Latics Open With Chelsea At Home

Wigan Athletic kick-off the new season with a home game against Champions League winners Chelsea then its away to Southampton for our first ever visit to St. Mary`s

The festive period brings some interesting games, Boxing Day sees Latics take the short trip up the East Lanc`s Road to face Everton, whilst New Years Day sees Manchester United in town

I always like to see what the last three games of the season are, just in case, well it`s West Brom and Arsenal away then we finish off with Aston Villa at home on May the 19th

Unfortunately we aren`t allowed to publish the Latics fixture list here, why?

The great fixture rip off continues!

If we wanted to publish fixtures on Vital Network Ltd it would cost us nearly £20 000 (with no commercial gain) or £200 ish per individual site + VAT.

These are 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.

See: 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 added: '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.

So, for fixtures, go to the official site: www.wiganlatics.co.uk/fixtures

















Latics and Proud



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