The lawsuit Morris Communications filed against the PGA
Tour claiming the Tour monopolized real-time scores on its
own Web site and prohibited Morris from selling its scoring
package to a third party (see THE DAILY 10/13) was profiled
by Brett Longdin of the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL. Julian
Miller, who is GM of the Augusta Chronicle, a Morris
subsidiary, contends the suit revolves around the freedom of
the press. Miller: "Once [the scores are] released in the
public domain, you can't tell us how we're going to use it.
That information is out. And once it is posted on boards
around the golf tournament, once it's posted in the media
center, once somebody turns to the person next to him and
starts telling him 'Tiger Woods took a four on the par 5,'
it's out there." PGA Tour attorney Jeffrey Mishkin said
that the Tour has spent $26M on its scoring system and
"needs to safeguard its venture." Mishkin: "This case is
not about the founding fathers. It's about the financial
exploitation of some valuable property" (MIL. J S, 10/21).
DETAILS: Beginning in '99, Morris sent two employees to
each tournament "who would work from the media center and,
using the PGA Tour scoring system, post real-time scores for
CNNSI.com and Morris news outlets." Morris then sent
letters to media organizations "inquiring about interest in
licensing the real-time scoring product." The Tour saw the
letter and informed Morris that "information from its
proprietary system couldn't be sold to third-party sites."
Morris was threatened with "litigation and the revocation of
credentials" if they did not comply. The PGA Tour, seeking
a compromise, allowed Morris to take information from the
official Tour Web site, but Morris claims delays in the
system caused the information to lag four-holes behind at
times and "made this process unviable." Miller: "Look at
the on-going implications of this. You have an organization
that is trying to control news. We have a right to do this,
This is information that's in the public domain. You cannot
control this" (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 10/21).
