The Intersaction of Law and Fantasy Sports Game－Copyright and the Right of Publicity

• Main Authors: Chrng-Wei Ho, 何正偉
• Other Authors: none
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/20851354853601748687

碩士 === 逢甲大學 === 財經法律研究所 === 97 === Fantasy Sports Game is an creative business model, which transmits “real time” sporting events and the resulting statistics to the participants around the world. Fantasy sports game fulfills all participants’ fantasy dreams which to be a baseball team coach or a basketball team manager, also could select favorite players to form their “fantasy rosters”. Fantasy leagues compile and transform the real world performance of professional athletes in a specific set of categories into the “fantasy point”. For example, a participant gets 2 fantasy point when a player grabs one rebound or -1 fantasy point when makes 1 fault on real court. Participants or “managers” compete against other fantasy managers who have drafted their own teams. The success of one''s fantasy team over the course of the season is dependent on one''s chosen players'' actual performances on their respective actual teams. The owner with the best statistics at the end of the season wins the league. Much like a real life general manager and manager, throughout the season fantasy participants execute trades for players with other participants, as well as make changes to their own lineups in anticipation of particular match-ups. With an estimated 30 million people nationwide participating in fantasy sports games, the fantasy sports industry has grown into one of the greatest cultural obsessions in modern-day America. However, the expansion and financial success of fantasy sports industry raises a number of unique and complex intellectual property law issues that currently remain unresolved. The current debate centers around whether player names, statistics, and related information are the intellectual property of the professional leagues and/or their players associations, such that the unlicensed use of this information by members of the fantasy industry constitutes violations of both federal and state law. The battle over the licensure of fantasy sports was the subject of intense and highly scrutinized federal court litigation in C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing, Inc. v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P. So we check out this case in this thesis, and try to provide a different thingking about these problems. The thesis begins by providing a brief overview of the history and mechanics behind the operation of a fantasy game; a basic knowledge of the game setup is critical to understanding the legal dilemmas that are currently facing the industry. Next, we examine whether fantasy sports organizations have violated federal copyright law as a result of their use of player names and statistics in connection with their fantasy games. And then we moves to the most contentious issue involved in the collision of fantasy sports and intellectual property law: the right of publicity. In addition to providing an overview of the relevant law, both the copyright and right of publicity discussions conclude with analyses and recommendations for how the court should apply the existing legal doctrine in the realm of fantasy sports litigation. At last, we check how the court might do if the same lawsuit happens in Taiwan, and also consider whether Taiwan would codify a separate law of publicity rights in the future.