united-states copyright online-piracy
A legal payment for a product, but obtaining it at illegal place
<p>I'm in the US, and I was looking for the legal ways to watch English Premier League. Unfortunately, most of the legal streaming services do not support Linux, and I have a Linux. Technically, I could watch on my phone with a much smaller screen, because Android is supported. Also, I could install windows or android emulator on my system and use a browser from there to watch games. But all of these are complicated, hence the question:</p>
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<p>Can I pay legally for a service to watch a game, and then use illegal websites to watch it? Is it legal?</p>
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<p>Probably I am not gonna do that, but what is the answer?</p>

<p>Because of the nature of online distribution, &quot;watching&quot; a show involves copying, so you need permission from the copyright holder to make those copies. You get permission indirectly, when you access a show via a legal licensee who has permission to distribute. A pirate site has no permission, therefore you cannot legally sub-license the show, and in so doing, you infringe copyright. The issue is not whether you &quot;paid for it&quot;, it is whether you have obtained proper permission. Under copyright law, a rights holder can simply arbitrarily deny you permission to copy the work.</p>
