Exploring Entertainment Law’s Boundaries: Applying a Transdisciplinary Approach

This piece sets out the challenges faced by the entertainment industry and the parallel altered role of law. What amounts to entertainment and how it is created, produced, distributed and consumed is at the centre of the inquiry. The second part of the equation is to consider what the legal dimension to the subject is or could consist of and most importantly the disciplinary context.  This forms the framework for teaching and research. It argues that the nature of the industry is such that the analysis needs to move beyond the rigid and limited doctrinal perspective provided by a single discipline. Thus, the learning strategy needs to be brought into line with a movement away from law as the sole dimension. It tries to create a holistic view as to what the curriculum encompasses and how it can be delivered drawing upon the broad concept of transdisciplinarity.   

Stats Entertainment, Part Two: Football Data Analytics, Data Privacy, and the Legal Issues on the Horizon

Data analytics has become a critical part of professional football.  It brings with it a number of challenging legal questions, brought into sharper focus by the reported ‘Project Red Card’ legal action, in which the legality of the systematised use of player performance data has been called into question.  Focussing on the position in English law, this two part article takes a holistic approach to assessing the legal issues presented by the data analytics movement.Part One set out contextual information on the development of data analytics in football, before examining whether the data produced in football are capable of ownership, either in raw format or after manipulation, taking into account the nature of property and intangible assets, relevant intellectual property laws, and non-IP protections. This Part Two goes on to consider the position in respect of data protection law (including FIFA’s Data Protection Regulations) before taking into account some broader legal issues, such as the application of competition law and the regulation of artificial intelligence.The conclusions of Part One and Part Two together are that the intellectual property rights position is broadly positive for data analysts, with legal protections capable of application in many circumstances.  However, data protection law presents a more complicated problem, with a number of challenging compliance obligations for the analytics community, albeit with scope to exploit player performance data where those obligations are met.

Stats Entertainment: The Legal and Regulatory Issues Arising from the Data Analytics Movement in Association Football

Data analytics has become a critical part of professional football.  It brings with it a number of challenging legal questions, brought into sharper focus by the reported ‘Project Red Card’ legal action, in which the legality of the systematised use of player performance data has been called into question.  Focussing on the position in English law, this article first considers whether the data produced in football is capable of ownership, whether in its raw format or after manipulation.  Next, the position in respect of data protection law (including FIFA’s Data Protection Regulations) is considered.  Finally, some broader legal issues are considered, including competition law and the regulation of artificial intelligence.The conclusions of this article are that the intellectual property rights position is broadly positive for data analysts, with legal protections capable of application in many circumstances.  However, data protection law presents a more complicated problem, presenting a number of challenging compliance obligations for the analytics community, albeit with scope to exploit player performance data where those obligations are met.