Research Blog #7: Case

The case which I am looking closely at is the case of O'Bannon v. NCAA which was filed in 2009 and temporarily resolved by a district judge in 2014, which the NCAA will likely appeal. In this case, O'Bannon saw that in one of the NCAA basketball video games there was a player who was identical to him in every single way possible (skin tone, height, weight, left handed). He took EA, the creator of the game, and the NCAA, the organization who licensed the game, to court arguing his likeness was being used without compensation. The case later expanded from this to include all uses of a players likeness such as player names used in commercials and jersey sales. Its main idea is that players should get compensation for the NCAA's use of the players likeness upon the players graduation. It states that the NCAA violates his right of publicity.

This case gives credit to the idea I am writing about that the NCAA is illegally using players' likenesses for money and that they deserve to be compensated in some way. The fact that the judge ruled in favor of O'Bannon is a good indicator that what the NCAA is doing in fact illegal.

Usefull Links

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/25106422/obannon-vs-ncaa-a-cheat-sheet-for-ncaas-appeal-of-paying-players
This link gives a good overview of the case.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2014/08/08/ed-obannon-antitrust-lawsuit-vs-ncaa/13801277/
This link gives the ruling of the decision made in 2014.