Sports leagues battle with news sites, bloggers

Cory Bergman April 21st, 2008

Many news organizations, like Hearst, Gannett and Sports Illustrated, have refused to adhere to Major League Baseball’s new photo and video restrictions. “From our perspective, any arbitrary restrictions on how we use our intellectual property for news coverage is not acceptable,” said Phil Bronstein, editor at large for Hearst. The MLB has agreed to change one rule: the limit in photo slide shows has shifted from seven photos to a “reasonable” amount. Meawhile, sports teams are struggling with the definition of a sports “blogger,” and whether that person should be allowed into the locker room, for example.