Copyright Maximalists Lose One

CBS runs a fantasy football league, and the NFL, and NFLPA were threatening a lawsuit over the ownership of the statistics and player names so CBS got to court first, and won a judgment:

BS Corp.’s Internet unit won the right to use National Football League players’ names and statistics for free in fantasy sports leagues it sponsors after a judge ruled the information is in the public domain.

A federal appeals court decision in 2007 that companies operating fantasy leagues have a First Amendment right to use names and data of baseball players without paying a licensing fee applies to football as well, U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery said in Minneapolis.

This is really basic stuff. You cannot copyright information in the United States, only unique expression or arrangement of that data, such as Westlaw's citation system for court cases.

The statistics, and the attachment of them to player names, teams, and player numbers, is simply not a unique arrangement or expression of data.

That being said, restrictions of data under an IP regime is the end goal of copyright maximalists, and would make all of society a far poorer place.