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Archived updates for Friday, March 04, 2005

Who Owns the Back of a Baseball Card

Professor Jack Williams, a sports law expert at Georgia State University College of Law, and author of the recently published Cardozo Law Review article, "Who Owns the Back of a Baseball Card?," believes that the sports industry is waging an unsuccessful war to control technology. "It's like China trying to control faxes and the Internet -- they'll not be able to control it. The smart people will start to embrace it," Williams reportedly told the National law Journal. "You're just seeing the tip of the iceberg in what is being disclosed right now," Williams noted.

However, in January 2004, rooftop owners behind Wrigley Field settled a lawsuit brought by the Chicago Cubs with an agreement to pay the Cubs 17 percent of their annual profits for 20 years. "It was a tradition where people would go out on the rooftops with a lawn chair and some beer and there was no money in hands," the Cubs' attorney was reported as saying. "That's a much different concept of what's happening today, where some 2,000 people are sometimes paying fees of $100 to $200 a game to watch our product."
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