They may have a better case regarding names and images, but that turns on whether the fantasy sites are using that information for a purely commercial purpose — a la the golf-club ad — or are merely presenting facts and information, a use protected by the First Amendment.
In any case it's a dumb move on MLB's part. Fantasy sports engender good will and increased fan interest in baseball. Indeed, it's about the only way I can ever imagine becoming interested in baseball, which I find tedious to watch — and frustrating, too, since there's no way I'll be able to see all 162 games in a standard season.
In it's greed-fueled quest for control, MLB threatens to damage a hobby that probably has helped baseball's bottom line far more than it has harmed it. It's the sports equivalent of Digital Rights Management, in which publishers are destroying they're online market through greed and fear.
That's my take. Here's a good (and amusing) analysis of the case from Legal Affairs magazine, which notes a few fun facts:
1. The NBA lost a similar case back in the 1990s, in which they asserted copyright ownership of player statistics; the result is that "real-time" statistics are public domain.
2. Baseball won a similar case in the 1970s against two Minnesota game companies, saying the use of player names and statistics in such games was improper. They won, and now such games require MLB licensing.
3. But MLB also won a 1996 case in which it claimed that it had the right to use video of a player without that player's permission, based on freedom of the press principles.
That MLB can be self-servingly hypocritical should surprise no one. Still, the case does raise some legitimate questions about where the line should be drawn, and will probably revolve around resolving the conflicting rulings in the three cases above.
I just hope that rationality wins the day — or that MLB realizes that its case is ill-considered even if valid.
Article comments
1 - DaneJasHo
UNBELIEVABLE! Greed, greed, greed. I have just thrown in the towel on baseball! It has been a dying sport for a while, but I've hung in there. No more! This is it. Goodbye baseball! You are so far out of touch with reality that you're no longer worth anyone's time and/or attention. Good riddance!!
2 - Matthew T. Sussman
Can we have the hold stat?
3 - Jared Wright
Wow. Laughable. Biting the hand that feeds. Baseball is such a statistics-driven sport, I'd wager it benefits more than a lot of other sports because of fantasy play.
The case the NBA lost strikes me as similar, and I don't think there's much to differentiate the two. So I'd expect MLB to lose here.
4 - Ty
This is a pathetic attempt by MLB to cash in on the ever growing popularity of fantasy baseball.
At best they might have an argument with commercial services that charge a fee for fantasy baseball.
For example, Yahoo is free, but has a special league with more options for a league fee of $120. I am thinking MLB wants a cut of that, and perhaps they are entitled to that.
If they ARE entitled, Yahoo and the like should not go with the kneejerk reaction of raising the prices on this stuff, but rather slash it to free as well. That would be a HUGE f**k you to MLB.
P.S. To the poster above, the difference between the NBA and MLB cases is what they are asserting. The NBA went with the copyright argument, which was an easy loser. The MLB here is trying something clever by going with the "likeness" idea. They are trying to turn this into a tort case, not IP. And I think they've at least got a better shot with this.
5 - Condor
After seeing what MLB does in the realm of little league licensing... it's almost not surprising. What is kind of revealing in retrospect is that this legal action didn't come sooner.