Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o Permission

October 14, 2008

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Nevada late last month alleges that sports game publisher Electronic Arts used the UNLV fight song in various NCAA-licensed games without obtaining permission of the composer.

Gerald Willis of Washoe County says in the suit that he is the composer and copyright holder of both the lyrics and music of Win With the Rebels. Willis claims that his tune can be heard in the following games:

NCAA Basketball 09
NCAA Football 09
NCAA March Madness 08
NCAA Football 08
NCAA March Madness 07
NCAA Football 07
MVP NCAA Baseball 07
NCAA March Madness 06
NCAA Football 06
MVP NCAA Baseball 06

From the complaint:

...an important element of Defendants' software is its realistic feel that is created, at least in part, by its recorded and reproduced sounds including but not limited to college fight song.

Willis seeks $150,000 per alleged copyright violation. We have a request in to EA for comment.

Posted in Academia Court Cases Electronic Arts Games & the Law Sports

Comments

Re: Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o

Submitted by mikese on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 10:32.

Oh the irony i hope he wont and got paid by EA. I can imagine all the players who dont get paid raging on steroids at this when they are in the game but not officially.

Re: Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o

Submitted by pauljay on Thu, 04/01/2010 - 23:31.

I think they should pay him out, of he can prove it is legit!
EA got tons of cash

Paul

Re: Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o

Submitted by sirdarkat on Wed, 10/15/2008 - 09:06.

Wait so a company who whines and shoved down our throats one of the most horrible draconic anti piracy devices ever is now a pirate?

Re: Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o

Submitted by Verbinator on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 18:41.

If the man has clear legal claim to the property, then he will likely prevail.

But school fight songs ... don't they typically either belong to the school itself, or to an implied public domain? It would be reasonable to assume that by licensing the right to use the school's IP in the games, that EA may have assumed that right extended to things like school fight songs? I would chalk this up to legal laziness on both the part of EA and the school.

--Verbinator

Re: Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o

Submitted by Spartan on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 18:17.

If only this guy could put the serious beat down on EA for IPR violations with maximum statutory damages per infringement. It would be such perfect justice!

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"The most difficult pain a man can suffer is to have knowledge of much and power over little" - Herodotus

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The most difficult pain a man can suffer is to have knowledge of much and power over little" - Herodotus

Re: Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o

Submitted by 1AgainstTheWorld on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 17:55.

Sounds like Gerald Willis needs better Digital Rights Management to control the unauthorized distribution of his work. Hmm, wonder who could help him out with that...?

Irony is teh awesome. :)

Re: Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o

Submitted by GoodRobotUs on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 16:45.

Well, under the new law, should this be calculated per violation/unit? Which would pretty much destroy EA entirely?

Re: Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o

Submitted by Brokenscope on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 16:36.

It depends, when he says "per infringement" does he mean per game sold, or does he just want 150K for every title it should have been liscenced for.

Re: Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o

Submitted by Eville1 on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 16:41.

I'd imagine it's per IP that used it and not per unit. Otherwise there goes EA as a company huh?

Heh. If only.

Really though, it took them this long?

Re: Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o

Submitted by DeepThorn on Wed, 10/15/2008 - 09:02.

Hell, I hope it is Broken's former, because EA would prolly lose half of their income for the year, haha.

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How to set Xbox 360 Parental Controls

Re: Lawsuit Claims EA Used UNLV Fight Song in NCAA Games w/o

Submitted by DarkSaber on Tue, 10/14/2008 - 16:34.

Here they come! One whiff of EAs blood in the water was all it took....

--------------------------------------------------

I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.

-------------------------------------------------- I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.

Shout box

Andrew Eisen: Huh, saw that in the paper last Friday (or possibly over the weekend). Sad to say but people missing that long usually turn up dead. Sure hope that isn't the case.02/09/2012 - 2:12am

Andrew Eisen: I don't believe so. As I hear it, it's just a week-long promotion.02/09/2012 - 2:10am

Uncharted NES: Nintendo Employee Reported "Missing"- http://m.kotaku.com/5883562/nintendo-employee-reported-missing02/09/2012 - 1:50am

Uncharted NES: @andrew Hopefully it's the permanent price, though I'm not planning to upgrade anytime soon.02/09/2012 - 1:44am

ddrfr33k: Wow, didn't realize it was that ambiguous. Internet terrorists sound like the next tinfoil hat conspiracy02/09/2012 - 1:09am

Andrew Eisen: Newegg has the same deal.02/09/2012 - 12:59am

Uncharted NES: http://m.kotaku.com/5883236/get-a-3ds-for-just-150-at-gamestop02/08/2012 - 11:00pm

Andrew Eisen: Not that it matters, I am just needling you after all.02/08/2012 - 10:34pm

Andrew Eisen: To be fair, I don't think that's what he was facepalming and if he was, that would still be three. MP's would make it four, but that happened after the fact. The rest of the posts are about us commenting on his repeated misuse, not the misuse itself.02/08/2012 - 10:34pm

DorthLous: To be fair, I did count ddrfr33k post as well, and, well, this dead horse would now be at 7 posts ^^02/08/2012 - 10:10pm

MaskedPixelante: BREAKING: Valve is the best production team this side of Studio B. See, I can do it too.02/08/2012 - 9:45pm

Andrew Eisen: Four to five? Really? That doesn’t sound right. Wait a moment, let me count... Nope, it was just one. And if you meant four to five between us, there's still only two.02/08/2012 - 9:03pm

DorthLous: And, you guys, always take about 4-5 posts to explain it in the shoutbox each time. It's like people complaining about reposts or "First!" posters. Just ignore the annoying part, guys.02/08/2012 - 8:51pm

RedMage: I do want to point out how sad it is that Andrew has had to point this out to you at least three times by my knowledge, Uncharted.02/08/2012 - 7:31pm

Andrew Eisen: If you have to ask, maybe you should consider breaking your annoying habit of prefixing nearly every story you link to with an all caps "breaking" or "urgent." Especially when it's only ever been appropriate twice.02/08/2012 - 5:37pm

Uncharted NES: For the report or the breaking?02/08/2012 - 5:10pm

ddrfr33k: @Uncharted: that's just facepalm-worthy. ISHYGDDT...02/08/2012 - 2:02pm

Uncharted NES: BREAKING: UK Report Blames The Internet For Terrorism, Says ISPs Should Take Down Content- http://tinyurl.com/86syhe202/08/2012 - 10:59am

lomdr: Then again, no site and publisher wants a repeat of KaneandLynchGate02/08/2012 - 6:39am

ZippyDSMlee: oh dear....... then again US rags give the most medicore crap 8s and 9s like crazy....02/07/2012 - 11:18pm

All shouts

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