Yahoo Sues NFL Players Assn. Over Fantasy Football Rights

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 4, 2009 - 9:27am.

Sunnyvale, Calif. - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) has filed suit against the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), seeking a ruling from a judge that would permit the company to use players' names and statistics in its online fantasy football leagues without having to pay licensing fees. Yahoo's suit alleges that the NFLPA threatened to sue the company if it did not pay licensing fees that it has in the past for the players' data.

Yahoo contends that the information is not copyrightable and does not violate players' rights of publicity -- as the data is in the public domain -- and the company has several precedents already in its favor.

In April, the players' association lost a similar court case against CBS Interactive over the use of player data in fantasy sports games; that decision is currently under appeal.

But Major League Baseball also lost a similar case to an operator of fantasy sports leagues, in a ruling that was upheld at the appellate level, and declined for further review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In its lawsuit, Yahoo is asking a federal judge to declare that its fantasy sports games do no violate the players' rights of publicity, and prevent the NFLPA from threatening litigation.

http://snipurl.com/jg027 (Ars Technica)

http://snipurl.com/jg4a9 (DMW previous coverage)

http://snipurl.com/jg4bz (DMW previous coverage)