| Sign in: |
| Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features. |
|
|
|
|
|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
College Athletes Sue EA for Misappropriation of Likeness
Delane B. Rouse, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Matthew Sauk, Photographer
 |
Sandy | UT | United States | Posted: 11:27 PM on 05.07.09 |
| ->> Good for them. |
|
Derick Hingle, Photographer
|
Hammond | LA | USA | Posted: 11:54 PM on 05.07.09 |
| ->> EA would gladly pay for the rights of the players, but they can not because the NCAA won't allow it, the players don't look exactly like the player, but have the correct jersey number and height, the person that purchases the game can then change the name of a player from RB #32 LSU to Charles Scott. If EA loses this lawsuit the game that all everyone including college and pro players love to play will cease to exist, I know I won't buy a game that can not be customized. What EA is doing with the NCAA game I don't feel hurts anyone. If the players in the game looked exactly like the real players maybe something could be said, they only mirror the attributes (jersey#, height, weight) to make the game true to life, you have to add the names yourself the game has about 40 generic faces, maybe a few more, no actual player faces appear. It is true that a person can download a file of player names someone else created there have been a few places that charged a fee for the rosters, EA did not like that so they created the ability for people to freely share created rosters via download, taking away the market for people that sold player named rosters. I would love to see the NCAA reach some agreement where player likeness could be used, but I don't see that happening, that game would be freaking awesome. I don't play many games now days but that paticular game is a guilty pleasure of mine and probably many sportsshooter members. They even had a fun feature for creating photos of in game action. I hope the game will be able to continue to be published like it has for the last several years. |
|
Adrian Gauthier, Photographer
|
Mississauga | ON | Canada | Posted: 7:11 AM on 05.08.09 |
->> I'm glad.
However, its the NCAA that's at fault, and not EA. Like it was said above, EA would pay if asked. It'd actually benefit them to be able to put the players in, as it'd increase sales even more. |
|
Michael Granse, Photographer
|
Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 10:13 AM on 05.08.09 |
->> In NCAA 2007 if you play a game at Memorial Stadium (University of Illinois) there are a couple of sideline photographers whose likenesses could be based on Michael Granse and Clark Brooks. Photographers who aproximate our height, build, skin tone, and camera brand (Canon is implied by the telephoto lenses being white) are clearly visible. I became aware of this one evening when my kick returner, Illini #26, scored a touchdown and ran right by a photographer that could easily have been based on the Clark Brooks likeness.
The Brooks look-a-like was right on top of the play while the one that could have been based on me was in the same spot but on the opposite side of the field with a referee blocking his view. This PROVES that Clark and I have a case! I should probably invite all area shooters to play NCAA 07 and have some beers uhhhh . . . I mean "find our likenesses in this game and plan our legal strategy."
On a more serious note, the players who are suing EA Sports will be able to argue that their position, jersey numbers, and height/weight stats correspond to easily available team rosters and that this correspondance demonstrates that their likenesses are being used without compensation, but I think that they are going to lose this fight.
The players in the game, like the photographers and referees, are based on generic models that do not sufficiently resemble anyone to make a positive identification. If the player known as Illini #26 was not wearing #26, a person would not look at that player's face and say "hey . . . that's E.B. Halsey!" |
|
Darren Whitley, Photographer
|
Maryville | MO | USA | Posted: 1:27 AM on 05.09.09 |
| ->> This seems similar to MLB's lawsuit against fantasy leagues. |
|
Derick Hingle, Photographer
|
Hammond | LA | USA | Posted: 12:01 PM on 07.22.09 |
->> Something interesting happened with the NCAA 10 football game, when the game was released a large portion of the rosters were incorrect this year. It wasn't as simple as looking at a players number, height and weight to identify many players so they could be named through the editing system. You see fans of the game like to re-create the college experience and people type in the player names that correspond to a player in the game for all 120 teams in the game. This year the volunteer roster editors hit a number of roadblocks with players that did not correspond to anyone on the roster. I wondered if the roster had been made this way because of the lawsuit. Since the release the volunteer roster editors have corrected the rosters to reflect each player on the actual team and share the rosters fully named with the gaming community, so if you have the game on PS3 or XBOX 360 you can download a completely named roster through EA Locker if you have a person's gamertag or PSN. Even with all that, the players in my opinion are not a likeness of that person because there are only about 20+ generic faces built into the game. Anyone with the game that would like a named roster to play can visit my PSN Derick76 through EA Locker to download the roster. On another note the photographers in the game must all be sportsshooter members, many of the photographers in the game are shooting in the wrong direction and chimping, seriously they are chimping ;-)
And I just realized I have too much time on my hands this morning to write all this, so I'll stop now. |
|
Clark Brooks, Photo Editor, Photographer
|
Urbana | IL | USA | Posted: 1:33 PM on 07.25.09 |
->> Without viewing the actual contract for specific language and with one exception, I'm not seeing where the plaintiffs have much of a case. There is a standard commercial model release clause giving the NCAA the right to freely distribute likeness from game film and still images of any student athlete under contract.
"The complaint charges that the Indianapolis-based NCAA forces college athletes, under threat of ineligibility, to sign a "purposefully misleading" agreement giving away "all rights in perpetuity to the commercial use of their images."
source: http://www.indystar.com/article/20090721/SPORTS/907210391/NCAA+hit+with+lawsuit+over+likeness+usage |
|
Return to --> Message Board Main Index
|