Re: Sports Statistics to Be Regulated Under WIPO Treaty (fwd)

[azur@netcom.com (Steve Schear)]

This was my response to the excellent Telecom Regulation posting by Mr. Love.

[snip]
>If the treaty is approved and implemented, sports leagues
>will have far broader powers to dictate the terms and conditions
>under which sport statistics are reported and disseminated.
>Nolan Ryan's Earned Run Average (ERA), the number of tackles or
>quarterback sacks by Lawrence Taylor, Cal Ripken's career batting
>average, Bobby Hull's career assists, the number of steals by
>your favorite NBA point guard, and similar information will be
>"owned" by sports leagues.  According to the proposed treaty (and
>legislation introduced in the 104th Congress to implement the
>treaty), the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB will have the right to prevent
>anyone from publishing these and other statistics without express
>permission from the sports league.  This will include the right
>to control access to the historical archives of sports
>statistics, and even to dictate who can publish the box scores
>from a game or print a pitcher's ERA on the back of a baseball
>card.
[snip]
>
>The treaty seeks, for the first time, to permit firms to
>"own" facts they gather, and to restrict and control the
>redissemination of those facts.  The new property right would lie
>outside (and on top) of the copyright laws, and create an
>entirely new and untested form of regulation that would radically
>change the public's current rights to use and disseminate facts
>and statistics.  American University Law Professor Peter Jaszi
>recently said the treaty represents "the end of the public
>domain."
>

I couldn't be more pleased that sports and greedy corporations which are
fixtures of American life are pushing for these draconian measures.  I hope
they pass with the strongest possible language and penalties and will
support same.

A broad section of the populace now takes this information for granted.
They will be outraged their elected representatives pass measures which
noticably limit their access to 'public domain' information which are part
of their daily lives.  This will serve to expose many of our elected as the
special interest puppets they are and align the common citizen with the
cypherpunks.  This, in turn, will undermine confidence in our
'unrepresentative' government and its authority.  Best of all it could lead
to populist boomerang legislation which emasculates current copyright law
and via widespread and flagrant 'civil disobedience' regarding copyright on
the Net.

I'm rubbing my hands in anticipation.



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