Your Next Super Bowl Party May Be Illegal

Admittedly, this news is just a tick late, but it’ll be something to consider for next year.

As it turns out, thanks to a series of bizarre and arcane laws, plus the overfunded muscle of the National Football League, your Super Bowl party might be illegal.

If your television is over fifty five inches diagonal, and your surround sound system involves more than six speakers, you actually are technically in violation of copyright law.  That’s a pretty big surprise to most of us who believed that we could watch the game in the comfort of our own home with friends legally.  But don’t despair–the law does provide for “a single receiving apparatus of the kind commonly used in private homes”, and as long as you don’t make a “direct charge” to watch, you’re in good legal standing.  But there’s still ambiguity there–the NFL recently made threats to a church that was hosting a fundraising Super Bowl Bash, claiming copyright violations.

Considering the sheer number of ways to violate copyright law–most of which you never even knew of–it’s small wonder the studios are screaming about piracy.  Because more than likely, you already ARE one, and just never knew it.