One of Marvin Miller's first victories as head of the Major League Players Association was to negotiate a contract that would pay the players a bit of money by having their own licensing system where the players (and the MLBPA) could make some money off of the player's likenesses.
However, in Japan, that's not the case. And the players were denied in court the right to market their own likenesses on baseball cards and other souvenirs.
At issue was a provision in the 1951 unified contract that all professional ballplayers must sign when joining their respective clubs. The provision states that the right to players' likenesses and copyrights belong to the club and that the athletes will file no objections regarding how those rights are used in advertising.
I'm a little confused. (And I admit that I know next to nothing about Japanese Baseball.) Is this "1951 unified contract" something that dictates what can be in the contracts of individual players like a CBA? Couldn't the biggest starts over there just wait until their current contracts are up and only sign a new contract if it includes such a provision?
Thanks for the info, Bob. All I knew about Hokkaido was what Carl Sagan taught me in "Contact" (the book). It's north, is lightly populated, and it's an excellent candidate for alternative wormhole vehicle sights.
Ham Fighters
Hokkaido is the location.
Nippon Ham is the owner.
Fighters is the nickname.
http://tinyurl.com/meqfx
If your kid has to walk to school in total darkness, so be it. Get the child a flashlight.
Sometimes, I deal in absolutes. Very rarely, but sometimes. It makes me feel controversial.
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