The U.S. Supreme Court has chosen not to hear a "rights of publicity" case - a topic it hasn't addressed for decades involving Electronic Arts. The Supreme Court on Thursday denied EA's request to appeal a 9th Circuit Court ruling for a class of college athletes led by former Nebraska and Arizona State quarterback Sam Keller (Keller v. EA).

Keller sued the company and the NCAA in 2009 for using his image and likeness without compensating him in EA's NCAA-branded football and basketball games.

The NCAA appealed a federal judge's injunction in the case involving former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon, which prohibiting it from enforcing rules against student-athletes being paid for the use of their names, images and likenesses. The appeal was filed in the 9th Circuit court late Wednesday, and was not a great surprise to anyone following the case - the NCAA announced its intention to appeal after Wilken's ruling was released on Aug. 8.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken indicated that she would approve two settlements involving college football and men's basketball players who appeared in NCAA-branded video games developed and published by Electronic Arts, according to two plaintiffs' lawyers who took part in a preliminary approval hearing on Thursday.

An estimated 100,000 college football and basketball players can receive up to $5,000 a year for the use of their likeness in NCAA-based video games, according to a settlement in an ongoing class action dispute. The news comes from Courthouse News who obtained the settlement document this morning.

The class action lawsuit against the NCAA continues, and this week the college sports association brought in an economics expert who carefully inserted the phrases "name, image and likeness" in his definition of pay-for-play during his testimony. On Thursday U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken asked questions about it during the trial. During his testimony she asked economist David Rubinfeld why he kept using the phrase "pay for play" when referring to student athlete payments.

Attorneys representing student-athletes who claimed that the NCAA illegally used their names, images and likenesses in Electronic Arts’ series of NCAA-branded sports games have reached a preliminary settlement with the NCAA that would add $20 million to the $40 million settlement reached recently with Electronic Arts.

Attorneys representing student-athletes who claim Electronic Arts illegally used their likenesses in the company’s popular NCAA Football, Basketball, and March Madness videogames filed a motion on Friday to approve a settlement. The settlement, if approved could award thousands of dollars in settlement payments to affected players, according to law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro.

Electronic Arts Sports and the Collegiate Licensing Co. sought to use the names and likenesses of college athletes in its video games, according to an NCAA document unsealed in federal court on Wednesday (as detailed in this LA Times report).

Earlier this week the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) attempt to become a party to a lawsuit regarding the rights of the NCAA and other entities to use athletes’ likeness in video games, publicity purposes, and other materials.

The NCAA is adamant that it will take the fight against lawsuits related to EA's college sports games all the way to the Supreme Court if it has to. Speaking to USA Today Sports, NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy said that the organization is not afraid to go the distance and is ramping up its legal team:

Electronic Arts has entered into a settlement agreement related to several cases involving the use of college player likenesses in many of its NCAA-branded sports titles. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed and still require the approval of the courts. The settlement is related to several pending cases filed by former and current NCAA college sports players including the Keller and O’Bannon case against EA, along with the Alston and Hart cases.

Lawyers representing former West Virginia running back Shawne Alston (who played for the team from 2009 - 2012) have filed a separate class-action suit against Electronic Arts in the Federal District Court in New Jersey. The new lawsuit alleges that EA engaged in "blatant and unlawful" use of college athletes' names and likenesses in its college football and basketball games.

Today a U.S. court of appeals handed down a ruling in the case against Electronic Arts (EA) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) over the use of student-athletes’ likenesses in video games. Electronic Arts argued that using a player's likenesses was a practice protected by the First Amendment. In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, and remanded the case back to the trial court to proceed against all defendants, including the NCAA.

Electronic Arts filed a motion yesterday asking the court to dismiss the complaint in the antitrust lawsuit filed by current and former collegiate athletes against the company, the NCAA and the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) - according to a Polygon report. The thrust of EA's argument in that motion is that it should not be part of the lawsuit.

In Episode 61 of the Super Podcast Action Committee, hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about the First Amendment, if Microsoft will cooperate with the government to allow access to the Kinect's various features (for the purposes of spying on us), Forza 5 requiring a 'day one' update, and a whole lot more. there's even some talk about Howard the Duck, LEGOs, the new Avengers movie, Hank Pym, Comic-Con and more. Download Episode 61 now: SuperPAC Episode 61 (1 hour, 10 minutes) 64 MB.

Six current college football players have been added as plaintiffs to the anti-trust lawsuit that claims the NCAA owes billions of dollars to former players for allowing their likenesses to be used without compensation in games made by Electronic Arts. Former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, which has been joined by 16 former college athletes. Basketball Hall of Famers Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson previously joined the lawsuit.

Attorney Steve Berman has issued a brief statement on the NCAA's decision to let its licensing agreement with EA expire next year. Berman is the managing partner of law firm Hagens Berman and co-lead counsel in a class-action lawsuit filed by former college athletes against the NCAA and Electronic Arts. The lawsuit, detailed by the law firm here, alleges that EA's NCAA branded sports games used players' likenesses without permission and without providing compensation.

On the heels of yesterday's announcement that the NCAA would end its licensing agreement with EA Sports - which is set to expire in June of next year - EA has assured fans that its NCAA college football game franchise will live on - even if it doesn't have "NCAA" in its title.

Aaron Hernandez, who was charged with murder on June 26, will be removed from both Madden 25 and NCAA 14, according to a report from Joystiq . Hernandez was a tight end for the New England Patriots, prior to being charged with the June 17 homicide of Odin L. Lloyd in North Attleboro, Massachusetts.

Former college basketball player Ed O’Bannon says that his class action lawsuit related to various EA Sports games against the National Collegiate Athletic Association isn't about getting rich - it's about what is fair. The former University of California-Los Angeles forward says that lawsuit is about establishing the rights of players of the college sports’ governing body to keep proceeds from selling the rights to athletes’ likenesses used in TV broadcasts, video games and clothing lines.

In the latest round of the federal antitrust case led by former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon against the NCAA, Electronic Arts and College Licensing Co, the National Collegiate Athletic Association argued in court that it is improper to certify former college athletes as a class because they did not provide evidence to support their claims "that NCAA amateurism rules illegally 'restrain' current SAs [student athletes] from selling broadcast or video game 'group licenses.'" O'Bannon's lawsuit alleges that all the parties involved colluded to avoid pa

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court that dismissed the lawsuit of former Rutgers quarterback Ryan Hart's against EA Sports related to the NCAA franchise. Hart sued EA using his image in NCAA Football without his permission and without properly compensating him, he claims. Hart, who played for Rutgers from 2002-05 filed his suit in 2009 against EA.

USA Today reports that Former Connecticut guard Tate George has admitted in a deposition taken last year that avatars in several versions of a video game that are supposed to represent him do not resemble him at all and were used multiple times to represent other players in the game. George is one of several former NCAA players suing the NCAA and EA Sports for illegally using their likenesses. The group of players are trying to get certified as a class.

A former EA Sports producer says that the NCAA games developed by EA Sports over the years were designed to replicate actual players without using their names. This is according to a deposition given by former EA Sports producer Jeremy Strauser, who testified in a deposition for the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit against the NCAA, Collegiate Licensing Company, and EA Sports. The deposition, along with other documents from the case are part of EA's filings with the court last week. Jeremy Strauser worked at EA from 1995 until 2011.

According to information gleaned from court documents obtained by ESPN, EA Sports used the real names of NCAA college athletes during the development of its now-dead college basketball video game franchise. The information came from emails that are being used as part of an antitrust lawsuit filed against the NCAA, Electronic Arts, and the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) by former NCAA college athletes.

A law firm representing former college athletes is asking a court for certification of their class action lawsuits that claims the NCAA tricked them into signing away their rights to profit from their own images being used in video games and other materials. In a 2009 class action lawsuit, former UCLA basketball star Edward O'Bannon claimed that the NCAA "forced" student athletes to sign a "misleading Form 08-3a" if they wanted to play NCAA sports.

Electronic Arts has agreed to give up the exclusive rights to create games based on the NCCA and AFL, and to pay $27 million to customers as part of a class action lawsuit settlement. The lawsuit alleged that EA had created a football game monopoly and used its position to edge out competing companies by adjusting prices downward, and locking down exclusive licenses. When that competition disappeared EA then raised the price of its games back to normal levels.

A lawsuit filed by former Rutgers University quarterback Ryan Hart has been thrown out of the Trenton, New Jersey U.S. District Court on the grounds that Electronic Arts was exercising free expression under the First Amendment. Hart had alleged in his lawsuit (Hart v. Electronic Arts Inc et al, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 09-0599) that Electronic Arts has used his image in its NCAA Football video game without his permission.

NCAA president Mark Emmert said that the organization dedicated to collegiate sports will not stray from its long-standing tenet of not directly paying college sports players.

"It’s grossly unacceptable and inappropriate to pay players … converting them from students to employees," Mark Emmert tells USA Today.

But Emmert also acknowledges that it might be time for the organization to spread some of the revenue it generates from licensing around to players in one way or another. While he is not making any promises, Emmert thinks it would be acceptable to compensate players in other ways such as increasing the amount of money paid towards scholarships and other college expenses.

“I will make clear,” he says, “that I want this to be a subject we explore.”

Former Tennessee NCAA basketball player Bobby Maze has filed a lawsuit in California federal court against the NCAA and EA Sports over using his likeness in EA’s NCAA games without his permission. Maze joins former Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller and other former athletes seeking class action status against the NCAA. The complaint filed by Maze also names the Southeastern Conference and EA Sports, who he claims profited from exploiting his likeness.

While video games do not name players, they do identify them in every other way including "height, weight, ethnicity, uniform numeral, position, and year in school." Is this a simple way for the NCAA to avoid paying royalties of any kind to players for licensing their likenesses? Many say yes.

The suit also alleges that the NCAA requires athletes to sign a form every year giving up the right to their likeness that continues even after they graduate. No doubt, this practice will be tested in court.