Supreme Court refuses to step in:
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by Major League Baseball Advanced Media and the players association in their case against CDM Fantasy Sports. The justices’ decision ends a bitter legal fight that lasted more than three years.
St. Louis-based CDM in 2006 won the right in federal district court to use major league players’ names and statistics in commercial fantasy games without a license. That set off a lengthy series of appeals from MLBAM and the union that mushroomed into a case with significant implications for all of celebrity licensing.
Read the whole thing for the implications.
IMO a case can be made as far as the use of players names, but stats are part of the record and the only way to shut them off would be to make everyone pay for them, including news outlets. My guess is that many would not and that would hurt the game. I think fantasy games have help fuel renewed interest in baseball. Trying to squeeze every penny out of the game will only hurt it in the long run, but we all know that baseball hasn’t learned that lesson yet.