Outshined Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Yahoo! sues for fantasy football information Last update: June 3, 2009 - 11:59 AM Internet giant Yahoo! has filed suit in Minnesota, demanding free access to the player information that drives its popular fantasy football game. Yahoo! alleges that the NFL Players Association and corporation has no right to charge for the use of players pictures, biographies and on-field statistics, according to its suit filed this week in federal court. In the past, the NFL Players Association has asserted that those things fall under intellectual property rights. Yahoo!'s fantasy football site relies upon such real-time statistics. Participants use them to decide which players to draft and trade throughout the football season. The issue of whether companies can use league information for fantasy sports sites has come up before. Then, the sport was baseball. In 2007, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit decided that CBC Distribution and Marketing, Inc., could use Major League Baseball players' names and statistics for its fantasy baseball products -- without paying a licensing fee. JENNA ROSS Link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco Billy Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Yahoo is great at providing statistical information that has all sorts of filters available. I imagine with precedence on thier side that they'll end up on the good side of this one. It bothers me that the NFLPA has blocked access to player salary/bonus information. It's a whole lot more painstaking to get player contract/cap numbers for all players other than Packers now. That sucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffraff Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 It bothers me that the NFLPA has blocked access to player salary/bonus information. It's a whole lot more painstaking to get player contract/cap numbers for all players other than Packers now. That sucks. Rotoworld has the contract info. PIck a player and it has a line that says contract, click on details and the info is usually there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WJW Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Some background for you guys. CBS Interactive recently won a similar decision against the NFLPA - preventing the NFLPA from pressuring or suing them for failure to have a license for the use of player stats in their fantasy games. Yahoo's NFLPA fantasy license expired in March and Yahoo was being pressured with threat of a lawsuit to renew the license. Yahoo's position was of course - given the growing legal precedence - that they don't need a license for fantasy now. They asked for assurances that the NFLPA would not pursue legal actions against them and the NFLPA refused. So Yahoo filed suit for protection (a declaratory judgment) from the NFLPA for their fantasy operations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 (edited) If it goes to the Minnesota Supreme Court Alan Page may help decide it. Edited June 3, 2009 by Randall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Itals Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 If it goes to the Minnesota Supreme Court Alan Page may help decide it. Pretty sure this is a Federal case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WJW Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Right. The Yahoo! case has been filed in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota. CBS Interactive filed their case there also because stats show Minnesota has a very high concentration of FF players and their District Court falls within the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. That is the same federal court that the original CBC case had it's win over MLBAM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco Billy Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Right. The Yahoo! case has been filed in the U.S. District Court of Minnesota. CBS Interactive filed their case there also because stats show Minnesota has a very high concentration of FF players and their District Court falls within the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. That is the same federal court that the original CBC case had it's win over MLBAM. Which only proves that no matter how ####ed up a state is it can still have redeeming value beyond lutefisk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Which only proves that no matter how ####ed up a state is it can still have redeeming value beyond lutefisk. Hey, we'll have two senators soon. Granted, one of them is Al Franken but still....... Lutefisk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikesVikes Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Which only proves that no matter how ####ed up a state is it can still have redeeming value beyond lutefisk. Well at least we don't put Grandma in the freezer so we can keep getting her government checks. We don't eat people or use human skin for clothing either. What state do they do those things in again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronco Billy Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Well at least we don't put Grandma in the freezer so we can keep getting her government checks. We don't eat people or use human skin for clothing either. What state do they do those things in again? I've been to MIN and I've seen you folks eat things that would make cannibalism look tame by comparison. Then you add a bunch of drunken 300+lb men dressing up in Goldilocks wigs and you've got a good start on what looks like a bad acid trip there, my friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swiss Cheezhead Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 I've been to MIN and I've seen you folks eat things that would make cannibalism look tame by comparison. Then you add a bunch of drunken 300+lb men dressing up in Goldilocks wigs and you've got a good start on what looks like a bad acid trip there, my friend. A man after my own heart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikesVikes Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 I've been to MIN and I've seen you folks eat things that would make cannibalism look tame by comparison. Then you add a bunch of drunken 300+lb men dressing up in Goldilocks wigs and you've got a good start on what looks like a bad acid trip there, my friend. You get what you ask for sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westvirginia Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Which only proves that no matter how ####ed up a state is it can still have redeeming value beyond lutefisk. I've been to MIN and I've seen you folks eat things that would make cannibalism look tame by comparison. Then you add a bunch of drunken 300+lb men dressing up in Goldilocks wigs and you've got a good start on what looks like a bad acid trip there, my friend. These had me laughing till I couldn't breathe. It's rare I LOL, even rarer that I laugh that hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Itals Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 A man after my own heart. Yeah, but we've never called Jeffrey Dahmer or Brett Favre as one of our own. ...yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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