Legal question regarding draft classes

[Billy4NY]

There are a few draft classes out there that have draft prospects that are almost identical replicas of real-life college football players. At a minimum they have their name and college, and you could probably argue that everything else is just a resemblance, but not identical.

My question is this: if EA had to stop making money off player likenesses in their NCAA game, how would someone interpret the use of these draft classes or prospects in a player's Twitch, YouTube, or other social media sources where they might be receiving compensation for their posted material?

If you drafted a top QB prospect that is well known, I'll void names, and then streamed some of your CFM games AND have enough viewers to be receiving compensation for your material, couldn't the argument be made that you are making money off their likeness now?

Just curious to everyone's thoughts on this.

[timhere1970]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

you could be sued if you were worth going after. Also, could receive a desist lettter. I am not a lawyer but i did see a billboard for one on the way to work this morning,

[kenp86]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

Same could be said about networks showing any college sport on tv. They make money from these kids. So do we ban the networks from showing these games?

[Billy4NY]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

Same could be said about networks showing any college sport on tv. They make money from these kids. So do we ban the networks from showing these games?

That is a good comparison. Although, they do have the "rights" to the NCAA and all schools, which I assume includes players.

[brandon27]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

Same could be said about networks showing any college sport on tv. They make money from these kids. So do we ban the networks from showing these games?

You're missing the point here.

The networks you're referring to pay broadcasting rights fees to air the games. They are well within their rights to profit from them at that point.

Personally I think it's hard to prove EA is profiting in any way from users editing draft classes. Wasnt the issue with NCAA games the fact that the game shipped with default rosters that did not have names, but the rest of the players likeness was still there, from weight, to height, number, equipment style etc. etc.

[Billy4NY]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

You're missing the point here.

The networks you're referring to pay broadcasting rights fees to air the games. They are well within their rights to profit from them at that point.

Personally I think it's hard to prove EA is profiting in any way from users editing draft classes. Wasnt the issue with NCAA games the fact that the game shipped with default rosters that did not have names, but the rest of the players likeness was still there, from weight, to height, number, equipment style etc. etc.

My question is not about EA profiting though. My question is about Twitch and YouTube users who receive income based on your viewer volume. If they showed content of a M19 game with "real" college football players in the game and were advertising it as such to gain viewers (i.e. more income), couldn't that be interpreted the same way?

[T4VERTS]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

There are a few draft classes out there that have draft prospects that are almost identical replicas of real-life college football players. At a minimum they have their name and college, and you could probably argue that everything else is just a resemblance, but not identical.

My question is this: if EA had to stop making money off player likenesses in their NCAA game, how would someone interpret the use of these draft classes or prospects in a player's Twitch, YouTube, or other social media sources where they might be receiving compensation for their posted material?

If you drafted a top QB prospect that is well known, I'll void names, and then streamed some of your CFM games AND have enough viewers to be receiving compensation for your material, couldn't the argument be made that you are making money off their likeness now?

Just curious to everyone's thoughts on this.

It's complex, but the answer in most cases would be no at an individual level. The issue gets muddier when it's the game manufacture doing it as there are some misappropriation claims that come in to play in terms of advertising and merchandising.

[doubles]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

EA Sports has no liability. They are user created classes and the users creating them aren't making any money from the draft classes.

I'm not a lawyer, but there doesn't seem to be anything dangerous about doing this. If the EA-generated classes were NCAA Football-styled (names changed but player likeness from real players) then that's another ball game. But there's no issue with this.

It's like Michael Jordan (as an example) couldn't sue for a draft class that included his likeness and name.

As for streaming, the money you make is likely not enough to raise the ire of College Football players.

[Sheba2011]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

There are a few draft classes out there that have draft prospects that are almost identical replicas of real-life college football players. At a minimum they have their name and college, and you could probably argue that everything else is just a resemblance, but not identical.

My question is this: if EA had to stop making money off player likenesses in their NCAA game, how would someone interpret the use of these draft classes or prospects in a player's Twitch, YouTube, or other social media sources where they might be receiving compensation for their posted material?

If you drafted a top QB prospect that is well known, I'll void names, and then streamed some of your CFM games AND have enough viewers to be receiving compensation for your material, couldn't the argument be made that you are making money off their likeness now?

Just curious to everyone's thoughts on this.

I would imagine the difference is this:

NCAA - EA was specifically making money off of NCAA player likeness. They even vaguely used it in marketing.

Youtuber - He is making money specifically off of the Madden game itself.

[ODogg]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

Same as when we had NCAA football the game:

The powers-that-be only care if someone is making money.

If you download a draft class via draft share it could be 100% full of real players and it won't matter to anyone.

But if there was a pay site setup somewhere on the internet for people to pay $2.99 to download a file with real NCAA players in it....well then you're going to see lawyers getting involved.

P.S. I would hope the draft classes would have real players in them, otherwise what's the real point, LOL

[roll2tide]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

EA specifically used player likeness to sell the game and create profit. Players were on the cover, and the recreation of the player likeness was intentionally used as part of marketing.

The youtube gamer makes a profit specifically because of his own attributes. Generated vs created draft classes, and therefore player likeness, are not direct, significant contributions to his viewership.

Now, someone could attempt to force EA to remove the user option from the game I suppose. But theres no $ in that. It's not that college players said, we are offended that you're using our likeness. It's more like they said, we are offended that we're not getting paid.

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[Mav3rek7]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

The reason EA got in trouble before was because they were essentially creating every NCAA player, creating their likeness, etc, but then just removing the name. Instead of having Maurice Clarett, you had HB #13, but everything else was the same.

With the custom draft classes, EA is not creating a likeness of anyone. EA's default classes do not resemble any current NCAA players.

If someone creates this on their own and then shares it, EA can basically play dumb, and if things get heated, just remove the download.

An individual will not get sued over creating a custom draft class and uploading it to the community because they are not making any money off the draft class. If they were to sell it, then it would be an issue.

[itsmb8]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

Yeah, streamers cant be in legal trouble because they make money from playing the game. If they were to lock their draft classes and make people pay to download them, thats where the legal issues set in.

[Toupal]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

This has been discussed a million times on here.

As long as the game doesn't sell with the college athletes pre-loaded everything is kosher.

Axis football is building a game specifically built around this concept.

It would be like Crayola getting sued because a kid drew a picture of Jim Brown with their crayons.

[4show10]

Re: Legal question regarding draft classes

Yea from my understanding as long as the ncaa player likeness aren't on the shipped game, EA is good.

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