Court Filing Shows NCAA Had Concern About Use of Athlete Likenesses

[jello1717]

First I'd like to say that while I hate to think about how much this lawsuit could hurt college football games (which is without question my favorite video game), this lawsuit is very valid. EA is very in the wrong here and I don't see how they could possibly win the suit. Anyone that thinks this lawsuit is stupid and frivolous is likely just being selfish and wants their college football game.

Now for those of you saying "well they'd just need to make TAMU's QB #3 instead of #1 and black and then EA would be okay," I'm sure that it would have to go waaaay beyond that. Even if EA completely randomized race, number, height, weight, and state of origin (all of which would be easy enough for roster editors to handle), this wouldn't be nearly enough. Using the 2012 roster as an example, if the fastest QB in the country started for Michigan, the fastest HB was the #2 guy for Oregon, the best DE in the country started for South Carolina, etc, it wouldn't matter if they were all white dudes from Maine. Anyone could legitimately argue that EA was still using the real players in their game so EA would have to completely randomize everything about all players. It takes roster editors a long time to simply name, correct some numbers, and add in some missing guys now. I can't imagine how long it would take to get an accurate roster if they had to determine and then enter every rating of every player...

[Sundown2600]

Quote: Originally Posted by jello1717

First I'd like to say that while I hate to think about how much this lawsuit could hurt college football games (which is without question my favorite video game), this lawsuit is very valid. EA is very in the wrong here and I don't see how they could possibly win the suit. Anyone that thinks this lawsuit is stupid and frivolous is likely just being selfish and wants their college football game. Now for those of you saying "well they'd just need to make TAMU's QB #3 instead of #1 and black and then EA would be okay," I'm sure that it would have to go waaaay beyond that. Even if EA completely randomized race, number, height, weight, and state of origin (all of which would be easy enough for roster editors to handle), this wouldn't be nearly enough. Using the 2012 roster as an example, if the fastest QB in the country started for Michigan, the fastest HB was the #2 guy for Oregon, the best DE in the country started for South Carolina, etc, it wouldn't matter if they were all white dudes from Maine. Anyone could legitimately argue that EA was still using the real players in their game so EA would have to completely randomize everything about all players. It takes roster editors a long time to simply name, correct some numbers, and add in some missing guys now. I can't imagine how long it would take to get an accurate roster if they had to determine and then enter every rating of every player...

That's exactly the point I was making. Every single aspect of the players would have to be randomized in order for EA to have the best chance of protecting themselves from future lawsuits. At that point it's not even worth making the game. A global editor would help tremendously but even then as I said before the casual gamer would not want to deal with that. Once they see a completly randomized roster the uproar over it would be significant. IMO the series dies if the players win this lawsuit and I think they deserve to win.

Quote: Originally Posted by oXoTheJOKERoXo

Its more like... If your boss paid for your house, groceries, car, training, and travel while giving you the oppurnity of becoming a million. Who could be greedy with that

Nope...not the same at all. This is about a separate entity making profit off of your likeness. A better anology would be you working for a company and this company pays you for the work you do, but your boss goes out and makes a ton of money off of your likeness and you can't do a damn thing about it. Just because you get a paycheck for the work you do does it make it right for your boss, co-worker or company to make money off of your likeness?

[Computalover]

an interesting theory here.. if the athletes win their lawsuit and are paid for using their likeness in video games.. what would stop the NCAA schools suing the individual athletes to recoup the money for scholarships and extras? since the athletes being paid for being used during their time at the school, wouldnt that be a violation of their amateur status?

[NudeUp]

Quote: Originally Posted by JerseySuave4

Only problem is it's not a stupid lawsuit. If your boss was making billions and only paying your expenses for job training and travel, you'd be pissed that he is profiting greatly off your work while you get nothing. The amount of money that is made off the exploitation of college athletes is crazy. If it were a stupid lawsuit, it would have been thrown out by now. Problem is it's a legit lawsuit and college athletes are finally tired of not getting a piece of billion dollar pie.

Pretty sure the players get a free education and the opportunity to make millions playing a sport for a living. Its not EA or the NCAA's fault if they dont make it.

Hard life.

Having their likeness in the game would probably only BOOST their exposure and fan following.

Sooks.

[Dr Death]

All EA has to do is show the last few year's game w/ Notre Dame or Colorado at a night game... this will prove that there is NOTHING close to the real thing...

Mud brown helmets versus gold helmets that shine... This is simple EA... a first year law grad should be able to handle this case...