--The lawsuit accuses the defendants of "systematically and intentionally" misappropriating the plaintiffs' publicity rights while "reaping scores of millions of dollars from Plaintiffs and similarly situated class members' participation in competition." --"The NCAA has conspired with conferences, colleges, licensing companies, and apparel companies to fix the price of student-athlete labor near zero and make student-athletes unwitting and uncompensated lifetime pitchmen for the NCAA." We have heard the same thing over and over again in multiple class action lawsuits filed against the NCAA and conferences for the past decade - with lawyers disguising their labor cases as publicity and "NIL" rights yet arguing that college athletes should receive a portion of broadcast revenue just like unionized professional players - and college athletes STILL aren't receiving any cash payments from their schools beyond $5,980 "education-based" awards while they continue to show up for work every day. The class action lawyers will keep arguing that schools are misappropriating publicity rights in game broadcasts until a federal court of appeals eventually rules their claim is preempted by copyright, which the NCAA and the conferences own. However, an unjust enrichment claim would likely survive copyright preemption for all the reasons I explain in a 2012 law review article titled, "Broadcast Rights, Unjust Enrichment, and the Student-Athlete." #ncaa #nil #copyright https://lnkd.in/gMYF33sd
Debbie Spander
4mo
great points
Plaintiff's Lawyer & Sports Agent Malpractice • Legal Ethics & Professional Responsibility Issues • College Athlete Rights Advocate
4moSo when the O’Bannon lawyers abandoned the plaintiffs’ unjust enrichment claims they made a fundamental mistake?!? Two decades of lawyers bringing the wrong claims to actually recover money for the players has become annoying and tedious to say the least.