The Sports Network, an international, real-time sports wire service, has filed a lawsuit alleging that ESPN/SportsTicker stole, copied, illegally used and re-sold the network's proprietary Minor League Baseball data.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.
The complaint alleges ESPN/SportsTicker's wrongful conduct concerning The Sports Network's Minor League Baseball data includes:
- Repeated unauthorized electronic access to The Sports Network's password-protected computer server;
- Among other categories, stealing critical end-of-inning updates, box scores, individual statistics and play-by-play data concerning Minor League Baseball;
- Electronically and/or manually scraping and stealing Minor League Baseball data from the SportsNetwork.com Web site and/or computer server through more than 64,000 requests per week and then copying such data for display on ESPN.com and resale/Web site display to others;
- Violation of the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other federal laws
- Falsely representing themselves to be, and masquerading as, The Sports Network employees in communications with Minor League Baseball clubs and as Minor League Baseball Club employees in communication with The Sports Network, as part of their overall campaign of tortuous interference and unfair competition.
