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Let ‘em play

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MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL teams and their star-studded rosters lost a closely watched contest this week -- to a league of fantasy players. Not since the 1988 World Series has baseball seen a victory so sweet or so momentous.

A federal judge ruled that the teams and the players union could not stop a private firm from operating an unlicensed fantasy-baseball service, clearing the way for companies to do the same for football, basketball and other sports. Baseball officials had claimed that C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing Inc. violated the players’ rights of publicity because the St. Louis company used real players’ names and statistics. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Ann L. Medler rejected that claim, saying C.B.C. wasn’t misappropriating players’ identities or undermining their ability to earn a living. She also ruled that the players union couldn’t control the use of statistics because that would prevent “the full and free use of ideas in the public domain.”

Baseball executives are expected to appeal, and they’re sure to be supported again by the football players union and other sports licensing bodies. Fantasy games have become a big business, particularly in football, where they generated an estimated $100 million in 2004. That revenue stems entirely from the players’ efforts -- there would be no fantasy games without the real ones.

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The leagues and unions argue that companies such as C.B.C. trade on players’ identities and should pay them licensing fees just as the companies that make trading cards do. But there’s a critical difference: Fantasy games are built on news, not imagery or hero-worship. They’re like trivia games or encyclopedias, which package and sell facts without having to gain permission from the people they highlight.

What a player does on the field is a historical fact, and that’s exactly the kind of information that shouldn’t be in anyone’s control. Major League Baseball said it wasn’t claiming to own the stats, just the use of stats in conjunction with players’ names. But stats without names are no more useful than a telephone book that just lists numbers.

The judge’s ruling struck a welcome note of restraint against baseball’s expansive interpretation of its rights. Like other professional sports, the league has been trying to wring every available dollar out of all things associated with the game. Its approach to fantasy leagues, however, was unseemly. It precipitated the battle with C.B.C. in 2005 by refusing to cut a licensing deal that would have let the company continue operating its independent fantasy leagues, as it has since 1995.

There’s nothing wrong with team owners running a fantasy league, as long as C.B.C. and its brethren can compete for the fans’ business. What’s wrong is the league’s attempt to control the news from the playing field. All players -- even the not-so-good ones -- make history, and that history belongs to all of us.

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