Yahoo Inc is in the process of suing the NFL Players Association basically saying it doesn’t have to pay royalties for stats, photos and other NFL data related to its online fantasy game. Yahoo claims that this data is already publically available.
Why is this relevant to baseball fans (other than the obvious fantasy league angle)? It’s this. The MLB Players Association and MLB Advanced Media lost a case very similar to this in 2007 when an online fantasy baseball called CDC Distribution Marketing Inc didn’t have to pay the baseball players for data very similar in the Yahoo case (stats, photos, etc).
Yahoo is clinging to a court decision between CBS Interactive and the NFL Players Inc which claims it doesn’t need authorization. And apparently, that decision based a lot of their ruling on the 2007 MLB decision.
Copyright and freedom of information issues are always tough. How people come down on them usually depends on how it affects them (i.e the most positive outcome possible). That goes for fans, too.
What do you think? Are stats public information? How about a photo of a baseball player?