Policy —

Yahoo blitzes NFL with fantasy football stats lawsuit

Yahoo has filed a lawsuit against the National Football League, hoping to …


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 outtwice. 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.

You must to comment.

Channel Ars Technica