Main Index : Writings of Marie A. D'Amico, Esq.

Tiger Woods And The Net

Real-Time Sports Statistics Are Big Biz

Looking to make money on the Net? Take note - real-time reporting of sports statistics is one of the scant success stories on the Net. An estimated 400,000 folks flock to ESPN’s SportsZone site on Starwave daily, where they allegedly average 3 million clicks every day. The ESPN site on Starwave uses RealAudio to broadcast games from ESPN Radio over the Internet. Starwave also operates the official NBA and NFL sites , where sports fanatics can download RealAudio broadcasts of games for $4.95 a month, or $1 for a daily pass. The site’s success was enough for Disney , which got ESPN in its billion dollar buyout of ABC/Capitol Cities, to purchase a significant stake in Starwave on April 3rd.

Other companies have seen the green light and are tossing resources into this Net safety zone. CBS Sports, for example, acquired a 22 percent stake in SportsLine USA to create CBS Sports online . InterZine Productions , which is oft cited as one of the most popular pit stops on AOL, acquired almost $8 million recently from investors. InterZine contains links to over 1,000 golf sites on the Net, proving that pre-legend Tiger Woods is as popular on the Net as he is on the links.

Court Case Jeopardizes Net Sport Statistics

All of the non-official Internet-based sports sites, like ESPN Radio and InterZine Productions, while money-making, may be impacted adversely by two very recent court cases. On July 19th, the U.S. District Court in New York ruled that real-time reporting of sports statistics from NBA games, without the NBA’s approval, constituted unfair competition. Judge Loretta Preska issued an injunction against Stats, Inc . and Motorola, Inc. Stats’ reporters gather real-time, regularly updated sports statistics by viewing NBA games on television or listening to radio broadcasts. They then transmit them to Stats’ AOL site (keyword: Stats) and to Motorola’s SportsTrax pagers. Motorola and the NBA had discussed designing a sports statistics pager; they couldn’t decide upon the details, so Motorola sold its SportsTrax pager sans NBA approval using Stats’ statistics. The NBA filed suit.

Most pundits pooh-poohed the NBA, claiming it was complaining simply of sports score reporting. Roger Zissu, a lawyer representing the NBA, says this is an oversimplification of the NBA’s claims. The NBA objects not simply to real-time reporting of NBA sports scores, he says, but to the split-second transmission of all sorts of sports statistics. For example, Stats’ AOL site supplies statistics about game time remaining, free-throw status, and foul statistics; numbers Stats updates sometimes within 15 seconds of NBA play. The Judge said sports statistics are the NBA’s most valuable asset, which the NBA protects by licensing (NBC pays $3 million per game for broadcast rights), media restrictions, and patron warnings that tickets forbid transmission of game information outside the arena.

Reversal of Fortune

Motorola and Stats appealed the District Court’s opinion to the U.S. Court of Appeals. On January 30th, the Court of Appeals via Judge Winter reversed Judge’s Preska’s opinion, ruling that neither Motorola nor Stats had misappropriated the NBA’s property. Judge Winter ruled NBA games don’t compete with electronic transmissions of sports statistics saying, "there is no evidence that anyone regards SportsTrax or the AOL site as a substitute for attending NBA games or watching them on television." Judge Winter also ruled since Stats spent its own resources to review NBA games and transmit NBA sports statistics, Stats didn’t "steal" NBA statistics.

The Court also considered, then rejected, the NBA’s claims of copyright infringement. The Court concluded that athletic events are not copyrightable, because they’re not "authored" by anyone, a requirement of copyrightability. The Court concluded, however, that broadcasts of NBA games are not only copyrightable, but also protectible against infringement, such as by reproduction or transmission without permission. Stats’ real-time electronic reporting of sports statistics, however, didn’t infringe the NBA’s broadcast copyrights because Stats reproduced only facts from the games, not bits of the broadcast.

We all know, from watching O.J.’s recent reversal of fortune, that the NBA could appeal this latest decision. When people can plunk down a piddling $300 for a WebTV device, and get free sports statistics, the Court may find that the Net and a couch does compete with a crowded stadium. On April 6th, Microsoft Corporatio n announced its purchase of WebTV for $425 million. When the King of the Desktop becomes the Lord of Consumer Devices, even Madison Square Garden could become a thing of the past.

Tips for Electronic John Maddens

Considering the courts’ recent flip-flops, we offer the following tips for all you electronic John Madden-wannabes . First, don’t reproduce or transmit bits of broadcasts, whether radio or television, over the Net, without authorization from the broadcasts’ owner, for example, the NBA, NFL, or NHL. Congress specifically said, in 1976, that live broadcasts of sporting events are copyrightable works and unauthorized reproduction or transmission can constitute copyright infringement.

Second, if you want to play it super-safe, contact the organization in charge, and request a license. Most sports organizations like the NBA have licenses covering the use of sports statistics in electronic media. Read and review the license. The Augusta National, Inc. (ANI), which owns the rights to the Masters Tournament , forbids the transmission over the Internet, any on-line service, or any other means of electronic transmission, including pagers, of real-time scores except through their official web site. Therefore, you might want to be very careful how you transmit Tiger’s golf scores. On April 16th, Major League Baseball issued a ban of live audio broadcasts over the Internet until it sorted out its policies. One Seattle-based radio station, KIRO-AM , pulled the plug on its Internet-based broadcast of a Seattle game pursuant to a request from Major League Baseball. KIRO posted a message on its website saying, "Until further notice, Major League Baseball properties has directed KIRO radio to refrain from allowing major league baseball radio broadcasts to be distributed via the Internet."

The NBA has not only licenses but also Media Guidelines governing the use of NBA game information on electronic media. If you adhere to these Guidelines, you need not obtain a license. The NBA Guidelines permit you to transmit sports statistics outside NBA stadiums without NBA approval if you transmit no more than three times per quarter and once during each of the two quarter breaks, and you transmit no more than two times per each overtime period, once during the overtime period and once during the break immediately preceding the overtime period. In addition, no transmission may exceed thirty seconds.

If you want to exceed the NBA Guidelines, you must either obtain a license from the NBA or hope that the Court of Appeals decision will withstand an appeal to another court (for example, the Supreme Court). As always in sports, you place your bets and you take your chances.

Questions? Send me email .