Talk:CSE590TU
590TU Discussion
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Rights for NBA scores on pagers - what if?
I'm an engineer, not a policy wonk, so bear with me. In class we learned about the Hearst VS AP case that said that you couldn't protect facts unless someone taking those facts would "destroy" the underlying service. In the case about the NBA trying to block the scores of games being broadcast on pagers without them taking a cut of the $$, the quite reasonable claim is that those scores being broadcast would not destroy the NBA and hence it's OK.
OK - suppose that I founded SpaithCO Limited and in 2003 I gave the NBA a wad of cash to have exclusive rights to sell those scores on pagers. (Pretend the real life court case never happened.) Then some heavy weight (say Moto) in 2004 comes along and doesn't want to play ball with SpaithCO. If Motorola can broadcast out NBA scores without paying SpaithCO, then SpaithCO's wise and handsome CEO could argue that his company would be destroyed by Moto's action. Never mind what happens to the NBA.
Does SpaithCO have a claim here? I've been speculating and I believe it depends on whether the NBA had a right to *exclusively* sell this information to SpaithCO for this use in the first place. I'm thinking the answer is no or the NBA would've pulled something like this already to get at least a little $$ out of some SpaithCO. Can anyone out there shed some more light on this? The idea of some underlying service being "destroyed" really seems like a grey area in many cases.
[Author: John Spaith]
--Jackr 22:32, 6 Oct 2004 (PDT) To me this sounds like the Cable Company phone directory case also mentioned in class, just with the addition of money being paid to get the initial information. It would seem the NBA managed to sell something it never really owned. Of course, I'm just an engineer as well.
-- [apardoe] I believe that the NBA issue stems from the Supreme Court's decision not to hear the PGA vs Morris Communications appeal ( http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1071719761758 ). The PGA is able to protect golf tournament scores and statistics because they are a private company producing this IP (the scores) on private property and license this information to spectators and news organizations. This is to say that the tournament scores are in fact company trade secrets developed at great cost.
My assumption is that the NBA has never "owned" basketball game scores and statistics because they produce this IP on public property. If they are able to align their efforts closely enough with the PGA's IP development process they may be able to protect their IP in the same way that the PGA is able to do so. I can't imagine a basketball team buying a stadium (as opposed to buying a stadium-funding election) but there's gotta be a loophole. [/apardoe]
Talk on Electronic Voting for MS Employees
There is going to be a talk given on electronic voting by a Microsoft researcher for Microsoft employees on October 18th. You can register for the talk through MSTE. [jameswelle]
