Sports Statistics - In particular Greyhounds & Horses
- August 18, 2006 @ 4:08ambobb says:Hello All,
I am seeking an answer to the following question. I am based in the UK. I am a keen greyhound supporter. At this moment in time there is no service (that I can find) that provides detailed statistical analysis about particular greyhounds in a race. My intention is to go ahead and provide this service (eventually for a small fee for a race card). Analysis I intend to provide is trap success rate, average times, class success rates, results against other dogs in race and a whole further set of information.
In order to do this though I need to use the previous race results of dogs. Now I thought this information was factual and therefore could be freely used. Is this correct or not? The only issue I have is that a friend has told me that the lines of form for a greyhound or horse are likely to be copyrighted by the governing body. They pointed me to the website of greyhounds in the UK www.thedogs.co.uk. On the wesbite it says
"This results service is provided from the British Greyhound Racing Board's National Form Database solely for the personal use of visitors to the site. No part of the results service may be copied, reproduced, republished, modified, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the British Greyhound Racing Board. All rights reserved."
Does this mean I cannot use the lines of form or am I just misunderstanding the notice above. If anyone could provide any information, I would be extremely grateful.
Many Thanks
Bob S - August 18, 2006 @ 8:14amMKardick says:Dear Bob,
We are a U.S. based forum so I'm not sure if this will be any help but I'm willing to try. I took a look at the site you indicated but I was unable to determine the commercial status of it. That may make a difference how easily you could get permission to use the information you want. You might just ask the British Greyhound Racing Board if you can use the stats. If you are not ready to do that yet try contacting the UK Copyright Office to find out what you can about that notice. Try the following link (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/). Good luck! - August 21, 2006 @ 6:51amwilliamsonl says:Here in the U.S., sports stats are generally considered public domain. Database vendors are continually trying to have this changed using the 'sweat of the brow' argument that it should be protected because of the effort put into it. As far as I know (if someone knows more, please let us know) stats are still public domain here in the U.S. I am unfamiliar with UK copyright law, but whatever it says regarding facts should apply.
- August 21, 2006 @ 7:18pmRDavis says:There is a pending lawsuit against Major League Baseball here in the U.S. regarding the copyrightability of sports statistics. I too don't know how relevant this will ultimately be to UK law, but here's an informative article on the topic:
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1495&CFID=707840&CFTOKEN=36133305 - August 21, 2006 @ 7:20pmRDavis says:Actually, it appears that a decision was handed down in this case just a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.thomasgeorge.com/baseball/articles.cfm
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