MLB New Media Goons have learned their lesson
Endgadget is reporting that MLB Advance Media, AKA MLB New Media Goons are not going to sue the hell out of Sling Media.
Major League Baseball may not be happy about Sling Media enabling fans to stream out of market baseball games over the internet, but it is apparently backing off of plans to sue the company into oblivion, RIAA-style. Bob Bowman, president of Major League Baseball Advanced Media said in an interview that winning could be done with “good technology and good content, not lawyers”.
The interview in question in which Mr. Bowman alias Captian New Media Goon said what he said is in the Wall Street Journal, meaning you won’t be able to read the article unless you’re a paid subscriber.
[For an umpbump.com sticker, which WSJ subscriber is going to share the good stuff from that column in our comments?]
Here’s a quick primer about the issue: Sling Media is a company that makes this little gizmo that allows you to hook it up to your TV (which in turn can be connected to your cable or sat service) and then broadcast said TV’s signal through a broadband Internet connection to wherever you are. Could be your office downtown, or your hotel room across the country. A loyal Pirates fan from Pittsburgh, who also happens to own a Sling Player can watch his Bucs from L.A. gratis. Unlike some of us who ponyed up the cash for MLB.TV, Baseball’s service that… aw hell you know what it does.
Naturally, Baseball didn’t like this, and was threatening to sue Sling.
Frankly, it doesn’t surprise me. We all saw what kind of backlash Baseball had to endure after they made a “dumb” decision. So now they’re backing off Sling in order to avoid alienating fans (aka costumers) who use their service to watch games from their home markets through the Internet.
That’s right. Back off.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:30 am
[WSJ - Baseball Media Arm Is Likely
To Soften Stance With Sling By ADAM THOMPSON June 4, 2007; Page B8]
“MLBAM contends that Sling doesn’t have the right to retransmit Major League games. It has a competing Internet product, mlb.tv, that streams out-of-market games.
Last week, an article in the Hollywood Reporter quoted Michael Mellis, MLBAM’s general counsel, saying his company hadn’t ruled out a lawsuit and calling Sling’s technology “not legal.”
But in an interview last week, Bob Bowman, MLBAM’s president and chief executive, suggested a softer approach.
While reiterating that he thinks Sling doesn’t have the legal right to do what it is doing, he said: “The way to win this is with good content and good technology, not with lawyers.”
Mr. Bowman added, “I think the music industry proved that to everybody,” referring to the Record Industry Association of America’s decision to sue individuals for copyright infringement for downloading music for free.
In response, Sling CEO Blake Krikorian said, “I’m relieved to hear that.”"
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