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Yahoo blitzes NFL with fantasy football stats lawsuit
Yahoo blitzes NFL with fantasy football stats lawsuit
ESPN LinkYahoo sues NFL Players AssociationYahoo has filed a lawsuit against the National Football League, hoping to eventually get free access to player statistics for fantasy football. A similar case against Major League Baseball ended up going in favor of fantasy baseball players.
Yahoo has filed a lawsuit against the National Football League demanding access to player stats without having to pay licensing fees. Yahoo argues that player names, bios, and game statistics are not copyrightable information owned by the NFL, and that third parties should be able to make use of it for fantasy football leagues. Given a 2007 ruling on the same topic for Major League Baseball, there's a good chance that Yahoo will end up taking home the win.
Under the current system, third parties (such as Yahoo) don't have access to NFL player information for free—the NFL licenses it out for millions of dollars so that only certain fantasy football leagues are "legit" while others are not. The NFL argues that this information belongs to the NFL alone and that using the data without permission is a violation of the organization's IP rights.
This is a similar argument to one that was made by Major League Baseball (MLB) back in 2006 when it became embroiled in a lawsuit with CBC Distribution and Marketing, the owner of fantasy sports site CDMsports.com. MLB argued that through an agreement with the player's union, it had the right to use or permit the use of the player's names and data—third parties should be barred from running their own fantasy leagues based on MLB stats. CBC said that it didn't use any player photos or team logos; it only used the same names and stats that were available from any newspaper.
Well, the MLB struck out—twice. In 2007, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld a lower court's ruling that the First Amendment trumped the MLB's right of publicity (which gives celebrities and other public figures some rights over how their likeness is used). "The names and playing records of major league baseball players as used in CBC's fantasy games are not copyrightable," wrote Judge Mary Ann Medler. "Therefore, federal copyright law does not preempt the players' claimed right of publicity."
It's because of the MLB case that the NFL should be worried. The judge will undoubtedly consider it when making a decision on whether unlicensed fantasy football leagues get the thumbs up, and two previous decisions in favor of fantasy sports leagues will only help Yahoo's case.
Very interesting how each article read differently.
MINNEAPOLIS -- Yahoo Inc. has sued the NFL Players Association, claiming it shouldn't have to pay royalties to use players' statistics, photos and other data in its popular online fantasy football game because the information is already publicly available.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Yahoo filed its lawsuit Monday in federal court in Minneapolis.
According to the complaint, a licensing arm of the players union has threatened to sue Yahoo if it doesn't pay for the information. The last of Yahoo's licensing agreements with NFL Players Inc. expired March 1. But Yahoo claims it doesn't need authorization, due to a court decision in April in a similar dispute between NFL Players Inc. and CBS Interactive Inc.
Fantasy sports league participants create teams comprised of real players. As the season progresses, participants' track their players' statistics to judge how well their team is performing. According to the judge's decision in the CBS Interactive case, an estimated 13 million to 15 million people participate in fantasy football games that gross more than $1 billion a year.
Yahoo's lawsuit wants the court to declare that its game does not violate any rights of publicity owned or controlled by NFL Players Inc., and that any such rights would be trumped by the First Amendment and federal copyright law anyway. It also seeks to bar NFL Players Inc. from interfering with Yahoo's fantasy sports businesses, from threatening litigation, or making any statements that Yahoo or its customers are infringing the rights of NFL Players Inc.
NFL Players Association spokesman Carl Francis said the union had no comment at this time. It's appealing the decision in the CBS Interactive case.
The Major League Baseball Players Association and Major League Baseball Advanced Media lost a similar case in 2007 when the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that fantasy baseball company CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc. didn't have to pay the players, even though it profited by using their names and statistics. The judge in the CBS Interactive case relied heavily on the 8th Circuit's ruling.
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