Major League Baseball goes to the Supreme Court
The justices are to consider taking up a case involving whether Internet fantasy baseball games have a free-speech right to use the names and statistics of famous athletes.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court justices were spending part of their time last week on fantasy baseball, but not because summer is near and they were bored with the legal work. Rather, the justices were deciding whether to take up a billion-dollar dispute over whether for-profit, fantasy games on the Internet have a free-speech right to use the names and performance statistics of famous athletes.
If the justices vote to hear the appeal from Major League Baseball, the outcome could have a far-reaching impact, including on the entertainment industry. If the justices were to rule that fantasy sports games have a free-speech right to use the names of famous players, it could cast doubt on some licensing deals for celebrities.
Even if the court lets stand the lower court's ruling in favor of free speech for the for-profit websites, it could encourage other websites to incorporate the use of famous people without seeking their permission.
It has been decades since the high court last weighed a clash between the "right to publicity" and the right to free speech. And since then, the Internet has made it far easier for others to make money by using the names, faces and images of celebrities.
For now, however, the question is whether baseball players and their statistics are public knowledge, and thus free to be used by all, or whether they remain the private property of Major League Baseball.
Fantasy baseball began a quarter of a century ago as a game among friends. As an "owner" or "manager," a participant selected his team of players from the major league rosters and watched daily box scores to see how those players did in reality.
By the mid-1990s, however, fantasy sports had become an industry on the Web. An estimated 15 million people spend about $1.5 billion a year playing fantasy sports. Web-based companies charge $30 or more to join a fantasy league, and some games offer big cash prizes to the winners.
The legal dispute arose four years ago when Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which represents the players and owners, signed licensing deals for fantasy games with a few big companies, including Yahoo, ESPN, Fox Sports and CBS Sportsline. At the same time, Major League Baseball ended earlier deals with dozens of leagues, games and websites that had offered fantasy games.
