

Show HN: A Different Kind of Scoreboard - dpearson
http://scoreboard.dpearson.me/

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bstar77
I think this is a really interesting idea (and a great start), but I'm quite
positive that you will need NFL licensing. Knowing someone that worked for the
nfl and nfl films for nearly a decade, they protect their IP to obscene
levels. Employees of the NFL can actually get bonuses if they report you and
you are successfully prosecuted. This is the one thing I really despise about
the NFL, they need to get with the times.

Here's a good response from: [http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/do-i-need-an-
nfl-license-o...](http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/do-i-need-an-nfl-license-
or-nba-license-to-show-sc-878285.html)

"Scores and schedules can be reported without obtaining a license from the NFL
or NBA---these are facts, and copyright law does not protect facts. But be
careful here---you cannot do anything to suggest that your application is
associated with, or endorsed by, the leagues or individual teams. And you can
only make limited, "nominative" of team and player names. Don't use logos or
team colors.

Further, when you show scores and schedules, you need to be careful that you
do not copy the format or template that others use to report the same
information. While facts are not protected, specific approaches to reporting
and organizing facts may be protected. For example, copyright law covers the
organization of box scores-----the USA Today baseball box scores are unique
when compared to those published in the NY Times and other newspapers---and if
the NY times started copying the format of the USA Today box score, USA today
would have a good copyright infringement suit against the NY Times. You need
to develop your own, unique way of presenting the scores and schedules---if
you copy someone else's format or compilation of this information you can get
into big trouble.

Also, you need to make sure that you retain counsel to retain a patent
clearance before you launch your app---there are many patents that cover
applications that purport to present factual information regarding sports----
and if your application infringes such a patent you could face an expensive
law suit.

Bottom line----you need to retain IP counsel to guide you through the creation
of this application--failure to retain IP counsel would be a major mistake---
and potential financial disaster."

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dpearson
You have a point about logos, and I'll remove them if someone complains. The
rest, though, I believe is unique enough (and I do disclaim
affiliation/endorsement at the bottom).

Ultimately, this is a continuation of a school project, so I'll take it down
if it's a problem.

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legutierr
You may receive a "complaint" in the form of a cease-and-desist, or a lawsuit.
Do you really want to take that risk? If you are hesitating it is probably
because the logos make the app better--but that's the point! There is value in
the logos and the right to benefit from that value is 100% the NFL's.

The app is awesome, though. I hope you're able to keep it going. I'd get rid
of the logos now, though!

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Skywing
This is pretty neat. I think a minor tweak that makes it easier to glance at,
and see the scores, would be to wrap the score in a span and style that span
with a light colored background to make it stand out. Perhaps some light
yellow-ish color. I like to use #fffeca for this, on a white background.

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dpearson
Not a bad idea...it might be a tad tricky to implement though given that my
backend spits out summaries as plain text. I'll try to implement it later.

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pseut
Edit: more seriously, I care about who won much more than rushing, etc.
Bolding the score and winner would help a lot scanning, and pushing te scores
to the beginning of the line would too.

Second edit: regretted and removed lame self promotion. Apologies.

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dpearson
The winner/leader has their logo shown above the team that's trailing,
although I will add some highlighting of the final score.

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pseut
That's a little subtle if you don't know to look for it. I'm on a iPhone,
though. I don't know if there's a desktop version where it's more obvious.

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dpearson
It is subtle, and I don't know how to improve on it other than highlighting,
which involves changes I don't want to make with the site live on a Sunday
afternoon.

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pseut
Thursday night's a good time to test stuff like that, obviously. A live
development site can help too.

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seanmccann
I'm a bigger hockey fan than football but this format isn't very usable for me
at the moment.

"Packers are up against the Bears, 21-13" is so much harder for me parse than
"Packers 21 - 13 Bears". Perhaps you could show the score by the logos and
identify the player names with their team (color?).

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dpearson
I think I'd rather go with Skywing's suggestion of highlighting the scores
rather than placing them next to the logos, although coloring player names
(despite the same problems as highlighting scores) is something I should do.

As for hockey, I'll be adding it once the NHL lockout ends.

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tbjohns
I like it. For me, the Twitter integration with @NFLScoreBot is the best part.

I'm sure there are a lot of issues getting video highlights on the site, but
if that were somehow possible and you added a link in each tweet, it'd be
something I follow and occasionally click on... i.e. a nice app.

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dpearson
Video highlights as a link out would be possible (although I certainly
couldn't embed them). Maybe I'll add a highlights link on mouse over, so as to
keep it relatively uncluttered.

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josh_blum
What were your reasons for not using jQuery? Not that everyone has to use it,
but it seems your refresh.js script could have been reduced a fair amount
using library functions. Just wondering if there was a specific reason you
don't use it.

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dpearson
I don't have any particular reason for not using jQuery; I'm just not a huge
fan.

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joshuahornby
Any chance of a blog post on how this was made? the buts and bolts lets say.
Been thinking about an idea like this for my beloved football (not soccer!!!)

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dpearson
If you're asking about the backend (and how the summaries are generated),
probably not, at least for now. The frontend, on the other hand, doesn't have
much to it.

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joshuahornby
Oh right ok shame. Would like to know more about the backend.

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soulashell
I think it would be good also to show who has possession.

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dpearson
I forgot about possession when I was building this, but I will be adding it
before next week's games.

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Kopion
This is very cool. Do you intend to put this on GitHub?

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dpearson
I might open source the frontend, but the code responsible for summary
generation probably won't be released any time soon.

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ddw
Very cool. Where's the data come from?

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dpearson
The raw game data comes from a scraper I wrote, but the summaries are
generated by the same backend that I use for @NFLScoreBot and friends.

