Sam Keller trying to ruin NCAA Football 10..

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source: http://blogs.sfweekly.com...erds_--_the_final_ba.php

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[h3]Jocks Vs. Nerds: Former College QB Sues NCAA, Videogame Company Over Use of Athletes' Names and Likenesses[/h3]
By Joe Eskenazi in Business, Law & Order, Sports

Wednesday, May. 6 2009 @ 8:30AM
[table][tr][td] [/td] [/tr][tr][td]Those videogame nerds stole your likeness, Ogre...[/td] [/tr][/table]
The plot of many a 3 a.m.-caliber movie has featured the put-upon nerd matriculating to vast wealth in the computer industry -- while the bullying quarterback peaks before age 22. Yet in San Francisco Federal Court you could call it "Revenge of the Jocks."

Samuel Keller, a San Ramon High School graduate and former quarterback at Arizona State and Nebraska, on Tuesday filed a class action suit against Bay Area-based videogame company Electronic Arts -- and, while he was at it, the NCAA -- over the use of unpaid student athletes' names and likenesses in games.

The suit opens up strong, claiming in its first sentence that it "arises out of the blatant and unlawful use of National Collegiate Athletic Association ('NCAA') student likenesses in videogames produced by Electronic Arts ... to increase sales and profits." This, the complaint continues, is abetted with a wink-and-nod assist from the NCAA, which "intentionally circumvents the prohibitions on utilizing student athletes' names in commercial ventures by allowing gamers to upload entire rosters, which include players' names and other information, directly into the game in a matter of seconds."

This, the suit alleges, is a symbiotic relationship between the NCAA and EA that leaves the student athletes -- who make this whole venture possible -- empty-handed.
http:// The suit goes on to state that the NCAA's own bylaw 12.5 prohibits the commercialization of a student athlete's "name, picture, or likeness." The athletes themselves must even sign an affidavit confirming they "read and understand" this rule regarding the maintaining of their amateur status.

So it rankled Keller to note that "with rare exception, virtually every real-life Division I football or basketball player in the NCAA has a corresponding player in Electronic Arts' games with the same jersey number, and virtually identical height, weight, build and home state. In addition Electronic Arts often matches the player's, skin tone, hair color, and often even a player's hair style."

In other words, the complaint contends it was no coincidence that, say, Kent State running back Eugene Jarvis is redshirt junior from Pennsylvania wearing No. 6 who stands just 5-foot-5 and weighs 170 pounds -- and the "randomly generated" Kent State RB in EA's NCAA 2009 game also happens to be a redshirt junior from Pennsylvania wearing No. 6 and standing 5-foot-5 and weighing 170 pounds (who also has the same dark skin tone as Jarvis).

Many such examples are named in the suit -- leading, of course, to "Quarterback No. 9" At Arizona State and "Quarterback No. 5" at Nebraska. That, it would appear, is Sam Keller.

The QB demands a jury trial -- as well as disgorgement, actual, statuatory, and punitive damages as well as an injunction, and the destruction of the offending video games (perhaps they could dump them into a New Mexico landfill next to the old Atari cartridges of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial nobody bought).

H/T | CourthouseNews.com

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he has no case since the players names arent used

dude must be on that crack again
 
Originally Posted by Bigmike23

he has no case since the players names arent used

dude must be on that crack again

i don't know, the by law says player's name, picture, OR likeness. You can't tell me that the no-name players in these videogames are not made tobe as similar to the real player as they can. I don't even need roster updates, i can tell without him who the main guys are on a lot of teams just by the# and bios.
 
He has a point. The NCAA and EA joinly should pay every student athlete that appears in these games and GRADUATE. At least 500 dollars at the end of therecollegiate careers. I think it would cost about 4.2 million to this and think its doable between the NCAA schools and EA.
 
Originally Posted by TheProfessorOfPugilism

Originally Posted by Bigmike23

he has no case since the players names arent used

dude must be on that crack again

i don't know, the by law says player's name, picture, OR likeness. You can't tell me that the no-name players in these videogames are not made to be as similar to the real player as they can. I don't even need roster updates, i can tell without him who the main guys are on a lot of teams just by the # and bios.


without the name there is no 'likeness'.

there is no copyright on being 5'5" 170lbs.
 
Originally Posted by Clutchshooter

Originally Posted by TheProfessorOfPugilism

Originally Posted by Bigmike23

he has no case since the players names arent used

dude must be on that crack again

i don't know, the by law says player's name, picture, OR likeness. You can't tell me that the no-name players in these videogames are not made to be as similar to the real player as they can. I don't even need roster updates, i can tell without him who the main guys are on a lot of teams just by the # and bios.


without the name there is no 'likeness'.

there is no copyright on being 5'5" 170lbs.

Look up likeness.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/likeness

like·ness (l
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k
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n
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s)
n.
1. The state, quality, or fact of being like; resemblance.

2. An imitative appearance; a semblance.

3. A pictorial, graphic, or sculptured representation of something; an image.

Synonyms: likeness, similarity, similitude, resemblance, analogy, affinity
These nouns denote agreement or conformity. Likeness implies close agreement: It was your uncanny likeness to my brother that made me stare at you.
Similarity and similitude suggest agreement only in some respects or to some degree: They were drawn to each other by similarity of interests. "A striking similitude between the brother and sister now first arrested my attention" Edgar Allan Poe.
Resemblance refers to similarity in external or superficial details: "The child . . . bore a remarkable resemblance to her grandfather" Lytton Strachey.
Analogy is similarity, as of properties or functions, between things that are otherwise not comparable: The operation of a computer presents an interesting analogy to the working of the human brain.
Affinity is likeness deriving from kinship or from the possession of shared properties or sympathies: Being an orphan, she felt an affinity with other parentless children.


I don't if this is the same as likeness in the court of law but these games are kinda going to far now the guys actually look like their real lifecounterparts down to the beard,spats and facemasks.
 
"he has no case since the players names arent used"

I haven't played NCAA in a while but i remember that when you downloaded the rosters and/or entered them yourself the game would begin to refer to theplayers by name. No way EA has built a voice recognition program so sophisticated it can announce any name in the NCAA with the voice of the announcer. Youknow that announcer records the names of all those players before the game goes out and putting the correct name on the jersey unlocks it.

Unless EA NCAA no longer works like this I think Keller's got a case.
 
Originally Posted by Mister Friendly

Originally Posted by Clutchshooter

Originally Posted by TheProfessorOfPugilism

Originally Posted by Bigmike23

he has no case since the players names arent used

dude must be on that crack again

i don't know, the by law says player's name, picture, OR likeness. You can't tell me that the no-name players in these videogames are not made to be as similar to the real player as they can. I don't even need roster updates, i can tell without him who the main guys are on a lot of teams just by the # and bios.


without the name there is no 'likeness'.

there is no copyright on being 5'5" 170lbs.



I don't if this is the same as likeness in the court of law but these games are kinda going to far now the guys actually look like their real life counterparts down to the beard,spats and facemasks.


this will never ever hold up unless the likeness is so similar that 95% of random people could match the in game character withs it's real lifecounterpart.

again there is not copyright on height, weight, shape, 'beards,spats and facemasks'.
 
Of course he's got a case. Why are yall being hard headed. There's a reason why when michael jordan didn't sign off on his likeness and ea had touse "roster guard 99". If they didn't he woulda sued the pants off EA and the NBAPA who let EA use players likenesses.

I aint mad at him at all. If he can't make money off playin ball then no one should profit off him
 
its been tried before.. what about a game like forza with the user created cars.. they hold no likeness or copyright for mcdonalds or dr pepper or coca colalogos... its all the same..
 
Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

Of course he's got a case. Why are yall being hard headed. There's a reason why when michael jordan didn't sign off on his likeness and ea had to use "roster guard 99". If they didn't he woulda sued the pants off EA and the NBAPA who let EA use players likenesses.

I aint mad at him at all. If he can't make money off playin ball then no one should profit off him


Exactly. Before on Playstation and PS2, I dont think the numbers matched exactly at all positions but now they pretty much do. They have it where you can typein a name and it says it now. If the game says Tebow,Crabtree,Stafford,Harrell,Clausen etc(Names that named commonly used) you know they are defintely usinglikeness. Y'all just want to play the game.

I think its dirty the way they do college athletes schools and companies make alot money off them and then dont want to pay players any royalities after theygraduate?

Waht about guys like Graham Harrell,Jason White,Josh Heupel? How much money did their schools make offf them?
 
Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

Of course he's got a case. Why are yall being hard headed. There's a reason why when michael jordan didn't sign off on his likeness and ea had to use "roster guard 99". If they didn't he woulda sued the pants off EA and the NBAPA who let EA use players likenesses.

I aint mad at him at all. If he can't make money off playin ball then no one should profit off himc0-si
co-sign. Like it was brought up in the article, The game happened to place a black 5'5" 170 lb. redshirt junior RB from pennsylvania onKent State's squad, who happens to a 5'5 170 lb. redshirt junior RB from pennsylvania in real life. There is no "likeness" between them?really?
 
nah// its been ACCURATE since the psx1 marchmadness days... back on ps2, we had sharkport.. its been going on for awhile and everyone who tried to sue, LOST.
 
Surprised this is just happening now.

Bottom line, EA pays millions and millions to the NCAA for their exclusive contract. The players have likenesses of themselves in the game. They do not see adirect penny.
 
Originally Posted by RyGuy45

Surprised this is just happening now.

Bottom line, EA pays millions and millions to the NCAA for their exclusive contract. The players have likenesses of themselves in the game. They do not see a direct penny.
If you're going to sue EA, then you should sue the NCAA and your university for selling YOUR jersey in the student bookstore. Like you said,they do not see a penny. I get where Keller is coming from, but I don't think he's going to win this suit.
 
Originally Posted by DoubleJs07

Originally Posted by RyGuy45

Surprised this is just happening now.

Bottom line, EA pays millions and millions to the NCAA for their exclusive contract. The players have likenesses of themselves in the game. They do not see a direct penny.
If you're going to sue EA, then you should sue the NCAA and your university for selling YOUR jersey in the student bookstore. Like you said, they do not see a penny. I get where Keller is coming from, but I don't think he's going to win this suit.

exactly...this bum just can't accept the fact he's not an NFL quarterback.
 
Originally Posted by Mister Friendly

Originally Posted by GUNNA GET IT

Of course he's got a case. Why are yall being hard headed. There's a reason why when michael jordan didn't sign off on his likeness and ea had to use "roster guard 99". If they didn't he woulda sued the pants off EA and the NBAPA who let EA use players likenesses.

I aint mad at him at all. If he can't make money off playin ball then no one should profit off him


Exactly. Before on Playstation and PS2, I dont think the numbers matched exactly at all positions but now they pretty much do. They have it where you can type in a name and it says it now. If the game says Tebow,Crabtree,Stafford,Harrell,Clausen etc(Names that named commonly used) you know they are defintely using likeness. Y'all just want to play the game.

I think its dirty the way they do college athletes schools and companies make alot money off them and then dont want to pay players any royalities after they graduate?

Waht about guys like Graham Harrell,Jason White,Josh Heupel? How much money did their schools make offf them?

when the game series first started off as bill walsh college football back in 1993, the rosters still reflected the real life players.

it's something that's been going on for a very long time now.
 
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