Honestly, the NFL needs a penalty for Illegal Procedure for this one … Planning on having a Super Bowl party? If your TV is over 55″, you’d better watch it. The NFL may come after you for copyright infringement. Apparently this all stemmed from a church that was going to have a Super Bowl party. First the NFL complained about them charging for the party, as well as using the license-protected words “Super Bowl” in their ads (give me a break on both points). After the church said they would eliminate both problems, the NFL STILL continued to press the issue, objecting to the church’s plans to use a projector to show the game, saying the law says the TV could not be more than 55″.
While we, at first, doubted the reality of this, Ben Austro sent in the fact that it is, indeed, spelled out in copyright law that once you get above 55″, you may be talking about a “public performance,” though, as Ben notes, the wording sounds like it was clearly written by a lobbyist. Source: TechDirt
I’ll just say one thing: IT’S A CHURCH! Obviously a non-profit, most likely trying to break even with admission. Give me a break. Based on this, I can’t even have a party at my house ‘cuz my TV is 65″. Argh! 
Update: The NFL, obviously feeling the heat, now says it’s OK for the church to have the party, as long as no admission is charged. And, they say, viewing at home, on “home-style” TVs is fine.
This was after many churches, not just in Indiana, but in other states, dropped plans for get-togethers, and after the story was picked up by many news outlets.
May 23, 2007 at 3:33 pm
That’s crazy that they would even bother a church about wanting to have a super bowl party. Don’t they have something better to do. I saw this information as well on the
super bowl wikipedia page and i couldn’t believe it myself.