STAR sues Cricbuzz - says they have rights to cricket scores

[CoverDrive]

STAR has taken Piyush Agarwal, the founder of online Cricket site Cricbuzz, and mobile VAS major OnMobile Global to court over the reporting of Cricket scores. The cases were heard in the Delhi High Court last week, and the next hearing in the Cricbuzz case is on the 25th of September 2012, and according to the order in the Piyush Agarwal case (read it here), the defendents have been asked to deposit Rs 15 lakh. WhatÃÔ interesting is that, according to the details in order, the Cellular Operators Association of India also got involved, saying that STAR has deliberately not made them a party and in the event of grant of any injunction granted by the court, it should not be applicable to Cellular Operators. The Court has directed the defendants to maintain statements of accounts for each match and file them with the court. Remember that STAR had sent legal notices to several mobile VAS and app companies earlier last month, during the India-New Zealand Cricket series, which we had reported here. The order for the case filed against OnMobile Global has not yet been made public, and the company has declined to comment saying that the matter is subjudice. Cricbuzz, on their part, has issued the following statement to us: ŵhis suit is about a basic cricket score being the property of STAR. We do not agree with that stance of STAR, and we are going to take up that position in the next hearing on the 25th. Beyond that, since the matter is subjudice, we would not like to comment. WeÃ×e been waiting for a response from STAR for two days now. WeÃ×e asked them the following questions, for each of the cases: - On what grounds has STAR filed a case against Cricbuzz? - Are you alleging quasi property rights, copyright violation, trademark violation or some other form of infringement. Please specify. - What are you seeking from the court, as an outcome of this case? - Can you explain how cricket scores and/or commentary can be deemed to be licensed to or a property of STAR? WeÃÃl update in case we get a response from STAR. Now, from our discussion with some lawyers on Cricket rights over the years, STAR can claim ownership (or being a licensee) of Cricket scores and updates on three grounds: - Copyright: that they own or have been licensed the copyright to the Cricket scores, or that they own it/own rights to it for a certain period of time for which the information is not in the public domain. This is the Å©ot News concept, which is not recognized. Note that MediaNamaÃÔ stand on Hot News is not neutral weÃ×e opposed it. Read more here. - Trademark violation: that ICC related trademarks are the property of the ICC and thus it can prevent other entities from using it without authorization. This shouldnÃÕ apply to news reporting (it would significantly impact the freedom of the press if every brand claimed rights over their trademark), and it would be difficult for this to hold up in court, but in the past, weÃ×e seen instances of companies use names different from the official ones for example, in case of the IPL, use Ŭolkata instead of the Ŭolkata Knight Riders? - Quasi Property Rights: This, weÃÓe told, isnÃÕ covered under Indian law, but the argument is that if an entity is organizing a private event, it has the right to prevent competitors from using it. More on Quasi Property on Wikipedia. (in case any lawyer reading this wants to elaborate on this further for the benefit of our readers, weÃÅ appreciate it. These look like precedence-setting cases) On the other hand, yesterday, we got a press release from the ICC announcing the launch of its ÅÄomprehensive ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 Social Media Campaigns? introducing a hashtag (#wt20), providing behind the scenes photo and video content on www.facebook.com/cricketicc and @cricketicc (on twitter), and providing their own score updates through @wt20scores. Twitter has launched a World T20 page at www.twitter.com/#wt20 . So on one hand, the ICC is trying to foster online buzz around the tournament, but theyÃÓe also trying to prevent websites from reporting scores and doing commentary. Will STAR go after those tweeting commentary on Cricket matches and updating scores? What about alternate audio commentary feeds (which can be much better than the ones on TV). Our take on this is that we donÃÕ think scores or commentary should be the property of any entity, and any official partnership should be about marketing and promotion, not about granting exclusivity over something you (in our opinion) shouldnÃÕ have rights on to begin with.

http://www.medianama.com/2012/09/223-icc-cricket-star-cricbuzz-onmobile-legal/ Interesting. I think this is taking it too far.

[Crookbond]

STAR :finger: :facepalm:

[Trichromatic]

Right to cricket score? :WTF:

[Crookbond]

STAR should be penalized heavily for wasting court time here; will set a trend.

[Executioner]

:hysterical: Whats wrong with a site showing scores? They are only posting cricket scores STAR :finger:

[bajrang]

yahoo cricket also keep scores. and does better job then both with their cricket app for chrome. star comes last among these three. instead of suing they should improve the quality.

[jairamesh]

absurd

[ganeshran]

Ridiculous. Tons of websites show the live score and I use cricbuzz as its updates are the quickest. they even have audio commentary on the Android app

[AfghanCricFan]

reminds me of WC final when M.S hit the six and watermark logo's appeared on tv screen. It was like they own right to that six too.

[saneindian]

Would be interesting to know ESPN STAR's response if Ten Cricket drags Cricinfo to the courts for the similar violation in matches involving Sri Lanka o if Set Max drags CI fo IPL related reporting? STAR getting desperate.

[Crookbond]

This seems to have started earlier and the article in the OP links to it as well [0].

No third party, without prior written license from STAR, may publish, provide, disseminate, sell or license to any person or entity, inter alia, any of the following proprietary content relating to the BCCI Events: - ball-by-ball or other score or incident updates or alerts of any nature; - live or near-live match scorecards or match score feeds of any nature; - match scorecards or match score feeds using BCCI Marks; - match schedules using BCCI Marks; - mobile applications using proprietary match content or BCCI Marks; - audio commentary; or - match feed or match footage.

The bold is what bothers me. The rest seem perfectly reasonable and fine. [0] http://www.medianama.com/2012/08/223-cricket-india-new-zealand-score-app/

[ganeshran]

So if someone posts the live score on ICF commentary thread, he is violating the terms. :WTF: They will never be able to get this enforced in court.

[King Khan]

This seems to have started earlier and the article in the OP links to it as well [0]. The bold is what bothers me. The rest seem perfectly reasonable and fine. [0] http://www.medianama.com/2012/08/223-cricket-india-new-zealand-score-app/

Sorry mate Completely disagree. All clauses seems unresonable to me. This is free world. STAR pushing it too much to make revenue from their media rights bought from BCCI with record breaking deal. A classic display of pawnge of commecialism.:((

[ganeshran]

Sorry mate Completely disagree. All clauses seems unresonable to me. This is free world. STAR pushing it too much to make revenue from their media rights bought from BCCI with record breaking deal. A classic display of pawnge of commecialism.:((

Match video and audio feed is covered under the copyright. Any pictures they take are also covered under IP rights. they spend money to produce this content and hold full ownership. Its the live score and match reporting that is news in the public domain and cannot be subject to copyright laws.

[saneindian]

Cricinfo has tried to kill Cricbuzz for a long time now. When they failed to stop the amazing growth of CB, they are now using the financial muscle of their parent company to kill the competition.

[Prakat]

Media groups would have put some reports on the table which enumerated how many eyeballs Star is losing because people prefer to get their score updates on their mobiles instead of watching their commercials/broadcast, leading to some brutal negotiations that Star would have had the worse of. Cut to, this.

[Crookbond]

Sorry mate Completely disagree. All clauses seems unresonable to me. This is free world. STAR pushing it too much to make revenue from their media rights bought from BCCI with record breaking deal. A classic display of pawnge of commecialism.:((

Lets go through what I said is reasonable according to me [1] match scorecards or match score feeds using BCCI Marks Surely, you can not use BCCI marks if you are not authorized to. [2] match schedules using BCCI Marks; Once again BCCI Marks! You and me may be able to differentiate but some naive users may think that such an app is an "official" app when it is not. Sounds reasonable to me. [3] mobile applications using proprietary match content or BCCI Marks; Some match content like official BCCI radio (if exists) is proprietary and not to be distributed unless granted access. So this is reasonable too. [4] match feed or match footage. This is self explanatory. You can't leech from someone! Star has paid huge money to acquire these rights. You can not free load from Star. That's just stealing. Your free world argument is quite a bad example because it's not. STAR has paid a lot of money to get exclusive rights for this content - it's not "free".

[WC2011INDIA]

Ridiculous. Tons of websites show the live score and I use cricbuzz as its updates are the quickest. they even have audio commentary on the Android app

This seems to have started earlier and the article in the OP links to it as well [0]. The bold is what bothers me. The rest seem perfectly reasonable and fine. [0] http://www.medianama.com/2012/08/223-cricket-india-new-zealand-score-app/

WHAT!! Cricbuzz has audio commentary!i didnÃÕ know that. How can i activate this audio commentary? I installed the app 3 months ago on my android.

[Crookbond]

:blink: In the iPhone, on each scorecard you have a blue speaker button. Hit it for glory!

[Crookbond]

Delhi HC rules in favor of Star India, says you can't provide live updates on mobile or websites

54.It is gathered that, as it is, about 3-5 minutes are taken for gathering, compiling and disseminating the score updates/match alerts by the defendants. In such a circumstance, I am of the opinion that those who do not obtain a license from the plaintiff, may not disseminate the score update/match alert before 15 minutes from the moment such score update/match alert is telecasted/broadcasted by the plaintiff. A question might arise as to why the lag is only 15 minutes and not 2/3 minutes or 30 minutes or more? 55.If the time lag was 2/3 minutes, it would be more or less contemporaneous with the live telecast/broadcast of the match. If it is 30 minutes or more, as observed by the Division Bench in the NDTV Case, the information becomes irrelevant, and it would deprive the public of their right to that information. By specifying a 15 minute lag, it is ensured that the defendants are not providing ball-by-ball or minute-by-minute score updates/match alerts contemporaneously with respect to the live telecast/broadcast of match. Considering the time-sensitive nature of the information, after a span of 15 minutes, there is no longer a direct competition between the parties to provide contemporaneous match information to the customers who demand it. This maintains a balance between the right of the plaintiff to monetize the cricket match and the right of the public to receive such information, and also prevents the defendants from free-riding on the efforts of the plaintiff.

http://lobis.nic.in/dhc/MLM/judgement/13-03-2013/MLM13032013S27222012.pdf Legal experts may throw more light. In particular, waiting for a comment by Ganesh on this. Thanks!