataCo own the fixtures and many fans, fanzines and football website owners have been incensed over the years that they have had to fork out money for the privilege of publishing and discussing them. Many have refused to pay-out and simply linked to their club`s official site fixture list. You are not even allowed to mention more than 2-3 fixtures in any accompanying article without forking out £200!!

These are to be honest OUR fixtures, the games that we readily advertise for our clubs who make much needed revenue from us giving free ticket information with no advertising costs.

And yet Dataco are still fighting the courts who have twice now ruled this charge not to be right.

www.bbc.co.uk

European Judges said:

'A football fixture list cannot be protected by copyright when its compilation is dictated by rules or constraints which leave no room for creative freedom."

The case was referred from the High Court in London to the European Court to "assess, in the light of the considerations set out by the [Luxembourg] court, whether the football fixture lists concerned are databases which satisfy the conditions of eligibility for copyright protection'.

The European judges went on to say:

'However, the court adds that unless the procedures for creating the lists concerned as described by the national court are supplemented by elements reflecting originality in the selection or arrangement of the data contained in those lists, they do not suffice for those lists to be protected by the copyright laid down in the directive.'

However, the Premier League said there were elements of the case which indicated that football fixture lists were 'capable of database copyright protection'.

So the fight goes on.

Oh well at least this season, Vital Burnley do not have these restraints even if we still had to pay a nominal fee.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.