Are baseball statistics historical information or intellectual property ? According to this story, this is more than just an academic question. It seems that a dispute has developed between between Major League Baseball and a company that runs sports fantasy leagues. It seems that MLB is asserting that baseball statistics, such as batting averages and home run counts and even the identity of players, are the intellectual property of MLB and thus cannot be used to run a fantasy baseball league.
ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) — A company that runs sports fantasy leagues is asking a federal court to decide whether major leaguers’ batting averages and home run counts are historical facts that can be used freely or property that can be sold.
In a lawsuit that could affect the pastime of an estimated 16 million people, CBC Distribution and Marketing wants the judge to stop Major League Baseball from requiring a license to use the statistics
On its face, the CBC’s argument seems to make sense:
The company claims baseball statistics become historical facts as soon as the game is over, so it shouldn’t have to pay for the right to use them.
Major League Baseball, on the other hand takes a different position:
Major League Baseball has claimed that intellectual property law makes it illegal for fantasy league operators to “commercially exploit the identities and statistical profiles” of big league players
Taken to its logical extreme, this argument would seem to suggest that merely reporting who won a baseball game, what the score was, and when the winning run was scored would be a violation of MLB’s intellectual property. This is not just absurdity, its absurdity on stilts. MLB does own the right to transmit its games, it does not own the results of those games or the historical facts that can be derived from those results.
One has to wonder why MLB is taking this position. As the article points out, if they win it could mean the end of dozens of fantasy leagues, fantasy leagues that are populated by some of the most die-hard baseball fans there are. Not exactly the kind of people you want to piss off.
Technorati Tags: Major League Baseball, MLB, fantasy baseball
