Remember a while back when retired NFL players decided to sue the NLFPA for not paying them to use their likeness in Madden games? Well a verdict has been made by a U.S. District court in San Francisco. The outcome? It looks like the old timers scored a touchdown and will have to be paid damages. Just how much? $28 million dollars (said in Dr. Evil voice)
According to the L.A. Times:
A federal jury in San Francisco on Monday ordered the NFL Players Assn. to pay $28.1 million in damages to retired players after determining that the union had ignored contracts covering reimbursement for use of their images in such things as video games and sports trading cards.
The civil court award included $7.1 million in actual damages and $21 million in punitive damages.
Later in the article it talks about a letter from the NFLPA to EA Sports about scrambling their pics to avoid having to pay them for using their likeness. And of course EA obliged.
Adderley, who wept when the verdict was read, said that former players uncovered a 2001 letter from a union executive that directed Electronic Arts Inc. to scramble images of retired players to avoid royalty payments for the popular "Madden NFL" video game. "If you look at the 1976 Green Bay Packers in that game, you'll know that the only left cornerback that year had to be Herb Adderley, but they scrambled my face and took the number off of my jersey," Adderley said. "Yet, they had my correct height, weight and years of experience."
If you missed the original lawsuit document Gamepolitics.com had it posted in full a while back. I found this part particularly shady
The Class Action lawyers have more than a smoking gun to prove this; they have the person shooting the gun in the form of a letter fired off by former Players Inc. Vice President of Multimedia LaShun Lawson, to Madden NFL Game producer Jeremy Strauser that was cc’d to Doug Allen, then President of Players Inc. In the letter LaShun says:
“For all retired players that are not listed... their identity must be altered so that it cannot be recognized. Regarding paragraph 2 of the License Agreement between Electronic Arts and Players Inc, a player’s identity is defined as his name, likeness (including without limitation, number), picture, photograph, voice, facsimile signature and/or biographical information. Hence, any and all players not listed... cannot be represented in Madden 2002 with the number that player actually wore, and must be scrambled."
Naturally the ruling is being appealed by the defense. Hopefully it stands and these guys will finally get what is owed to them for all their work. I expected something like this from someone like Bill Belichick, but not you EA.
