Yahoo! Sports joins list of those suing NFLPA over fantasy stats

June 4, 12:05 PMSports ExaminerPaula Duffy

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The NFL Player's Association is back in court with a large customer. Sports Business Daily reports that Yahoo! became the second major Internet portal to sue the NFLPA in a continuing struggle over the free use of players' names and their individual stats for fantasy football purposes. Read the Yahoo! filing, here.

Last year, CBS Interactive the entity that runs the CBS Sportsline site won a victory that Yahoo! seeks to replicate. This is a relatively cut and dry affair. Either the fantasy football sites have the right to use publicly available information without paying a fee or they don't. We're not talking about use of photos of players whether in or out of their trademarked unis. This is the stuff you get from game summaries and box scores.

But no big entity gives up substantial money without a struggle (almost $900K last year from Yahoo!) for something  they can make you believe shouldn't be free. CBS beat the NFLPA and the union is appealing.

The CBS suit relies heavily on a decision in a case brought by a smaller fantasy site against MLB on the same set of facts. CDM Fantasy Sports won a victory that hinges on what kind of information is in the public domain and what belongs to an individual who can charge for its use.

Newspapers and magazines routinely publish players' stats and don't get hit over the head for a licensing fee. For some reason, the unions and licensing arms of the major sports have distinguished newspaper reports from use of the same information when it is provided by digital media to fantasy sports players.

Until recently the fees were paid without complaint but as soon as the CDM victory was published, the flood gates opened. Here's the problem for the unions: new media (not so new any longer) has the same business model as traditional media.

They publish information and charge the public to read it. They also make money from advertisers who want eyeballs on their product offerings. Just because the user of the information is a commercial enterprise doesn't mean that it loses its status as a provider of public information that doesn't tread on individual rights.

But the CDM case was the first of its kind on this set of facts and although CBS won its initial round onlookers are anxious to see if it stands up on appeal. Until then, life sure isn't a fantasy for Yahoo!

For more info:  John Juettner, Fantasy Baseball Examiner    Erik Planer, Fantasy Golf Examiner

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