Supreme Court Hearts Fantasy..

[UPDATE: This was all a joke. At least the part about the Justices playing fantasy (which of course was the inspiration for this post). Well I'll be damned. Stupid blogs.]

So let's talk about lawsuits. Fun topic, right? Well maybe not, but trust Duderino here.

There's a case that Duderino's been following for a while now - that is, the CBC Distribution v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media dispute. The basic gist is that CBC Distribution, which operates a fantasy baseball league using MLB players statistics (as most do), is suing MLB over the latter's contention that they own such stats and should be able to control their use. CBC's argument, which in the interest of full disclosure Duderino should note that he agrees with, is that player's statistics are part of the public domain and hence cannot be controlled by MLB. Well reasoned, right?

But the case just got a lot more interesting to Duderino when he learned that three Supreme Court Justices excused themselves from hearing the case because, and get this, they participate in a fantasy baseball league themselves...with other Supreme Court Justices (past and present)! HA! Even better, both Scalia and Ginsburg are part of the league, but felt no compelling reason to prevent themselves from hearing the case...yeah, definitely no conflict of interest there. Nonetheless, this is an interesting commentary on the state of world affairs - even Supreme Court Justices (and at least five of them at that) play fantasy. Perhaps there's hope for Duderino after all.

Anyways, if Duderino may just play attorney for a moment (after all, he will supposedly someday be one...that is if he survives year one of law school without exiting in a blaze of glory) - this case is a waste of judicial resources.

You know, a few years back there was a dispute between MLB and the makers of the Slingbox regarding said product's ability to stream content from a person's home to a laptop anywhere in the world - thus, if one had a Slingbox, he or she could conceivably watch out of market baseball games wherever they might be. And this apparently angered the beast that is Major League Baseball.

In that dispute and now in this one, Duderino can't help but think the outcome is inevitable. The technology and/or system is there. People are and have been using it for a while now. No court order is going to stop that. The best thing MLB can do is come to some type of agreement (a compromise if you will) with this CBC and we'll all live happily ever after (if Ryan Howard hits 50 home runs...).

Duderino just doesn't see any way that this case will come out any differently. Then again, with Scalia around, anything is possible.

Thoughts?

REFERENCE MATERIAL:
Supreme Court Gets Cert In Fantasy Baseball Case [NY Personal Injury Blog]