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A dispute about whether newspapers can Webcast high school sports games has landed in a Wisconsin court.
In a lawsuit filed against Gannett and the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, the high school sports organization Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association has asked a state court to declare that the association alone has the right to stream school athletic games online.
The sports league argues that the Gannett newspaper The Post-Crescent of Appleton violated the association's rights by streaming a live game last November. The association filed suit last December against both the paper and the Wisconsin Newspapers Association. In its complaint, the high school association asks for an order declaring that it alone has the right "to control the transmission, internet stream, photo, image, film, videotape, audiotape, writing, drawing or other depiction or description of any game."
The high school sports league had granted Webcast rights to the company When We Were Young in 2005. That company also joined in the lawsuit.
News of the lawsuit was kept quiet until last week, when The Post-Crescent wrote about the case.
The WIAA named the Wisconsin Newspaper Association as a defendant because that organization challenged the WIAA's right to control Webcasts via an attorney's letter sent last October.
Peter Fox, executive director of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, said the group believes that the WIAA is asserting rights it doesn't have. Fox said that the organization primarily represents public schools, funded by taxpayers, which limits its ability to enter into contracts with private organizations.
"Our position is that the WIAA is a state actor and does not have the authority to create and enforce these exclusive contracts with private vendors that create unacceptable conditions on how newspapers report local high school sports news," Fox said.
The WIAA issued a statement Friday clarifying that it was not seeking monetary damages. The organization also said that it wasn't "denying any newspapers from their traditional method of reporting on events," and that news media were allowed to use up to two minutes of game highlights online--the same as TV companies.
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While public schools have limits as public entities, most high school associations are private organizations. Even if they were public organizations, I believe the associations still would control broadcast rights -- TV, radio and Web.
As an example, The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., presented Webcasts of this weekend's state wrestling championships on its site, nj.com, through an agreement with the high school association. To unilaterally decide to treat high school athletics in the same way as a local government because of the use of public funds is a stretch.