Major League Baseball is trying to assert rights in the on-line
transmission, not only of baseball games themselves, but of
real-time information about the games, according to Wired News. But
does the sports league have any right?
Gamecasting is the new label for the on-line distribution of
as-it-happens information about sports scores, players and action.
It's a growing phenomenon on the web.
Major League Baseball (MLB) provides gamecasts from its own web
site; but it's keen to ensure that anyone else transmitting games
information is paying it a licence fee.
Bob Bowman, CEO of MLB Advanced Media, told Wired News: "If
someone is communicating information about a game in real time, on
a pitch-by-pitch basis, that's an exhibition of that game".
He added, "There's no difference, in our eyes, between
exhibiting a game using text and graphics and doing it on radio or
television."
So says MLB, but what does the law say? Not a lot,
unfortunately.
Professor Mark Conrad, who teaches sports and new media law at
Fordham University, told Wired News that the position in the US was
unclear:
"It's a tug of war between copyright and the exemption made for
news," he said. "It's tough for a court to find guidance on issues
like this. There's probably a line there somewhere, between [giving
details after] every half-inning and a television broadcast. This
isn't an issue that's going to go away."
In the UK the position is similarly unclear.
According to John MacKenzie, an IP lawyer with international law
firm Masons, the UK courts would be unlikely to uphold a copyright
claim in relation to gamecasts, so long as the data transmitted had
been collected and processed in some way by the gamecaster.
But the gamecaster has to get access to the game – which is
where broadcasting rights, the rights to be at the ground, come
in.
MacKenzie said:
"The BBC came across a similar difficulty
with Talksport, who were broadcasting radio commentary while
watching live TV pictures. The BBC stopped them calling it 'live',
but could not stop the broadcasts. The same is likely to be true
for games information. The tension is between the right to report,
and the contractual right to exclusivity."
