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EA Sports Cleared Of Wrongdoing In Player Likeness Lawsuit
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by former college quarterback Sam Keller against EA Sports regarding the publisher's use of his likeness in past NCAA Football games. [Except]
Back in 2009 the former Arizona State and Nebraska quarterback sued EA Sports, the NCAA, and the Collegiate Licensing Company. Today Judge Claudia Wilken removed EA from the lawsuit, saying ”This purported conspiracy involves Defendants’ concerted action to require all current student-athletes to sign forms each year that purport to require each of them to relinquish all rights in perpetuity for use of their images, likenesses and/or names and to deny compensation ‘through restrictions in the NCAA Bylaws.’ The Consolidated Amended Complaint, however, does not contain any allegations to suggest that EA agreed to participate in this conspiracy.”
While the game publisher is in the clear, the case is going forward against the other two parties. Don't take this as evidence that it will be business as usual in future iterations of NCAA Football. If the judge eventually rules against the league and its licensing body, EA may lose the ability to feature likenesses. This could mean that instead of the Stanford team featuring a 6-4, 235-pound pocket quarterback who wears the number 12 and has amazing attributes just like Andrew Luck, you may be controlling a 5-9, mobile quarterback with no tangential relation to the future NFL draft pick. All the removal of EA Sports from the lawsuit does is clear the publisher of facing financial damages.
[Source: PastaPadre]
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