Last week I caught a story about Chicago Little League running afoul of Major League Baseball for using the team names/logos for their kids. The story implied that MLB would only allow them to use the copyrighted material with appropriate fees. At first this makes me angry - for crying out loud, these young boys (and girls) will grow up to fill those stands that help pay those obscene player salaries. How can you possibly be so greedy (and short-sighted) to do this?
But then I read a little bit more - specifically an article by Jim Litke. While it still seems pretty crass I have to admit that the real villain here is probably more the uniform supplier which is trying to skate by the licensing fees for using the MLB logos. You really can not blame the league for protecting their copyright, even if it is being used for a good cause. And as Litke points out in his article, the league does support youth baseball to the tune of 30 million dollars a year.
Despite that logical reasoning it still feels ugly in your gut - sorta like when Disney sues a day-care mom for having painted Mickey Mouse in the play room without paying royalties. Yeah, they're right - but it somehow seems awfully petty.
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