copyrighting historical facts?

[Andrew Green]

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- A company that runs sports fantasy leagues is asking a federal court to decide whether major leaguers' batting averages and home run counts are historical facts that can be used freely or property that can be sold.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/15/baseball.stats.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Is there anyone that still thinks Intellectual property laws are not broken?

 

[michaeledward]

Are intellectual property laws being broken?

Absolutely. Peer-to-peer networks enable piracy, quick and easy. You could download the latest Harry Potter book withing hours of its publication.

However, the arithmatic used to calculate a battering average is not intellectual property. That Major League Baseball, and the Players association, think they can claim long division as intellectual property speaks to the irony of the discussion.

 

[arnisador]

However, the arithmatic used to calculate a battering average is not intellectual property. That Major League Baseball, and the Players association, think they can claim long division as intellectual property speaks to the irony of the discussion.

Are they claiming that the numbers themselves can't be used, or that the work of doing that division (and collecting the data that goes into teh calculations) is theirs? It's different if they're saying you can't d/l our completed calculations for this purpose vs. saying you can't use these numbers even if you figure out the averages for yourself.

Eitehr way I can't support them though...and it seems self-defeating to discourage baseball fans from following tehir players' stats.

 

[Kacey]

The implication that sports statistics could be intellectual property is disturbing - not for the sports industry only, but for any industry that has statistics available for public use. If a court determines that such statistics meet the definition of intellectual property and must be paid for, then the organization controlling such information could refuse to release it at all (as tricky as that would be in this case, with sports scores being broadcast on the news, in papers, and over the internet). What level of participation would it affect? Professional sports only? College? High school? Pee-wee leagues that say they don't keep score anyway? How would this affect other industries who currently report to the public? What if it expanded to reporting statistics in politics, such as how a particular legislator voted in the past, or how the voting went on a particular bill?

My concern with this particular issue is minimal - I don't watch professional sports, and I don't play fantasy sports. However, should this be passed, I would be concerned for the potential implications regarding censorship of public information - a truly disturbing concept, in my opinion.

 

[kenpojujitsu]

You can not copyright a number.

Allowing MLB to copyright the numbers would like them allowing me to copyright the numbers 0-9 then going house to house and making everyone with an address and phone number pay me for using my numbers.

 

[arnisador]

You can not copyright a number.

But you also can't reprint the phone book. They own the work that went into collecting that data. It's not perfectly clear to me from the article what the MLB's argument is, though it seems to be that the "statistical profile" of a player is copyrighted...whatever that means. Do I own "42 years old, 5'10" tall"? Does Pamela Anderson own her statistical profile? It seems a bit silly to me.

I also think this must backfire on them.