By Sean in DC
Did you ever imagine that the Supreme Court of the United States could influence your fantasy baseball or football league?
Well, earlier this week they did just that by choosing to not intercede with the recent court rulings concerning a dispute between MLB (MLB Advanced Media, to be precise) and CBC Distribution, whom you know better as CDM Fantasy Sports.
The basic dispute was over using baseball players’ names and statistics without a license. MLBAM considered such use to be a violation of the players’ rights - the right to control and profit from commercial use of one’s name and likeness - under state intellectual property laws. The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled last October that CBC has a First Amendment right to use players’ names and statistics without a license.
CBC’s argument was that the information such as names and statistics were already within the public domain, an argument with which the court agreed. The MLB Players Association and MLBAM (who had acquired the rights from the Players Association for $50 million) were hoping for the ruling to be overturned by the Supreme Court. For obvious reasons, the NFL players union had publicly taken the side of MLBAM and has been following this case very closely.
What does this all mean?
Well, basically it means that pro athletes and the players unions, as well as the players’ representatives, are not able to restrict the use of their names and statistics. Based on this ruling and the Supreme Court choosing not to become involved, anyone can now run a fantasy game that uses players’ names and statistics without a license.
The control of player images and team logos are still required to be licensed. This means that most of the major fantasy sites will still be officially licensed so that they can show you images of the players that you pick and the teams that they play for. Unfortunately for all you video gamers out there, however, it means you still won’t be seeing an EA Sports MLB game anytime soon.
This completely legalizes the pure stats-based games out there and may influence the speed in which rookie players are added to a game for some sites who currently have to wait until they get official confirmation of all licensing requirements before a name and stat is added.
You may remember fantasy leagues which included in the list of available players one “SF Leftfielder” while excluding a certain Barry Bonds. Another recent example I remember concerns Lavar Arrington. He was not listed on many fantasy football sites for leagues that accounted for defensive players.
This was because he had chosen to not sign the NFL Players Union agreement, and, as a result, his name and stats were not able to be used on sites like Yahoo! and Sportsline. Today’s decision means that sites could have added their names and stats without their approval, although they would have just been able to show a blank picture for him until he signed the Players Union agreement giving them the rights to show his image.
It will be interesting in the years to come to see how this case stands up and if one day it actually broadens so that visual images of the players are considered public domain. In the interim, continue to enjoy your fantasy teams and reading their names and all the stats they get for you … and remember the Supreme Court as you do so.