[Lefty Noob]

Major League Baseball lost a court case yesterday in which they tried to block fantasy league from using player name and statistics without a license. According to this AP story, "Major League Baseball claimed that intellectual property laws and so-called 'right of publicity' make it illegal for fantasy leagues to make money off the identities and stats of professional players... But even if the players could claim the right of publicity against commercial ventures by others, Medler wrote, the First Amendment takes precedent because CBC, which runs CDM Fantasy Sports, is disseminating the same statistical information found in newspapers every day."

The full story can be found here: Judge: Fantasy leagues allowed to use MLB player names, stats - MLB - Yahoo! Sports. Check it out and let me know what you think about this story.

[MJHMarc]

I think fantasy baseball leagues should have permission to use player's names. It isn't fair to the athletes, but it is fair to the customers. If we pay money to play a fantasy league, we should know the backgrounds and the names of our players. If they take away the names this could shut down a whole industry. No more fantasy baseball preview magazines or software you could download from RotoHQ or any other fantasy sites! No more inside information on your players from ESPN.COM! No more fun!

[ThePundit]

This is sort of sickening to me. MLB don't make enough money?

[MJHMarc]

Shouldn't the MLBPA be fighting this case? I don't see why the MLB has anything to do with it since it is the player's names on the table. And yes, ThePundit, the MLB rakes in billions of dollars each and every season.

[EmpireWF]

That was a silly case. It's not like fantasy leagues use player's likenesses as video game companies and baseball card companies do. It's just text with stats that are freely obtainable.