NYT Editorial Supports Copyright Rationality in Sports
The New York Times has a nice editorial today on the Supreme Court’s denial of cert to the MLB’s claims to own fantasy baseball. That leaves the case where the Eighth Circuit did, saying that fantasy leagues created around major-league baseball facts are fair game, not the property of MLB. Great to see a major new outlet weighing in against the expansionary claims:
In recent years, corporations have been aggressively pushing the bounds of intellectual property — extending the length of copyrights to unreasonable lengths, for example, and patenting seeds. In the case of fantasy baseball, the courts have rightly cried foul.
The biggest fantasy in this case was Major League Baseball’s claim that its fans should pay to talk about the game.
In fact, I believe Apple is creating a “killer” ecosystem of easy-to-use hardware and mobile software downloading that will result in iPhone users downloading more software, per-person, than any other single cellular phone.
Some are criticizing Sun for standing by while Linux took unfair hits from SCO. But isn't this what the law and corporate citizenship required of the company?
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