The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York unanimously affirmed Friday a Federal District Court ruling that handed the National Football League a victory against PrimeTime 24. The New York-based satellite TV company was illegally retransmitting feeds of NFL games to Canada.

Judge Van Graafeiland issued the decision on behalf of an unanimous panel upholding the District Court’s ruling that PrimeTime 24 violated the Copyright Act by transmitting NFL games to its subscribers outside of the U.S. without permission.

The NFL is seeking up to $100,000 for each of the more than 100 games the NFL claims PrimeTime 24 illegally retransmitted beginning in August 1997. The case now returns to the District Court for a determination of damages and assessment of attorney fees.

The NFL filed suit against PrimeTime in May 1998, alleging that PrimeTime 24 violated NFL rights under the Copyright Act by retransmitting NFL game telecasts to Canada.

In September 1999, Federal Judge Lawrence McKenna of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, granted the NFL a permanent injunction preventing PrimeTime 24 from uplinking NFL games to its Canadian subscribers as well as anyone else outside of the U.S.

The Second Circuit ruling Friday affirmed the injunction. The Court of Appeals concluded, "because PrimeTime did not have authority to make a public performance of [NFL telecasts], PrimeTime infringed the NFL’s copyright."

More than 180 countries and territories receive NFL programming. The NFL's Canadian broadcast partners are Global TV, CHUM TV, TSN/RDS, Headline Sports and Rogers Cablesystems and Shaw.