Fantasy Leagues get a boost from legal ruling

[theogt]

Comparing criminal acts and intellectual property litigation is completely ridiculous. A groundbreaking decision is one that affects a great number of people (which this does) and that removes the need for other people or organizations to defend against it in the future. I realize you are only thinking, "Hey, it's fantasy leagues, big deal" but I can tell you this has far reaching effects beyond fantasy leagues and MLB. There are a lot of IP lawsuits in many different areas (not MLB/Fantasy Leagues) that are active right now that will use the MLB ruling as the basis of their argument.

No there really aren't. They may use the argument that facts aren't protected property and may even cite to the MLB case, but the MLB case didn't change anything in the law that I'm aware of.

In fact, there are a couple of sites that I can now create that I wanted to create for a long time but never did because I felt that if they got popular (they may not, but IF they did) I would be hit with a C&D order from the major sports organizations.

There are so many "obviously stupid" IP lawsuits out there right now that a lot of developers and organizations avoid entering markets just to remove the risk of potential litigation. I have been on both ends of IP litigation and can tell you, the process is long, tedious and very expensive.

The bottom line is that this was a major groundbreaking ruling for anti-intellectual property activists across the nation. You can keep saying it wasn't, but I can assure you, in my line of work, it was a very important ruling.

-Reality

Ok, I can see it from this perspective. It does give "the little guy" a giant flag to wave in response to any C&D letter, but I would certainly advise you to obtain counsel before doing anything like that.