Monday, January 16, 2006

Are stats copyrighted information?

For fantasy baseball fans:
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. (Link)
I have resolved to give up most fantasy baseball this year, as it is enormous, enormous fun for a stat geek and therefore a giant timesuck. But MLB's defense sounds iffy to me:
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.
Is a stat profile protected under IP law? I'm no lawyer, but surely if theoretically I could compile a player's BA by sitting in each game and actually counting the hits and ABs it seems like public information. Sure, it's nice that MLB sells the info nicely wrapped up, but that's a service, no? Oh well - perhaps someone could educamate me...

Posted by Daryl |  Email this post  

Comments:

Does ESPN use MLB data, or do they have their own data collection agency? Hmm.

By Sam on January 17, 2006 5:33 AM | Permalink  

Good link on the topic here. Seems like MLB is trying to have it both ways. It's also interesting that this apparently has brewing for a while now.

By Earl on January 18, 2006 8:02 AM | Permalink  

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