A class action lawsuit brought against Electronic Arts by close to 6,000 retired NFL players over the use of their likenesses on "Madden NFL 09's" historic teams has finally been given the green light by an appeals court.
The suit was initially filed back in August 2010 and asserted that EA "knowingly and intentionally" used the retired players' likenesses in such a way to avoid having to pay licensing fees. EA guilty of being a heartless, greedy corporation that's cheating NFL old-timers out of a few bucks? Say it ain't so...
A judge ruled in 2012 that the case would go to court but EA appealed the decision, claiming the use of the player likenesses was "incidental" and protected by the First Amendment in the US.
Nonetheless, ESPN (via the Associated Press) reports that a federal appeals court has refused EA's appeal, and has allowed the lawsuit to continue.
"We hold EA's use of the former players' likenesses is not incidental because it is central to EA's main commercial purpose: to create a realistic virtual simulation of football games involving current and former NFL teams," said Circuit Judge Raymond Fisher.
When the suit was first filed in 2010, former player Tony Davis argued that EA had used the players' exact stats and positions from when they were active in the league, including height and weight, but removed their names and changed their uniform numbers to avoid licensing payments.
"The only significant detail that EA changes from the real-life retired NFL players is their jersey number," the lawsuit said.
"Despite EA's 'scrambling' of the retired NFL players' numbers, the games are designed so that consumers of the 'Madden NFL' video game franchise will have no difficulty identifying who the 'historic' players are."
The retired players are suing EA for damages, all of its profits related to the use of retired players' likenesses, and attorney's fees.
