Stealing stats?

www.kcaaonline.com

I know it's not the greatest site in the world, but could you upload the stats as a gif, bmp, png or jpg instead of txt/html to keep people from copying and pasting? Might take longer to upload, however.

We run weekly stat leaders in hoops, football, track and baseball/softball. Don't put any of them on the web, though. Want the stats? Buy the paper and don't mooch online for free.

If it's about having the same thing in two different places, not sure there's much of an argument. In my neck of the woods, many of the prep boxscores in the Lexington Herald-Leader are the same as the ones in the Louisville Courier-Journal.

 

I have to admit, I've poached a few stats in my day. We're in between two major metros, and some of our outlying schools overlap. Since the state associations tell them to report their stats to the bigger papers, but they won't send us one damn fax no matter how many times we call, occasionally I'll grab the ones we need for our weekly stat list.

Of course, we aren't making our name and most of our money off our stat list, either.

 

What do you mean by "open forum."

My trouble with this if you have five sports writers at the same game, you may well get five different sets of stats.

Maybe not the scorebook, but other stats.

 

While it's true that leagues can't copyright stats, since they happen in public places, I would imagine that the collecting of stats by a private entity is protected. In most cases it would be impossible to prove the source, however, since multiple outlets have the same stuff. But if you were the only site with stats for that game and the only person collecting them, I could see how you could probably have grounds for suit. Likely wouldn't be worth the effort, though.

 

This is sort of like stealing quotes. Even though some guy didn't ask the question, he can still use the quote whether it be from a press conference or an impromptu interview. He can even use it without reference to where it was "stolen" from.

As said above, once published, it becomes part of public domain. TV people rip off newspaper stories every day. Where do you think they get their new half the time? They read that morning's paper!!!

Same thing for these new media geniuses on the web. They just rip our stuff off and call it their own. Still, people know that we are the only "trusted" source and that is what newspapers need to focus on selling themselves as. Not just local content but "trusted" too.

 

You may not be able to catch him stealing stats, but you'll probably be able to catch him stealing something else (copy).

That's how I caught a rival weakly (um, I mean weekly) that is now out of business plagarizing my stuff. I noticed they had a FULL boxscore (with makes & misses, et al) of a game in which I was the only reporter covering in person. Given I know the local school usually doesn't have individual stats uploaded that quickly, and they NEVER have the opponent's stats, I knew that it had been lifted from me.

I went and read the corresponding story, and some of it was pretty much word-for-word lifted from mine (and found out that they had lifted several other stories word-for-word from both my publication & some others).

I'm glad your higher-ups are steamed about it. My publisher, wanting to not look like the "big, bad" daily trying to run the little community weeklies out of business, refused to go after them on plagarism (after alerting the publishers of two nearby papers, one of which was a major metro, I think someone did, because the plagarism stopped and the paper soon went out of business).

 

I could care less if someone steals my stats.

Our school covers a ton of tiny schools. If someone had a website like this in New York where I could grab a stat or two when I can't get a hold of an opposing coach or newspaper from six hours away, I'm okay with it.

Hell, I'd give the kid what I have.

Some may call it lazy journalism, but given the fact that I get paid less than what a shirt costs at Abercrombie & Fitch for a story, I'm okay with it.

 

Seems to me the kid has done all three papers a favor by pulling together credible statewide stats ... and the real question ought to be why the three papers didn't cook this idea up themselves and run with it.

 

every weekly does it. why shouldn't the kid?

 

You're kidding, right? You think this kid, with images of rivals.com fame twinkling in his eyes, is "doing a favor" for the papers by stealing information and reposting it on his little website? Do you think any professional journalist could use this site as a resource for statewide stats?

The one thing we have as professionals who work for established media entities is credibility. Even on the days we get it wrong, the public has a base assumption that newspapers are a credible source of information.

Telling a kid with a website that he can steal information (regardless of the legal definition, that's what he's doing) and republish it is essentially lending him the credibility that media outlets have worked hard to establish.

I'm not saying there is no room for non-traditional media outlets, but only those who commit an act of journalism in the process. Copying a newspaper's work and then adding a poll on "Which school's QB has mad skillz?" does not imply journalism. And it would be dangerous for any journalist to utilize information found on that site.

If an entity with credibility (such as a state high school association) decided to create a "clearinghouse" website for news from around the state, they would likely enter into an agreement with various media outlets. They also wouldn't pick up news stories and information from random sources, like fanboi blogs, because doing so would damage the host entity's credibility.

If I was faced with this situation, BigJim, my immediate concern would be that coaches and ADs would become confused/overburdened with requests, polls, etc. from the wannabe site. I'm glad that you are mad, glad that you've gotten your editor involved and glad that, in turn, legal is involved.

 

Well put!