Re: NBA sues Motorala

At 12:22 AM 3/6/96 -0800, Terry Carroll wrote:
>
> The copyright claim seems like reaching to me. Although it is clear that
> the recordings and simultaneous transmissions of the games are copyrighted
> works, it seems equally clear that the copyright does not extend to the
> information being provided, assuming that the provider is not just
> retransmitting the same play-by-play to the pagers.
>
> The AP article is online at:
>
> http://www2.nando.net/newsroom/ap/bkb/1996/nba/nba/feat/ -
> archive/030596/nba48532.html

I guess NBA deals with retransmission very seriously and fiercely. In a local example, NBA games are transmitted here by a nation-wide TV. As Brazil is a huge nation, the transmissions sometimes cross borders to other countries such as Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia.

It was published in a local media newspaper that NBA was feeling harmed because they weren't able to get good prices for deals with those counties because a customer can already see the games from the Brazilian station. They were using that as a way, I guess, to get more $$$ from the Brazilian deal. Sounds like they arefierce regarding any possibilities of infringement, which is good speccially for copyright lawyers :)

BTW, terry, copyright is not extended to the information too. If Motorola listens to the radio show and writes on the pager info like "Bullets 67-20 Bulls - Howard" "Bullets 69-20 Bulls - webber (3pt.)" Bullets 69- Bulls 68 - Jordan (48 pts in a row)", I guess they are not infringing anything or even harshing the audience of the games. Sounds really idiot to check a game from a pager, instead of a tv :)

DIRCEU :) Dirceu Pereira
<dpsrosa[_at_]ax.ibase.org.br> Received on Sat Mar 09 1996 - 18:19:15 GMT