Posted by manualblock [ 69.112.43.172 ] on March 22, 2006 at 08:07:06:
Major League Baseball has instituted a lawsuit claiming that all statistics regarding baseball constitutes intellectual property covered under the federal IP statutes.
Thats right; Babe Ruths uniform number; better pay royalties if you use it. You can extropolate the rest of the silliness.
My son belongs to several major league fantasy leagues where you make up historical teams of players and compete against other teams of players with other kids. MLB wants that IP terrorism stopped; unless the kids are willing to pay higher fees to them of course.
The MLB lawyers are sueing these fantasy leagues that charge a small fee for administrative costs so the kids can do this.
The lawyers say it is similar to an earlier property rights case in 1996 where the prestigious law firm of:
Duncan;Weinberg;Genser and Pembrook, the most prestigous IP legal firm in the US sued on behalf of The American Society Of Composers and Publishers to demand that BOy Scout Camps and others of that nefarious ilk pay royalties whenever they sang the songs,"Row,Row,row." and "Happy Birthday" around the campfire.
Funny because in another lawsuit the Major Leagues backed the opposing view when players sued to demand that they get royalties whenever the teams issued scorecards at the games with the players names on them. MLB won that one but now; they seem to have discovered that should only apply to the players; the leagues should get paid when the players names are mentioned in newspaper articles or sports magazines.
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