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U.S. Court of Appeal Rules that Sports Statistics are in the Public Domain
Fantasy sports leagues are a booming area in e-commerce, and the recent decision in C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing, Inc. v. Major League Baseball should bolster the industry. Major League Baseball contended that it “owned” the statistics upon which fantasy sports leagues rely. Such online leagues use the real-life performance of athletes, who are selected by human participants. League players choose their favourites to form virtual teams. These virtual teams then compete with each other by tracking the selected athletes’ statistics.
The Court found that the statistics were nothing more than facts, and noted that there was a strong public interest in keeping these facts in the public domain. This, coupled with the Court’s ruling that the right to free speech trumps a celebrity’s right to control of his or her likeness, won the day for CBC.
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