Ed O'Bannon is Back!

I found this story very captivating. Simply put, Ed O'Bannon (star of the 1995 UCLA Bruins) has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA for "use of former student athletes' images in DVDs, video games, photographs, apparel and other material."

Sports Illustrated has a great commentary on this story by a Vermont law professor, Michael McCann. There are a few interesting points here:

1) O'Bannon's lawsuit is on behalf of FORMER players... AND also seeks an injunction on licensing for current players. Also, O'Bannon's lawsuit is focused on only giving out the compensation after the player has completed school (to avoid the 500 lb. gorilla of paying student-athletes).
My biased opinion: That injunction will never be granted in my biased opinion. I do think it's smart to avoid having student-athletes get paid until after they complete/leave school.

2) O'Bannon's case is based on antitrust violations, based in part on the fact that all student-athletes sign "their likenesses away in perpetuity to the NCAA."
My biased opinion: There's a big difference between airing games on ESPN classic and having likenesses in video games. In regards to ESPN Classic, I actually don't think the players should get any money for those replays, as its a fixed replay of a performance protected under copyright laws. In contrast, having likenesses in video games could be a really strong claim for O'Bannon, as you are talking about creating NEW products. Granted, I haven't played an ncaa football/basketball game in a long time though but if i'm not mistaken, EA sports only lets you play with certain jersey numbers, not names. So is that a likeness? That will be fun for them to debate in court! Then again, it appears that a District Court case in San Francisco has dealt with a similar issue: should retired NFL Players get compensation for their likenesses, even if their likenesses are "scrambled?" The NFL lost that case - needing to pay approximately $13,000 to each retired player for a total of $28 million. Ouch. In that case, the faces, jersey numbers, and names did not match, but other specs (i.e. height, weight, experience) were able to be used to identify the players.

3) The commentary by the law professor foresees a focus on the fact that students aren't in any kind of equal bargaining position... and that they should be able to seek "access to legal counsel."
My biased opinion: This is a tricky issue... and it really opens up a can of worms that the NCAA certainly will not want to open. I'm already imagining things: like if Football "signing day" involved each student-athlete having a lawyer that wanted to play two schools against each other for the best deal. Yowsers.