Beerball Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 In this morning's USAToday--on the stats page there was a short article about a company that is suing MLB. Apparently they used to have a contract with the players union allowing them to use MLB stats. They are a company providing the stats to fantasy team owners. A couple years ago they lost their contract with the union. Apparently MLB says that they own the stats. Anyway...the company is suing saying that the statistics are 'history' and don't belong to anyone. Anyone else know about this? Anyone care? Do all leagues (NFL) do this? Sorry, no link, I looked over their site and couldn't find the article. I find it hard to believe that the league can 'own' the statistics. Does this mean that every newspaper in the country pays MLB to print box scores? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramius Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 Wouldnt surprise me. There were some articles at the end of last summer that were talking about how MLB and the MLBPA wanted to put a restriction on the use of player names in fantasy baseball. This was basically so that MLB would own the player name rights and would run their own fantasy baseball and then they could charge whatever they wanted. Baseball is a bunch of money grubbing whores. Just like 15 years ago or so when they began charging little league teams for use of the team names. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmac17 Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 ha, I actually know about this. One of my online businesses was going to use content from another website, but I wasn't sure if i was allowed to "take" the content. This wasn't articles or anything, just public information - not much different than stats or the weather history. What I found out, was that you can take and use this type of stuff so long as you "creatively alter" the way it is used. And by that I mean you can't just copy and paste, you need to dress it up, make it look a different way etc. There was a supreme court case once where someone used all of the exact content from another phone book to make their own phone book. The court ruled against them, but said if they hadn't just copied the first phone book exactly they would have been fine. If they had organized it differently or added some of their own content or design it would have been enough. I'm not positive if baseball stats fall into the same category, but I would assume they would. Not sure how to alter the stats though.... MLB would catch hell in the court of public opinion if they did try something like that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erynthered Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 was that you can take and use this type of stuff so long as you "creatively alter" the way it is used. And by that I mean you can't just copy and paste, you need to dress it up, make it look a different way etc. Kinda like college students do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WVUFootball29 Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Kinda like college students do. 569860[/snapback] Pretty much...think of it this way...we researched and found all the information...then we just changed it around to make it sound like us talking. You dont discover new information writing papers...you just show that you can find the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 What a bunch of crap! I hate greedy corporations! How the hell are stats property of MLB? What next- are they gonna go after a 7 year old keeping score? Money is ruining everything good in life! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Money is ruining everything good in life! Not everything. The stripping industry has flourished thanks to money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Not everything. The stripping industry has flourished thanks to money. 570419[/snapback] Do you know how much money you can spend at Scores these days? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted January 17, 2006 Share Posted January 17, 2006 Do you know how much money you can spend at Scores these days? 570423[/snapback] Um.....actually yes, I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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