Ed O'Bannon v. NCAA

[Cease]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2009-07-21-ncaa-class-action-lawsuit_N.htm
SI's take: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/w ... index.html

Ed O'Bannon filed a class action lawsuit against the NCAA for licensing his image after graduation to the likes of ESPN (Classic) and video games producers - EA Sports named as coconspirator for using his likeness in NCAA Basketball '09

USA Today: EA Sports is named as a co-conspirator in O'Bannon's suit along with NCAA member schools and conferences. O'Bannon's suit wants the NCAA and Collegiate Licensing to provide accounting of the revenue generated by their commercial ventures. Additionally, the suit asks the court to create a constructive trust for players.

"We put in our time to become better student-athletes, and when you're done playing, you move on," O'Bannon, the 1995 national college player of the year, said in a telephone interview. "At the same time, once you leave your university, one would think your likeness belongs to you."

I am not a gamer, but judging by the amount of gaming threads on this board, they are a thoughful bunch. I am interested in what the gaming community thinks and if you are sympathetic at all to his case. If he gets thousands of players in on this class action lawsuit, it will take a chunk of the estimated $4 Billion licensing industry the NCAA fronts for individual universities and conferences.

[Mr. MacPhisto]

I am not a gamer, but judging by the amount of gaming threads on this board, they are a thoughful bunch. I am interested in what the gaming community thinks and if you are sympathetic at all to his case. If he gets thousands of players in on this class action lawsuit, it will take a chunk of the estimated $4 Billion licensing industry the NCAA fronts for individual universities and conferences.

Hard to say if this has merit. It all depends on what the contractual language of their scholarship said. If he gave up his right for the university to market him in their gear or in their licensing deals in perpetuity then he's got no case.

As for ESPN Classic, I think he has no case there since it is just a rebroadcast that he's never held any rights to and that he gave up licensing rights to when he signed his scholarship paperwork.

[davemanddd]

um, shouldn't this be in the "college sports arena" forum instead of the "movies, music, tv, books, pop culture" forum??? i'm just sayin.