Baseball whiffs
Jun 2, 2008 Americana, Gelt, Lex scripta
You’re outta here!
Major League Baseball and the players association struck out on Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected their appeal of a ruling that sided with a company that uses player statistics for fantasy baseball.
The high court declined to hear the appeal of a lower-court ruling that a St. Louis-based company called C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing Inc. has a free-speech right to use the names and performance statistics of famous athletes.
So, that’s that, right? Uh…
After the Supreme Court refused to get involved in the dispute, a spokesman for the players union said, “We’re considering our options.” Officials from Major League Baseball declined to comment.
The only “option” would seem to be the gift of legislation, awarding Baseball unprecedented rights to control names and numbers and what people do with them. Heck, Hollywood gets these kinds of things all the time — they’ve extended copyright until forever, after all. Why can’t Baseball have “such a”?
Or is Senator Spector, looking for a pastime and finding professional sports a fertile field in which to seek some latter-day political relevance, maybe going to be a… problem for the billionaires of baseball?
Cross-posted on LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®.
