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EA and NCAA's appeal rejected in likeness lawsuit
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected an appeal by EA and NCAA that college athletes' likenesses were protected by the First Amendment with regard to the development of EA's college football and basketball games. Just yesterday, EA motioned to dismiss a third amended complaint that added six current NCAA student athletes to certify the class in the lawsuit. The majority opinion held by the court stated that "EA's use of the likenesses of college athletes like Samuel Keller in its video games is not, as a matter of law, protected by the First Amendment." This began with former Nebraska quarterback Samuel Keller filing a class-action lawsuit against EA in May 2009. The suit has since been combined with that of former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon, according to Bloomberg. NCAA opted to not renew its contract with EA for development of the NCAA Football series earlier this month. EA stated that it will move forward in developing college football games with licensing provided by the Collegiate Licensing Company for the next three years on a non-exclusive basis.
USA Today: EA could lose over $1B in NCAA athlete suit
USA Today has calculated that Electronic Arts could face $1 billion in damages if it eventually loses a class-action lawsuit brought against the publisher and the NCAA by former college athletes. The lawsuit, which has been ongoing for two years, revolves around compensation for athletes' likenesses being used in EA's NCAA football and basketball games. The Cliff's Notes version of the math works a little something like this: the law apparently says each player can be awarded $1,000 per likeness, per platform. This ends up being about $305.5 million for all the football players and $29 million for basketball players, a total of $334.5 million. Now, if the judge decides EA and the NCAA were "knowing, willful or intentional" in their compensation violation, the amount can be tripled under the Indiana publicity rights statute for damages over a billion dollars. EA's official statement, provided by EA corp. comm VP Jeff Brown: "We could lose billions more if a giant meteor hits the earth. We're not planning for either outcome."
Court denies EA's motion to dismiss former NCAA player's lawsuit
We've been on pins and needles since last May, when we first heard about former NCAA football player Samuel Keller's lawsuit against EA, which claimed that his likeness and the likenesses of his former athletic colleagues had been used in the company's games without permission. According to court documents obtained by Patent Arcade, there was a development in the case last week: The U.S. District for the Northern District of California denied EA's motion to dismiss Keller's claims outright. According to the aforementioned court documents, EA's defense claimed the NCAA series' in-game players were subject to "significant transformative elements," which allowed the title to be protected by the First Amendment. The court saw differently, however, ruling that "EA's game goes beyond mere reporting of 'just the players' names and statistics; it offers a depiction of the student athletes' physical characteristics and, as noted, enables consumers to control the virtual players on a simulated football field." In short, Keller's complaints have garnered some traction in the California court. We'll likely be hearing more on this case -- we just hope we don't have to wait eight and a half months before the next update comes.
EA Sports facing litigation from NCAA football players
Man, EA Sports just can't catch a break. Not only is it reportedly under fire from a number of retired NFL players, but they could be facing litigation from incensed NCAA football players as well. The complaint is similar to that of the aforementioned pro ballers -- former Arizona State and Nebraska football player Samuel Keller recently filed a class action suit against EA for using the likenesses of his fellow collegiate athletes in NCAA Football and Basketball titles without any compensation.Just like in the NFL lawsuit, Keller claims that while the digital players lack monikers, they have the same jersey numbers, home states, height, weight, skin tone, hair color and hair style of their real-life counterparts. Sounds pretty similar to the complaints featured in the NFL retirees' successful suit against the NFLPA. We'll keep an eye on this one to see if Keller and the other college players get similar results.[Via GamePolitics]
