Major League Baseball Strikes Out Over Use of Player Statistics

On a summary motion, a US Court has upheld a declaratory action against the media arm of the Major League Baseball Players' Association (MLBPA) to permit an online fantasy baseball business to continue to use real players' names and their associated baseball statistics. A St Louis-based company, CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc (CBC), is one of many online fantasy baseball businesses and, until 2005, it had a license agreement with MLBPA. In 2005, MLBPA scaled back the number of its license agreements from 19 to seven and CBC was not one of the parties whose agreement was renewed. Nevertheless, CBC continued to operate its business without an agreement and filed a complaint in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, seeking a declaratory judgment that it could continue to operate its business without permission from MLBPA. On the facts outlined in the decision, it appeared that the only data used by CBC was the players' names and their playing records – information which could be found in the box scores published widely after each game, and no photographs or other biographical information was used by CBC in the fantasy game. The Court first determined that the use of the data by CBC did not constitute a breach of a right of publicity. It neither represented commercial advantage for CBC as against the players (the players' rights to play and to endorse products were not affected) nor did it affect the identity element of publicity (the use of the names did not bear on the character, personality, appearance, reputation or physical appearance of the players). Second, the Court ruled that even if the use of the data did infringe a right of publicity, that infringement must give way to the constitutional right of freedom of expression. Third, in the circumstances of the case, as used by CBC the data could not be the subject of copyright because it lacked any element whatever of originality. After the ruling, MLBPA indicated that it will appeal. News reports indicated that MLBPA also has license agreements with such major fantasy distributors as Yahoo Inc, CBS Sportsline and ESPN.com, and presumably the value of those agreements could be affected by the CBC decision. For a report in The New York Times, visit: http://makeashorterlink.com/?V2C2128AD For the full text of the decision CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc v Major League Baseball Advanced Media LP et al., see: http://makeashorterlink.com/?J2E2528AD Summary by: The Editor