FLORIDA FOOTBALL: FOOD FOR A MAN'S SOUL
NCAA Numbers Game
Unless, you have been on Mars, you know of the NCAA recent twist with blogger Brian Bennett who took issue with his live blogging. The NCAA believes any statistic that takes place during one of its athletic competitions is property of NCAA, and reporting it in a live game thread is a breach of proprietary information it claims it owns.
Well, its curious why at this point the NCAA has decided to take issue with this. As, any person with a computer can provide game updates either being live at the sporting event, or from the comfort at home while watching on tv, listening on radio, or even while its broadcast over the internet. I know I have been guilty of providing web updates of live events previously.
Well, there is a precedent that says that this claim the NCAA claim will not hold up. In the book The Numbers Game by Alan Schwarz (page 183) he mentions how the NBA came after John Dewan of STATS for supplying AOL and Motorolla with game statistics and game updates to their subscribers. The NBA claimed that STATS was infringing on their intellectual properties. In the battle of STATS vs NBA, Judge Preska ruled that providing game updates such as real time data was in essence providing a simultaneous rebroadcast of the game. Basically, by her ruling its was stating that STATS was stealing the NBA data unlawfully, even though STATS was simply providing game facts. STATS fought back and filed an appeal. In the appeal, they ruled that public-domain information can’t be considered private property. A HUGE win for STATS and this ruling will pave the groundwork to show that the NCAA claim is bogus, and the Brian Bennett’s of the world will be allowed to continue their work.
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