baseball, statistics and copyright

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Take a look at this: the Major League Baseball (MLB) apparently thinks that the player statistics (batting averages - whatever that is ) is copyrighted information, and cannot be used by the public at large. The issue came up in regard with some Sports Fantasy League, with apparently uses such information to offer people the occasion to play as team owners, whatever (obviously I am not up to date to such stuff ).

So this Fantasy League used to license this info from MLB Players Association, but then MLB (not the same as MLBPA, obviously) bought the right for exclusive licensing (for $50 milion - apparently there is some serious money to be made out of this). And then MLB refused to license Sports Fantasy League this information, and went to court to stop them using the data.

From the CNN article:

My question is: this information is part of history; so it should not be copyrightable. So there should be no need for a license in the first place. I mean, if some company want somebody to pay them money to gather and organize this data, is fine. But you cannot stop them to gather the data on their own and use it. Will we get to a point where we cannot discuss sports stuff between us because we will infringe on some company intellectual property?

 

That does seem strange - they are publically available statistics. You can find these things by looking on-line, at newspapers, sports magazines, etc. Why is it not illegal for these other media to publish info on players but yet not legal for fantasy leagues to do so. I'm confused.

Plus, the only thing that this affects is fantasy leagues, which have been around for eons. Granted, the popularity of fantasy sports has only risen to the current level of prominence since the Internet, but before that there were always private leagues where the people kept stats for themselves.

And it certainly seems that keeping stats is "historical information".

 

EVERYTHING to do with major league baseball is copywrited by MLB. The stats are compiles and initially published by MLB -- that gives MLB the copywrite. They allow news agencies to freely use the info (after all MLB needs the coverage). There's always a disclaimer read several times during every game broadcast (the broadcast itself is copywrited and information obtained during the broadcast is protected).

If someone were to compile their own set of stats, not using records from MLB, those stats would be public domain -- this would mean representitives at each game and the stats could not be corrected using MLB records. But that's not how the fantasy leagues get their info.

The MLBPA obviously did not have the desire to keep in the business -- it would have been bad for the image of MLBPA to demand greater fees. But that's not a problem for MLB itself.

 

And what does that mean for the other sports - as we are all aware, fantasy games are not limited to baseball.

 

The problem lies with the fact that MLB, NFL, NBA and even the NHL no longer keep their own stats. They've all contracted with the Elias Sports Bureau. The Sports Bureau is a "for profit" business and is paid by the major sports to maintain stats as well as provide historical research. It was a matter of time before someone realized that an MLB purchased commodity was being used by others for profit (many fantasy leagues have entry fees, offer substantial prizes and provide a modest income for the organizer). It's sad that this may have an impact on all fantasy players, but MLB should have a say on how stats they pay to be compiled are used.

MLB and the MLBPA have always been very controlling about the use of likenesses, even for use in video games. We've all seen baseball video games that feature Derek Jeter of the "Bronx Patriots"...a case where the game developer had a deal with the MLBPA to use player names and likeness, but no deal with MLB to use team and league names and logos. Major League Baseball probably has more splintering and dichotomy on licensing issues than any other major sport. The NFL is probably the most unified...everything goes through the NFL and the NFLPA has relatively little power.

 

I admit I do not understand all that's going on... but:

It seems pretty clear that the MLB does not own the rights to the facts themselves. So if somebody else gathers those stats, they should be able to use them.

So the question is about using data gathered by the MLB (or by somebody else paid by the MLB to do this). I assume moreover that this data is available to the interested public in some manner (they do not keep it for themselves, after all).

So we can assume that people are able to access this data (buying stat sheets, or whatever). Then, question is, can they use the data as they want?

It seems to me that they should. Data by itself is not copyrightable. The manner in which data is presented might be. But the information contained is not.

Let's make an analogy with a phone book (which is also a collection of data). I surely cannot make copies of a phone book and sell it myself (copyright would prevent that). On the other hand, I should be able to take the info in the phone book, compile it myself in any way I see fit (maybe order by first name instead of last name, or by street address), and sell the resulting stuff.