Slashdot Mirror
Who Owns Baseball Statistics?
Class Act Dynamo writes "A sports fantasy league company has asked a federal court to decided whether baseball statistics belong in the public domain as history or are the property of major league baseball. Basically, they had been licensing the statistics for nine cents (US) per gross from the Major League Baseball Players Association. But MLB recently bought the rights to be the sole licensor and has refused to renew the license of the fantasy league company. From the article: 'Major League Baseball has claimed that intellectual property law makes it illegal for fantasy league operators to commercially exploit the identities and statistical profiles of big league players.' What does the Slashdot community think? Shoud Barry Bonds' record 73 single season homeruns be in the public domain, or should I worry about having to pay royalties for the first part of this compound sentence?"
I have recently acquired the rights to myself as a statistic. You may license me as a single number in your statistics if you pay an appropriate licensing fee.
Otherwise, you must cease including me in your statistics, like so:
MLB Fans: 27 - 1
Sorry.
Somehow I'm not at all surprised.
I happen to own your lack of surprise, it's all right here in this deed. You now owe me $5.00 for each occurrence that doesn't surprise you, or the viewing of anything in your surroundings that appears to be perfectly normal.
That would be silly.
Of course I could argue that a cop can't write me a speeding ticket because i own the copyright in how fast i was travelling.
I got dibs on planck's constant!
A blog about stuff.
The new national sport will be soccer soon until the soccer players become overpaid, whiny, wimps too.
Welcome to England
Brocklesby Park Cricket Club
I bought Avagadro's Constant and the Hubble Constant off eBay, and I own stock in e, pi and the golden ratio.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
by BadAnalogyGuy (945258)
;-).
Did you pick your nick yourself, or is that what people call you? Because it's spot-on
I always thought cricket was a way to work up a thirst before going to the pub, and the statistics were so the maths geeks (who can't bat to save themselves, let alone field) have something to do. A very democratic sport in that respect.
Radio cricket is an excuse for the commentators to discuss random bollocks (um, not literally) between balls, and televised cricket is pointless because they take it too seriously.
Given that the sort of statistics we're talking about here are closer to what statisticians would normally call data (X scored Y runs in game Z), it would seem obvious to me that it's historical fact, and not copyrightable. But then, I'm not American and don't give a toss about baseball.
Remind me to never bother using up any of my life finding out about this game... sounds really exciting
Better yet. Have him write the ticket and then collect royalities twice the amount. Actually make money speeding :)
You don't pick the ball up?
Sheesh, you silly Europeans! That sport will *never* catch on.
FYI.... '±' is the chinese character for "scholar".
.3 billion of them are literate enough to recognize the character. (Might be lower, probably higher.)
.3 billion Chinese using the '±' character an average of once a year.
.... Odds are...., Statistically speaking... Your still poor.)
-Lets consider that there are 1.3 billion Chinese.
-Let's assume that
So...
-Take
-Add the 4 Americans using the '±' character when they discuss baseball
-Multiply by your $50 USD per use
= You are a friggin kuai-ionnaire!!!!
Good luck collecting in China though. (The odds say,
Ask your GrandGrandGrandGrandGrandGrandMa
Which one? I have 64 of those.