MLB "has included conditions" in its credentials agreement "that have riled news organizations, which say the terms would limit how they're able to cover games, especially" on the Internet, according to Monty Phan of NEWSDAY. The agreement states that "failure to adhere to the conditions could result in loss of credentials for members of the media," but several news organizations last night "were in talks with" MLB to "revise the agreement." Per the agreement, a credential holder "shall not transmit or display any video, audio, pictures, photographs or other non-text based accounts or descriptions of [games] in any media while [the games] are in progress," except with MLB permission. There is also a clause "limiting transmission of game information to no more than once every half-inning, except in cases where the league has granted license to do so." Phan notes that "such a condition could mean" that a Web site could not post photographs of any action until after the game. The agreement also states MLB "gets the right to buy published photos taken by an organization with a league event at the 'actual cost of producing them,' and the right to use the photos in other media for news purposes 'without further compensation to' the original organization." Newsday editor Anthony Marro, on the agreement: "We aren't going to sign this as it is, obviously. We'll cross out the things we object to and then we'll sign" (NEWSDAY, 3/29).
