Yahoo sues NFL Players Association over its use of player statistics – Yahoo! Canada News
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Wed Jun 3, 7:01 PM
By Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press
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MINNEAPOLIS – Yahoo Inc. has sued the NFL Players Association to try to ensure it won’t be sued for using player statistics, photos and other data for its popular online fantasy football game.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Minneapolis alleges that a licensing arm of the players union has threatened to sue if Yahoo doesn’t pay it royalties for the use of publicly available player data.
In its lawsuit, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Yahoo says the last of its licensing agreements with NFL Players Inc. expired March 1. But Yahoo claims it doesn’t need the authorization anyway, citing a court decision in April in a similar dispute between NFL Players Inc. and CBS Interactive Inc.
Fantasy sports league participants create teams comprised of real players.
As the season progresses, participants’ track their players’ statistics to judge how well their team is performing. According to the judge’s decision in the CBS Interactive case, an estimated 13 million to 15 million people participate in fantasy football games that gross more than US$1 billion a year.
Yahoo’s lawsuit wants the court to declare that its game doesn’t violate any rights of publicity owned or controlled by NFL Players Inc., and that any such rights would be trumped by the First Amendment and federal copyright law anyway.
It also seeks to bar NFL Players Inc. from interfering with Yahoo’s fantasy sports businesses, from threatening litigation, or making any statements that Yahoo or its customers are infringing the rights of NFL Players Inc.
NFL Players Association spokesman Carl Francis said the union had no comment. It’s appealing the decision in the CBS Interactive case.
The Major League Baseball Players Association and Major League Baseball Advanced Media lost a similar case in 2007 when the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that fantasy baseball company CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc. didn’t have to pay the players, even though it profited by using their names and statistics.
The judge in the CBS Interactive case relied heavily on the 8th Circuit’s ruling.
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