By JIMMY D / Fantasy gets real in American courtrooms | Jimmy's archive

Jimmy gets cranky when reality intrudes upon fantasy.

He gets even crankier when that reality is corporate greed and attempts to use the courts to stifle fantasy sports.

Two situations came to a head in the good old litigious USA last week that were favourable to fantasy last. 

You recall last year that Jimmy D chided Charles Humphrey Jr., a lawyer from Colorado, who was hoping to prove fantasy sports was the equivalent of sports betting (so he could then go sue fantasy companies for causing gambling losses).

A judge in New Jersey tossed the case – brought against ESPN and other sports websites – which was greeted with relief by big fantasy providers who make millions off entry fees and transaction charges. So, no money for Humphrey and don’t be concerned about being labeled a degenerate gambler – you’re just a degenerate fantasy participant.

In the same week, a panel of appeal court judges in the USA did not seem to look favorably on MLB’s attempt to own stats that are immediately in the public domain (and thus not copyrightable material).

“Everybody knows their names, what they look like, what their averages are, they talk about it all the time. This is just part of being an American, isn't it?” U.S. Judge Morris Arnold asked MLB Advanced Media lawyers, who were arguing that player stats are sacred and cannot be used for fantasy leagues without licensing fees.

MLBAM, which was lauded last week for raking in $400 million in overall revenue last year, argued that player names attached to those stats makes it a commercial use for which players should be compensated in licensing fees. Apparently $400 million isn’t quite enough if there is more to be squeezed from satellite businesses such as fantasy.

Of course, this came to a head shortly after MLB paid the players association $50 million for licensing fees, then started denying all the previously held licensing deals. One of them, CDMSports, had a licensing deal for a decade and paid MLB more than 10 per cent of all revenues. Then in 2005, when it was finally obvious how profitable fantasy sports could be, MLB decided it was time to monopolize it.

The expectation was that all the small to medium-size fantasy companies who had invested all the work and innovation to make the industry grow, would not get licenses, while MLB focused on a select few partners (heavyweights like AOL or Yahoo or Sportsline) who could afford to pay millions in fees.

But CDM not only continued to use the stats for its games, but sought a declaration that stats are public domain. For good measure, they now pay MLB zero per cent of revenues instead of 12 per cent after U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Ann L. Medler declared last August that “players do not have a right of publicity in their names and playing records.”

The judges last week took less than an hour to grill the MLBAM lawyer on her points and most observers feel they will not overturn the earlier edict.
Fingers and toes crossed for a favourable ruling when it comes down in a few months.

Jimmy baseball update

The injury bug touched down on Jimmy’s fantasy baseball roster last week, with Miguel Tejada hitting the DL and Johnny Damon hitting the pine.

The result was some quick roster shuffling (Carlos Guillen from Utility to shortstop, Matt Morris ditched to the waiver wire and promoting soon-to-be-off-the-DL Chris Capuano back to active status, bench Tejada and Damon and grab Angel lead-off man Reggie Willits off waivers to sub for Damon).

Jimmy has watched Willits suspiciously in recent weeks, but the outfielder has been hot, swipes bases and has one of the league’s best on-base percentage. Of course, as soon as Jimmy grabbed him, he produced an 0-for-5 on Sunday. If you need batting average and stolen bases in your league and can stand an outfielder with zero power, look at Willits.

Jimmy can only hope the two weeks off helps Tejada find his home-run swing and the pine time heals Damon’s tender hammy.

Jimmy also grabbed struggling Bartolo Colon off waivers in hopes he can turn in a few quality starts (he is in a contract year, after all). He pitches against the Tejada-less Orioles this week as Jimmy’s fantasy Jackals try to hold off the hard-charging, second-place Blue Jays.

Jimmy D