It sums up the entire case, what both sides are claiming, and how copyright and publicity right law affects it.

http://www.fantasyfootballcafe.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=131610&highlight=future+fantasy+sports

MLB is trying very hard to assert a “right of publicity” [over boxscores and the like], which I would have to say is a crock. The newspapers report such stuff every day; do they, too, have to stop reporting box scores now?

The first sentence of DeMause’s article flatly refutes this.

The center of the article is the question of whether or not fantasy games are “essentially just stats services.” As much as I don’t like the implications, and acknowledging that legally I have no clue what I’m talking about, I think the answer is that they are NOT just stats services.

When you play fantasy baseball, you do more than just consume statistical information, you’re consuming interactive entertainment that depends on player likenesses for its entertainment value. I think the most important distinction that DeMause draws in his article is between newspaper box scores and Strat-O-Matic. I fail to see how Yahoo fantasy baseball is more akin to a boxscore than it is to Strat-O-Matic.

I disagree, though, regarding the legal posture. I do think CDM will take this lawsuit all the way to victory and, assuming CDM wins, ESPN, Yahoo, and CBS Sportsline will have to seriously consider running their fantasy operations without a sublicense. At the very least, the lawsuit will dissuade MLB from gouging its sublicensees (and ultimately consumers) by abusing the exclusive license granted to it by MLBPA.

But they might try to pursue somebody like baseball-reference.com if they can convince the courts that box scores and the like are somehow protected, copyrightable data. Facts are not copyrightable; only a thin copyright is granted on such stuff. MLB is trying very hard to assert a “right of publicity”, which I would have to say is a crock. The newspapers report such stuff every day; do they, too, have to stop reporting box scores now? I don’t think so, and that’s where this silliness will ultimately end. The problem is the big players in fantasy will get coöpted by virtue of having already paid the license; unlike the situation with the Selden Patent, there is no cantankerous Henry Ford who is likely to have both the money and the inclination to drag the thing all the way through the courts.

No your information is not shared with outside parties.

Does anyone have the inside scoop, so I don’t have fall back on trusting my new buddy Lawrence?