EA sports sued for NCAA football game

[FlabLoser]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43989297/

Sued for profiting from the likeness of players without their permission. Looks serious.

You can't argue that the likeness isn't there. EA clearly does everything they can to put the likeness there. Everything but a name is there. Accurate player traits are there. So are height, size, and uniform quirks (wristbands, etc).

Hopefully there's a loophole in that the NCAA allowed the likeness to be used (minus player names) and that the players agreed to allow the NCAA to do that when they signed up to play football.

I think most agree that player compensation for playing sports will be a reality sooner or later. This might allow EA to use their likeness. But in the mean time, EA could be in a world of trouble.

 

[Seinfeld]

EA gets a lot of crap from a lot of the gaming world for simply relabeling the same game every year, but there's little denying that they're one of the best game makers out there, regardless. A lawsuit of $1B against them would essentially wipe out an entire year's worth of profits for them, and that would more than likely mean some extreme changes within the company.

Money aside, that would really suck for the fans also because it would mean that the next iteration of NCAA football would simply be a random group of players and player numbers. Definitely takes a lot of fun out of the game.

There's no doubt that EA tries to make its players resemble current NCAA rosters as much as possible, but I guess I don't understand what "damage" this is causing the players. If Coke were to use a player's image without asking while that same player was under contract with Pepsi, I could understand the problem. But how in the world does using a similar model of a player in a college video game hurt anyone? If this suit goes through, it could open a gigantic can of worms for EA among others. I can remember an NBA Live game that didn't have Jordan in it because he wasn't part of the players' license since he was "retired" in '95 I think. However, if you created a player and named him "Michael Jordan", the resulting player was his exact likeness and skill level. So can Jordan sue for this now?

I'm not a giant fan of EA, but I don't think this is good for anybody if you're a fan of video games.

 

[Irondawg]

This goes back to the very beginning of sports games when certain games wouldn't pay for the rights to pro teams rosters and just mirror the rosters with made up names or jersey numbers. Same as when there were a few players in NFL and MLB that would agree to have their name used so you'd have the full San Francisco Giants roster and then #36 out in LF.

I'm sure sombody said "hey, could these guys sue for this?" over the past 10 years and they were pretty confident they were legally sound. Of course now it's being tested in court and I'm constantly baffled by some judicial rulings so who knows how this will come up. But I'm pretty confident EA feels they can win this and honestly they should.

The guys bringing the suit will claim EA is making money off their likeness, but I think they'll have a hard time proving someone bought EA college basketball 1995 exclusively to play as Ed O'Bannon.

Next they'll come after the guys who sell college jerseys that always just have the # of the most popular player without the name on the back, etc, etc.

 

[tenureplan]

Is that the majority of college players like being on the game and would probably be upset if EA were no longer allowed to use their likeness, number, etc.

 

[MedDawg]

Right now, EA doesn't put roster names, butprovides jerseysnumbers and everything else. If EA left off jersey numbers but assigned each player a 5-6 digit code number, the same people thatprovide the roster names could give each player a jersey number and even assign a position on the field. They could even assign height and weight afterward, although that begins to make it more complicated.

EA could also just leave off any facial likeness--I don't think that matters. EA would only have to pre-assign the attributes (speed/strength ranking, etc) and team/coaching strengths, etc. That's the meat of the game anyway.I don't see how a player could sue EA for having a 'random' player on a specific team with 89 speed and 84 strength.

Of course, thepeoplewhocurrently onlyprovide the rosternames for free might not want to doadd all the other stuff for free. Plus, if they add roster names AND numbersAND positions AND height and weight, thentheymight be liable for a lawsuit.

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[00Dawg]

is that the NCAA and schools make money off the games, and the former players know that sueing those entities and winning is nigh impossible. So they go after the folks residing on a different level of the process.
Frankly, I don't think EA has much to worry about, as this is one of those rulings that would have to set a dramatic precedent to go in their favor. However, I would think the "all-time" teams they did on one version a few years back might cause some worry. Players currently in college pretty much sign away their likenessrights, but I don't know that the same thing is true for players from the 1980's and before.

 

[8dog]

suit was filed 2 years ago. Real Sports has already talked to Ed Obannon about it.

The only thing that happened is EA's sports motion to dismiss was denied, which really isn't that shocking.

 

[Bulldog from Birth]

Coincidence....i think not.

BFB

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Since EA got the exclusive license to the NCAA, I've wondered what is to keep another developer from making a generic college football game and letting everything from team colors/logos/fight songs/everything also customizable in EA's game be customizable by the users. Sure, the developer couldn't sell you a game that had real college teams in it, but pop in a user-developed mod (quite possibly illicitly produced by the game company) with all the actual teams in it and you've got a playable non-EA college football game.