Tue, Aug 03, 2010 | 12:36 BST
EA sued by 6,000 ex-NFL players over “unlawful” likeness use in Madden 09
EA’s been served with a class action lawsuit over its “unlawful use” of the liknesses of 6,000 retired NFL players in Madden NFL 09.
Plaintiff and ex-NFL running back Tony Davis said that the use of the likenesses of the players in the game were “knowingly and intentionally” used in a particular way by EA Sports in order to avoid paying licence fees in using them.
Davis added that players would still have its actual NFL stats in the game, but jersey numbers and names would be removed .
“The only significant detail that EA changes from the real-life retired NFL players is their jersey number,” said details from the suit, which you can find here.
“Despite EA’s ‘scrambling’ of the retired NFL players’ numbers, the games are designed so that consumers of the Madden NFL video game franchise will have no difficulty identifying who the ‘historic’ players are.”
EA refused to comment to IGN on the situation.
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Posted in: EA, Legalities, Sports
Tags: ea sports, Madden NFL 09, Tony Davis
14 comments
#1
Dannybuoy
03/08/10, 12:41 pm
ouch
#2
LOLshock94
03/08/10, 12:47 pm
fuck u american footballers
#3
freedoms_stain
03/08/10, 12:50 pm
How many players are in your average NFL game?
6000 sounds like a lot to me.
#4
Hunam
03/08/10, 1:00 pm
Bloody hell. Do they retire at 26 or something? That’s a hell of a lot of player turn over.
#5
Tonka
03/08/10, 1:03 pm
ouch indeed
#6
KrazyKraut
03/08/10, 1:14 pm
ehm yo…for a little German…what are jersey numbers?
#7
DiodeX
03/08/10, 1:21 pm
@6, look at the picture, 15 is his jersey number. Jersey is American for Football shirt
#8
freedoms_stain
03/08/10, 1:28 pm
I think it’s pretty much universal English for team sport strip.
Football strips (UK) are often called Jerseys, as are Rugby shirts.
#9
KrazyKraut
03/08/10, 1:30 pm
ahh now I understand…they took RL player, used all RL stats but removed their name and number…so yeah…thats a stupid way to bypass some licenses…roflcopter is coming
#10
AHA-Lambda
03/08/10, 1:35 pm
wait 6000?!?!
#11
DarkElfa
03/08/10, 9:10 pm
@2, Wow man, you just had to make this about countries, huh soccer fan?
#12
LordCancer
03/08/10, 9:15 pm
@11 nah man he has gingivitis and a small penis. unlike american rednecks he ain’t got nascar or guns so hes very unhappy
#13
LOLshock94
03/08/10, 9:41 pm
make this about countries stfu i said fuck you american footballers as that what its called america football and they are sueing EA for something which is pointless
BTW i lived in ohio for 2 years something like this is what baseball players do
#14
Uncontested
04/08/10, 11:16 pm
When the average career in the NFL is only 3 years you have to look out for your own well being, and licensing fees are part of what you earned for your time in the NFL, its bad enough EA has a stranglehold on the NFL brand and it continues to get shittier each year, but now they’re trying to rip off former players too? Get real and quit trolling you stupid fuck.