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Baseball Cracks Down on Fan Sites
serutan writes: "Looks like Major League Baseball has joined other players in the big-media content industry to crack down on fans who overstep their proper place as consumers. Anybody with a website dedicated to America's favorite pastime better read this story on Yahoo."
I'm so sick of these bloody corporations dictating what is proper to be posted for PUBLIC consumption.
What is stopping someone from simply making a website that lists statistics, player info, and so on, but changing the relevant information in such a way that there is no hint of MLB, or NFL, or any other sports logo anywhere?
What I'm getting at is this... a translator website that simply lists the information, as neutral as it can, without directly stating or "infringing" on their copyrights.
Not that it matters anyhow.. Why can't someone just put up a website on a non-US server?
What is wrong with posting information, plain information.. pure and simple???
Rant over. Flame away you slashturds.
user@host$ diff
To me this is a case of operating within one's rights, to the detriment of one's business. Baseball has done this in spades for as long as I can remember, and it's finally beginning to affect the business.
I have had season tickets to a major league baseball team for the past ten years, meaning that during that time I have seen over 750 games (I've had to miss a few due to business trips, etc.). The basic attitude of the team and MLB in general, seems to be that fans are obligated to attend, regardless of how they are treated.
Probably the best example of this is the stadium's "security" policy regarding material one may bring to the games. I would like to bring in things like a score book, media guide, binoculars, sunscreen, pencils, etc., but they won't allow a bag larger than 8-1/2" x 11" (21.5 cm x 28 cm) into the stadium--even if you let them search the bag, or even empty it out at the feet of the inspector. The bag itself is not permitted, for some reason. However, they *will* allow women's purses and infants' diaper bags of any size, and they don't perform body searches or use metal detectors--whatever is in your pockets or under your clothes is yours to keep.
What they *think* they are accomplishing by this I cannot imagine, but I can say what they *are* accomplishing: As a result of this policy I can always tell a new, prospective fan, going to a game for the first time--I pass him walking back out to the parking lot as I am walking in, carrying the bag or knapsack he quite reasonably expected to be able to take to the game. Or I pass him at the inspector's station at the stadium entrance, presenting rational but useless arguments and expressions of surprise and disbelief to the bored workers there. As a business, the team has the right to set up rules for all those who enter, but the team shouldn't complain when no one bothers to come any more, and new fans prove difficult to attract. It's always been a puzzle to me how baseball owners could have business acumen sufficient to amass personal fortunes, yet run major league baseball as if they were the stupidest form of life on the planet.
This kind of behavior is rampant in MLB and, barring an unforeseen turnaround, may soon enable baseball to reach the popularity of those other major sports of the 1950's--boxing and horse racing.
it does not matter what they were using the profit for (to continue the existence of the site) they were using the site to get money. plain and simple. only a few sites were even contacted by MLB, and ofd those, ALL of them were using cafepress to sell unauthorized merchandise.
A friend of mine has been running PhilsPhans.com since the beginning of this year with a focus on forum discussions, in response to many people who complained about the forums at the official site being crowded with spammers. The site gathered popularity among Phillies fans pretty quickly, and soon a lot of users from the official Phillies forums switched to the little new site. About a month or so ago, he received a letter from the Phillies ordering him to shut down his site due to "trademark infringement"; their claim was that the word "phils" is their property, and thus he can't use it as part of the site's name. How could anyone trademark such a common word is beyond logic, but since he doesn't have the resources to fight this, so he's being forced to move the site to a different domain.
In Soviet Russia, Jesus asks: "What Would You Do?"
there's lots of baseball sites that MLB encourages, among them are baseball-almanac.com and the various sabermetrics sites (like http://www.baseball1.com/c-sabr.html )...
these sites *talk* about baseball, and provide lots of insight, they just don't attempt to portray themselves as official sites, and they produce their own artwork and design. A lot of the pages that get 'foxed' are full of graphics, photos, and information (including trademarks within urls) that the sites' producers simply don't have the rights to re-transmit. The graphic designer that produced last year's world series logo deserves payment for it's use, just as Derek Jeter deserves the right to control who uses his image, or, moreso, perhaps, those who've PAID Derek Jeter for the exclusive right to his image deserve to retain those exclusive rights.
Look at the baseballhalloffame.org site (which, while having a good relationship with the MLB, has no official tie to any current or former league). You'll not see any logos, images, etc. that they don't own the rights to, even though they're obviously "serving the fans", and have a great relationship with professional and amateur baseball at all levels.
There's nothing wrong with "posting information, pure and simple". The sites that do that aren't the ones receiving letters from the MLB.