It’s Only Make Believe

The Indiana Supreme Court rejected claims by student athletes that the use of their stats in fantasy sports violated their privacy rights’

We conclude that Indiana’s right of publicity statute contains an exception for material with newsworthy value that includes online fantasy  sports operators’ use of college players’ names, pictures, and statistics for online fantasy contests.

Reasoning

Considering the arguments presented in this case, Defendants’ use of players’ names, images, and statistics in conducting fantasy sports competitions bears resemblance to the publication of the same information in newspapers and websites across the nation. We agree that, “it would be strange law that a person would not have a first amendment right to use information that is available to everyone.” C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing, Inc. v. Major League Baseball, 505 F.3d 818, 823 (8th Cir. 2007). This information is not stripped of its newsworthy value simply because it is placed behind a paywall or used in the context of a fantasy sports game. On the contrary, fantasy sports operators use factual data combined with a significant, creative component that allows consumers to interact with the data in a unique way. Although fictional salary values are assigned to players, this does not change the function of the underlying data. It is difficult to find that the use of this otherwise publicly available information is somehow drastically different such that it should be placed outside the definition of “newsworthy.”

(Mike Frisch)