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Message #65 of 317  *NEW* To :   All From :   Reedster   Subject :   This week's question on the BGP: Should Major League Baseball OWN the statistics? Date :   1/22/06, 4:06pm (such that if a fantasy league or website wants to use the stats, they must license the stats from the MLB?) My opinion (adding to that mentioned on the podcast) -- No. These are facts that have nothing to do with the actual "product" of baseball. If I, as an attorney, successfully take a case to trial... and I get a favorable verdict (or even an unfavorable one), do I own the result, such that if a company, say, wants to publish the result, they have to pay me some money first? Of course not. Further reading: Feist Publications vs. Rural Telephone http://www.bitlaw.com/source/cases/copyright/feist. html NBA vs. Motorola, et al http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dldecen/nbadec.h tml • Previous Topic • Next Topic • Reply to Msg #65 • Start New Topic • Back to Topics 7952 reads

Message #68 of 317  *NEW* To :   Reedster From :   Reedster   Subject :   Re: This week's question on the BGP: Should Major League Baseball OWN the statistics? Date :   1/24/06, 8:07pm On the issue of MLB owning their statistics... I thought of another example in the car today. Let's say that I set up a website that monitors the number of bad words in a movie. I divide this number by the number of minutes of the film, and I create what I call an "F.U. average." Should the movie creators have a right to control and license this information? I say no. These are facts that are not concomitant (hey, this should be used in our next podcast) with the film. The words are said in the film. They are, of course, in the script. But, they are general facts that do not interfere with the movie company's ability to profit from the making of the film. These are just stats that make a film, to some, more interesting. Is this a stretched analogy? What do you think? • Previous Topic • Next Topic • Reply to Msg #68 • Start New Topic • Back to Topics 8995 reads This message has been added to these BGEEKS Blogs: Diary of A Baseball Geek

Message #70 of 317  *NEW* To :   Reedster From :   drrubb   Subject :   Re: This week's question on the BGP: Should Major League Baseball OWN the statistics? Date :   1/28/06, 5:27pm I totally agree Rob. It is a bad PR move & it is just major league baseball trying to monopolize something else. Behind closed doors somewhere, Stienbrenner & Selig are "doing the nasty". I say this because I think Steinbrenner has his powerful hand on Selig too, although I know that is another subject altogether. • Previous Topic • Next Topic • Reply to Msg #70 • Start New Topic • Back to Topics 8994 reads

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