Entertainment & Sports Law
Fantasy Baseball Stats Protected by First Amendment
A fantasy baseball league does not need a license to run online games, a federal appeals court has ruled.
The St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the use of the athletes’ names and statistics is protected by the First Amendment, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
“The information used in … fantasy baseball games is all readily available in the public domain, and it would be strange law that a person would not have a First Amendment right to use information that is available to everyone,” the court said in its opinion.
The Major League Baseball Players Association had asserted the use of the names and stats by a St. Louis company violates athletes’ right of publicity.
