Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• Friday Fun: Wait, Favre isn’t God?

  A church sign in Wisconsin makes an amazing admission that Favre is not, in fact, God. On a related note, I can’t wait for this NFL season. The Giants looked great last night – when I get a chance I’ll post some pictures from the game as well. It’s a little premature, and I’m not saying either team will be able to do it, but how awesome would a Jets-Giants Super Bowl be?!! Posted Sep 05 2008, 01:36 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Sports, Friday Fun

• When will the NFL Network standoff end?

  Like so many others , I was furious when I couldn't watch the Packers-Cowboys games a few weeks back. The NFL Network is only carried on satellite which is simply not an option for many of us in urban areas like NYC. For those who haven't been paying attention, there's been a long-running standoff between the cable companies and the NFL network. (ComCast carries it at a premium, but neither Time Warner or Cablevision offer it, free or otherwise). To sum up: The NFL wants its network carried on basic cable packages with channels such as ESPN or CNN, where it can reach the broadest possible audience. Cable companies including Time Warner Inc. say it belongs on a sports package, or tier, where its audience would include only those fans willing to pay extra. I am a huge fan of the NFL and would certainly subscribe in a second. Much like the issues with net neutrality, the problem is that we're not dealing with a perfect market. If Time Warner doesn't offer me the ability... Posted Dec 27 2007, 12:22 PM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Intellectual Property, Rants, Things that bother me, Sports, Law, NYC

• EchoStar acquired by Sling Media

  EchoStar has acquired Sling Media for $380 million . While this is interesting in and of itself, the timing is particularly curious considering Sling just announced a deal with competitor DirectTV to bring its NFL Sunday Ticket to the desktop . It will be interesting to see what EchoStar does with Sling and whether it makes any special changes for its own network. Posted Sep 25 2007, 08:13 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Sports, Business, Video

• Super Bowl Pool for Charity

  Charlie set up a Super Bowl Pool with the winnings to be donated to charity . The boxes are $10 each and the payout is fairly typical - with the prize going to a charity of your choice. If I win, the prize will be going to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the same organization that my sister ran a marathon for back in early 2005. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education, and patient services. The Society's mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. Update : The pool has now been closed with 50 boxes sold. We didn't reach the goal of filling all 100 boxes, but the pool will raise $500 for charity. Enjoy the game! Posted Feb 02 2007, 06:53 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Sports, Personal, Blogging

• A player's right of publicity in sports statistics

  MLB already tried to claim copyright over baseball statistics , an argument that doesn't hold much weight since facts are not subject to copyright. Glenn Mitchell has an interesting article about the opposite situation - players claiming ownership under the right to publicity. The right to publicity generally arises from common law or state statute and comes up where, as Glenn puts it, the likeness is used "to create the false impression that the individual has endorsed its products or services." In many ways, I consider this similar to the use of trademarks in metatags. The analysis is somewhat different because this claim arises under right of publicity and not federal trademark law, but ultimately both are used descriptively, and not as a designation of source. As the Court discusses, the power to exclude others from using names and facts that are otherwise in the public domain is just too absolute given the nature of the use. Posted Jan 02 2007, 10:20 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Intellectual Property, Sports, Trademark, Law

• Impossible Predictions

  Adam Schein, a so-called expert, has published his predictions for the 2006 NFL season . No one expects people to be dead-on with predictions like this, but the problem is that Adam's predictions are literally impossible. There are 32 teams in the NFL that each play 16 games - for a total of 256 games. Each game has a winner and a loser, so the overall league must have 256 winners and 256 losers. Adam's predictions, however, work out to an overall league record of 254-258. Oops. Posted Sep 05 2006, 05:43 PM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Sports

• Fantasy Football: Geek Bowl is back!

  We had some unfortunate issues and 2005 Geek Bowl never happened. There's been some recent requests to get the league back, so I'm going to give a shot despite the short notice. Given the failed experiments with AOL's Draft2Play and PHPFFL, I'm hosting it on Yahoo! this year. There are 10 spots left, available on a first-come, first-served basis . Update : We're full. The draft is today at 4:45pm EST. Posted Aug 31 2006, 08:19 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Sports, .NET

• Seeking one more owner for BlawgerBowl III

  Kevin is still looking for a 12th owner in the third annual BlawgerBowl, a fantasy football league filled with (mostly) legal bloggers. You don't have to be a legal blogger or law student or lawyer. Maybe the geek community needs more representation? If interested, drop him (or me) a line. Posted Aug 31 2006, 06:43 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Law School, Sports

• Why hasn't the World Cup caught on in the United States?

  Why hasn't the World Cup caught on in the United States? I've really gotten into it this year - there's a lot of excitement around the office, and it's hard not to get caught up in World Cup fever. My local pub has been PACKED all day for the 10am games. Note: I'm going to refer to it as "soccer" in this post, simply because I'm also talking about NFL football and I don't feel like trying to clarify which I'm talking about each time . I've read some articles that Americans can't get into soccer because of the low scores. Take, for example, what I read in The Week : So many matches seem to end 0–0 or 1–1 that "in truth, soccer could be played without using a ball at all and few would notice the difference." For the chain-smoking "nihilists" who occupy Europe, the dearth of goals makes soccer a perfect "metaphor for the meaninglessness of life." But here in America, we "still believe the world makes sense" and that the expenditure of effort results — or should result —in achievement. Anyone... Posted Jul 03 2006, 07:32 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Rants, Sports

• Here we go Steelers! Get one for the thumb!

  [ This message was pre-recorded ] I haven't written anything yet about the Steelers magical run this year to avoid any jinx... but let me say this much: the Steelers deserve to win more than the Seahawks. Not necessarily because the players are better, but because the fans are. Pittsburgh is a city that takes it football very, very seriously . It is a city that lives and dies with its football team, sometimes quite literally . The fans write songs ( notice that was plural ). The Seahawk fans just infringe trademarks ... This post really sums it how these two cities approach football. "Just how much of a nut-out should one person have over a football game? It's an exciting game, but winning the Super Bowl probably won't change the course of history." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer Website , Friday February 3, 2006 Don't tell that to a Pittsburgh fan. "We've waited a decade...to make history..." -- WTAE 4 Commercial Seriously, though, what a storybook ending it would be for one of the best... Posted Feb 03 2006, 01:28 PM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Rants, Sports, Personal