I wonder if Judge Loretta Preska has ever been to a professional basketball game.
Preska ruled in favor of the NBA in its lawsuit against Motorola Inc., ordering Motorola and information providers STATS Inc. to stop sending accounts of NBA basketball games over its pager device, SportsTrax.
The NBA filed the lawsuit, charging that Motorola and STATS were not authorized to provide play-by-play accounts of NBA games.
Motorola contended it was just doing another version of the evening news.
But the judge didn’t buy it, saying the SportsTrax version of the game competes with the broadcasting of the actual game. “I find without hesitation that their product crosses the boundary from mere media coverage of the NBA games into competing commercial misappropriation of these games,” Preska said.
Huh?
I’m not a big basketball fan. (Football’s more my style.) But I’ve been to a few basketball games and I don’t think Motorola’s pager-even with its play-by-play version of the game-is in any danger of competing with the real thing. Basketball is about gigantic men making great plays, screaming fans, mascots, hot dogs, beer, soda, pretzels, etc.
I certainly hold wireless technology in high regard. But I don’t think SportsTrax can simulate an NBA game (or even a pee wee game.)
My guess is that the NBA just wants a cut of the revenue. (Now there is an interesting way to pay for the $120 million deal Shaquille O’Neal signed with the Lakers.)
Aside from guarding their precious revenue sources, however, the NBA-merely by filing the lawsuit-attests to the future popularity of these types of wireless products.
RCR’s Denver staff had the opportunity to test a similar paging device a few years ago, and I loved it. The baseball game updates weren’t so exciting … Bottom of the first, Rockies down 1-0 … Bottom of the second, Rockies still down 1-0 … Bottom of the seventh, Rockies down 2-0 ….
But getting news over the pager quickly proved addictive. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was near death at the time, and along with the straight news, the pager contained other, tabloid-quality tidbits of information, noting things like Daryl Hannah was expected to go by to pay her respects.
I don’t know that I’d ever pay $200 to be connected to news and sports information like that, but once those prices start to go down, I can see a legitimate market for the devices.
And the NBA can, too. It just wants a piece of the action.
