STATS Inc. responded to the March 5 lawsuit filed against it
and Motorola by the NBA over the alleged transmission of NBA
highlights through the SportsTrax pager. STATS President & CEO
John Dewan, from a release: "STATS is a news-gathering company
just like a wire service, radio station, television network or
newspaper. The difference between STATS and these other entities
is that we report sports news in numbers rather than in words or
pictures." Dewan continues, "STATS strongly believes that it has
the legal right to disseminate factual statistical information,
since such content is news. The statistics of sports have always
been and must remain freely available to the public." Dewan
notes that "a ruling in favor of the NBA would mean unprecedented
restrictions on how statistics and other game information could
be made available to the public in the future. The NBA could
then claim ownership not just of news updates, but also of box
scores, books about basketball that contain statistical analysis
and even fantasy league information. This lawsuit challenges the
very nature of media reporting in sports" (STATS Inc.).
