How can events that clearly occured in public and then are recorded by hundreds of sources be the private property of MLB? I believe they tried this already, and lost. I can't see them winning this, and if they do, its probably because they bribed the judge.
34=Sweetness wrote:How can events that clearly occured in public and then are recorded by hundreds of sources be the private property of MLB? I believe they tried this already, and lost. I can't see them winning this, and if they do, its probably because they bribed the judge.
They did try to do this before. Dan Patrick said today on ESPN radio that MLB once tried to charge ESPN a few cents (or whatever) per highlight on SportsCenter. They lost.
MLB needs all the money they can get because not many people watch on TV or go to most of the games during the regular season (in most markets).
here comes the greedy suits up in the offices seeing that there is another way to make money. Like deluxe said, why dont they just sit back and be happy that they are gaining exposure due to fantasy sports. Before fantasy, i would just watch the panthers and hardly keep up with anything outside our division. Now i watch games that are meaningless and could pop off ridiculous stats from two years ago.
It's a free speech issue, Freedom of the press and such.
Imagine the President copyrighting his speeches and charging us to hear the state of the Union. It would never fly, anything with "news value" will probably stay free flowing.
Didn't Shakespeare once say, "Kill all the lawyers?"
It was either him or Picard...
Either way, it's stupid for them to be grabbing for more money like this. I can understand them saying that other companies are benefitting by the use of their stats, but don't they already have licenses with the sports to do that?
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*IF* this happens, I simply refuse to put more money into their pockets by purchasing their "product". I will not pay the NFL for the right to use their stats, and it will mark the start of my boycott of my second sport, the first being hockey. I know this is mainly about that ladies sport baseball, but it will inevitably spill over into any fantasy based sport if they are allowed to win. I am only one man, and what I contribute to football is near nothing in the big scheme, but if there are others like me out there that will be stubborn enough to not watch the games, not go to the games, not buy merchandise and spread the word, maybe we can hit them in the pocketbook as a collective and perhaps make them see that greed doesn't pay when dealing with a working class fan base. High hopes I know, but it's always worth the shot. It's likely not worth discussing, because this should never be allowed to pass, but then Brett Favre should have retired on top, OJ should be in jail and Michael Jackson should have had chemical castration, so you just never know.
If MLB wants a piece of the fantasy sports pie, they should take a page from the NFL and host a site that manages leagues, or create its own media outlets. Who else watches the NFL network and listens to NFL radio other than fantasy football players? It is just stupid to limit the rights of people who comprise a large portion of your audience and fan base.
It may still be a little bit early in the game for this, but at what point does Congress step in on this one? They stepped in with MLB steroids and the fairness of the BCS, why wouldn't they step in when there are potentially 16 million fantasy player votes to be had?
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by 34=Sweetness » Tue Jan 17, 2006 7:40 am 
