NCAA - Exploiting Name and Likeness of Student-Athletes?
In a class action lawsuit against the NCAA, current and former college athletes allege that the NCAA illegally licenses their publicity rights without consent and proper payment. Recently unsealed emails have created media fervor and given the public new perspectives on NCAA policies. Every person has a “right of publicity” meaning they may control the commercial use of their name and likeness (including physical appearance, voice, mannerisms, and practically any other distinguishing feature). As such, they are entitled to prevent such use by others, and/or force them to pay compensation.
Key to the case are the terms of the licensing contracts players are required to sign to play college sports, as well as the proclaimed nature of the NCAA as a protector of the educational and amateur nature of college athletics. It’s one thing to require players to release their publicity rights to the NCAA to promote NCAA activities and events, but it’s quite another to commercially exploit their likeness to video game developers and other third parties without providing compensation.
Courts will likely focus on the underlying contractual and anti-trust issues of the case. But with such far-reaching publicity and recent events causing many to question the true purpose and reach of the NCAA (read: NCAA president Mark Emmert’s questionable declaration of punitive power in the Penn State University scandal), public policy concerns are sure to be on the minds of both the media and the judges.
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