Comments on: Yahoo sues NFL players group over fantasy stats

Internet company contends it shouldn't be forced to pay royalties for use of players' names, statistics, photos, and other information in its online fantasy football game.

[Mweaver2k9]

Seriously? These sporting giants shouldn't have asked for a penny to begin with. Fantasy sports brings more $$$ to sports these days than ever before, and they should be happy about that.

[Pete Bardo]

Wait a minute! If the "sporting giants" don't ask for a penny, just how does it bring more $$$ to the sport? And if it's not worth paying the royalties, make up some fantasy players instead. Maybe the NFL should just rename one of the teams Yahoo! There are a couple of teams in Texas that might go for it.

[Renegade Knight]

@Pete Bardo

Look at that. I used your name without paying you a single royalty for my posting pleasure. Why and how did I manage that? Fair use.

Sports depends on Fans. Fans talk sports, buy sports merchancies, listen to sports programs and watch sports shows. If Fans in the process of being fans create and use fantasy game sites. They are doing nothing more than what ever sports player would have them do. Be fans. Sports gets free promotions out of the deal and Fans get to be fans. It's win win.

If they want to charge royalties, they also need to start paying the fans for their tireless promoition. You can find copyrighted material on all sides of this issue.

[lordmorgul]

NFL players make me sick. With a very large portion of their fans out of work they are demanding more money from those who enjoy supporting the player's overpaid lack of work jobs. It really is time for the recession to hit America's absurdly overpaid sports industry a little bit.

I have no idea why people are yelling and screaming mad about what wall street executives get paid (who generally work 80 hour weeks....) but are perfectly happy to see their favorite sports players making just as much or more. These guys are not worth millions of dollars and what they provide is just a wide-open drain on the middle class income. Sports fans, wake up and find something else to do with your time.

[malexandria1]

I get tired of everyone thinking everything should be Free and that people who produce Content or in this Case Players shouldn't get paid. Yahoo is using their names and likeness, thus piggybacking off these Athlete's hard work to make money. Yahoo isn't a small mom and pop shop that's doing Fantasy gaming out of the "goodness" of their hearts or just for "fun." It's a business for them, why shouldn't they have to Pay? The argument that Athletes already make a lot of money is just DUMB. They make their money selling their public Image, why should they just let some Internet company use it for free? Oh, yeah, because it's the Internet and nothing has to be paid for on the Internet, everyone knows that! This notion that it'll earn them more money because Yahoo is linking to them is laughable as well.

[monkeyfun14]

With salaries of up to 18mil a year they are overpaid... Especially for playing a game. A laborer has to work harder and looks forward to no more then 10 grand a year.

[jtoy007]

The reason as to why they shouldn't have to pay, is because all they are doing is taking information that is freely located on the web and putting it into a database for use in a fantasy league. If you have to pay royalities for that then all news agencies and sports agencies that put up statistics on sports with a players/teams name next to it would also have to pay the same royalities.

[Renegade Knight]

It's fair use. The hype that the fantasy leages (all all the other sports discussions) generate causes fans to go buy tickets which pays the salaries. So discussing sports, sports players, stats, and all that in every which way is all fair use.

As for content, why the heck should Yahoo (or any other fantasy site) have to pay royalties on it's own content? The players and leages did'nt provide the fantays site, they didn't generate the copyrighted site etc..They play ball and sell tickets and merchandies. That's enough for them.

[Dalkorian]

Reading comprehension FAIL.

They're not claiming "Athletes already make a lot of money", they're claiming "this data (players names and stats) is already in the public domain - free for everyone to use, so why should we have to pay just because we're successful at packaging and selling it?"

[yakura_c]

As a Fantasy Football junkie, I would like the option to choose a free league. But this case, would cause the likes of ESPN to have to shell out $$ for every sports highlight ..every night.

[Dalkorian]

Uh, the Yahoo Fantasy Football League is free. I know, I've played it before. It's the stats you pay for (if you want to).

[stepyourgameup]

Greedy bastards!

[tgrenier]

In a free market, people (or their jobs) are worth whatever they can get paid. Perhaps I wish teachers and fry cooks were making big $$$ but apparently we value athletes, actors, and CEx's more.

Also, you may not agree that athletes are worth the $$$ but there is nobody that reaches the level of the NFL, NBA, NHL, or MLB without an insane amount of very hard work from the time they are very young. The life span of their paid careers is also very short. There's lots of broke x athletes who can barely walk.

[gggg sssss]

sure players get too much, but people still pay. Why should yahoo get to make money off their names though? Yahoo isnt giving the surfers access for free. Yahoo is charging for advertising. Unjust enrichment.

[Dalkorian]

The league is free, the stats you can pay for if you wish. I've played without paying a dime and did fine doing so.

So you think it shouldn't be legal to make money off of any public data? Remember Yahoo isn't being accused of stealing anything, just profiting.

[gggg sssss]

@ Dalkorian you can no more legally use Mario Lemieux's name to make a profit than you can Paris Hilton. You could of course create a fantasuy league with players like john doe and bob smith, but then nobody would come to your website and you couldnt sell those ads.Identity theft is identity theft.

[hankthedwarf]

Last time I checked Yahoo isn't a non-profit business (although some of their business moves may make that statement questionable). Of course they should pay royalties for using likenesses in an online game. This isn't a question of sports reporting or journalism...this is a for-profit game, be it through advertising or premium services.

And it's not just the rich elite players whom the NFLPA represents, but thousands of retired no-name NFL players who made very little money for the amount of hell they put their bodies through, while building up the NFL into the largest, most profitable sport in America.