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|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2006-03-17
NCAA: SportsShooter.com does not violate NCAA legislation
By Scarlet Pruitt, SportsShooter.com
Photo by Rod Mar / SportsShooter.com
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SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.
March 17, 2006
Images of student athletes currently posted on SportsShooter.com do not violate National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) restrictions, a NCAA representative has confirmed.
Since the images are not being used to promote commercial purposes, they do not fall foul of association regulations, NCAA Membership Services Director Wendy A. Walters indicated in a letter received Friday.
Under general NCAA legislation the name or likeness of student athletes cannot be used to promote a commercial product or service and students who violate this rule risk losing eligibility to participate in intercollegiate athletics.
The NCAA's letter could come as good news for a number of SportsShooter.com members who have received cease and desist letters from college compliance officers over their posting of images of student athletes.
Walters pointed out, however, that some NCAA institutions and conferences employ rules that are more stringent than NCAA legislation and could "preclude such postings".
The issue arose several months ago when a communications director at Syracuse University in New York took issue with the posting of images of a Syracuse football game on SportsShooter.com. Syracuse athletic communications director Susan C. Edson threatened to revoke the press credentials of two photographers if they did not take the images down.
The situation was resolved when the photographers involved agreed to have digital watermarks placed on the posted images stating their name and affiliation to prove that they were accredited members of the media. For its part, SportsShooter.com clarified language in its Terms & Conditions indicating that the site does not claim the right to use member-posted images in any way other than on the Site itself.
Despite this, several SportsShooter.com members began receiving cease and desist letters from compliance officers at various universities regarding images they had posted to the site.
Last month NCAA officials met to discuss the SportsShooter.com site and application of the bylaw restricting the use of student athlete images. In reviewing the site, the group took issue with a line of text present on all member pages, reading: "Currently Accepting Freelance: Yes", saying it promoted commercial interests.
SportsShooter.com administrators responded by removing the line of text to underscore their intention of running a purely editorial site. Following this, SportsShooter.com received a letter from Walters late last week saying that "it appears that SportsShooter.com is no longer being used by members to advertise their availability of freelance work" and given this, it "would no longer violate NCAA legislation to have a photograph of a student-athlete appear on a member's Web page."
Walters, who oversees interpretations and membership educational efforts as well as coordinates legal activities between the membership services staff and the NCAA general counsel office, also acknowledged that the bylaw in question was adopted prior to 1997, when the technological advances that are occurring today were not envisioned. The group has invited the administrators of SportsShooter.com to help it review the issues so it can assess "whether there are any legislative changes which need to be implemented to align our goal and mission with changes in technology."
"Obviously, this is good news," said Grover Sanschagrin, Executive Producer of SportsShooter.com. "A lot has changed since 1997, and we're more than willing to help the NCAA re-examine this particular bylaw."
"The NCAA is a busy organization," said Sanschagrin. "I'm grateful that they took the time to tour our site and review our situation, and that we were able to resolve this issue on behalf of our members."
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