While my business plan incorporates many aspects of production, intellectual property rights aren’t really that much of a concern. We have to cover our basics like logo, motto/slogan, any software or stock footage/music rights and such. However, we don’t need to worry about performance clearances, as the production is responsible for it. However, the story I encountered interests me greatly as it can have a large effect on sports and entertainment industries.
What I found is a recent United States District Court decision to dismiss a claim by a former Rutgers football player. Ryan Hart sued EA Sports claiming that they illegally used his name and likeness in production of a video game. EA Sports said the First Amendment protects them. The judge ruled with EA Sports and the “transformative work” done by EA fulfilled the definition of the term. They changed enough of his likeness to qualify for this exemption. To me, it would be like taking someone’s song they wrote, changing only some of it, then not giving the original artist credit or payment.
As players of professional sports are usually protected by collective bargaining agreements, collegiate athletes are prohibited from earning money from their sports. Therein lies the issue for me. I understand EA walk a line, but they also take advantage of the NCAA rules. They only do this to the students because they can. Just because the law may be on their side doesn’t make it right.
The thing that burns me the most though is the game is made locally. I know people that worked on it, and they have no say is this sort of thing.
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