(Thanks, Robert) This is bound to get controversy in the coming days: MLB is attempting to protect its proprietary data and contending that real-time dissemination of game statistics is approaching the status of a protected broadcast. Floyd Abrams, a constitutional attorney, quoted in the story:
“At some point some court is going to have to draw a line at what is
public domain and what is proprietary.”
ESPN, in a statement Wednesday, said it “disagrees” with MLB’s claims of ownership. While it recently agreed to take its real-time game statistics used online from mlb.com rather than using its own SportsTicker subsidiary, that was “not a statement with about either side’s legal rights.
My columnist Robert Spears has this to say: MLB should consider providing a premium Gamecast service. Key benefits to offer could be faster delivery and higher reliability, and miscellaneous bells-and-whistles unvailable to free users of the interactive “data-casts”. A premium service would also help define and communicate what is permissible by third-party sites and what should to be licensed.
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