Sherdog, UFC, and TUF 4

buckeyenut · 07-16-2006, 03:07 AM

I was reading through a thread today that was discussing the possibility of Sherdog being sued by the UFC for releasing the names of the finalists for TUF 4. As usual, people stated that since there is no gag order on the people who run Sherdog that they could not be sued.

I then realized there is a precedent to this case.

The UFC can't sue Sherdog for releasing the names, but they can demand that Sherdog release sources of this information. If Sherdog refuses, according to the precedent, they will go to jail, as did the woman who released the name of an agent of the CIA and as the people who wrote the book "Game of Shadows" about steroids in baseball are facing now.

If the UFC plays their cards right, either Josh Gross is screwed or the person who gave him the info is.

Torgo · 07-16-2006, 03:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckeyenut

I was reading through a thread today that was discussing the possibility of Sherdog being sued by the UFC for releasing the names of the finalists for TUF 4. As usual, people stated that since there is no gag order on the people who run Sherdog that they could not be sued.

I then realized there is a precedent to this case.

The UFC can't sue Sherdog for releasing the names, but they can demand that Sherdog release sources of this information. If Sherdog refuses, according to the precedent, they will go to jail, as did the woman who released the name of an agent of the CIA and as the people who wrote the book "Game of Shadows" about steroids in baseball are facing now.

If the UFC plays their cards right, either Josh Gross is screwed or the person who gave him the info is.

Ooh, interesting. I don't understand the legal nuances here but if that's the case, yeah, someone is HUUUUUMPED.

Potentially. Of course I'm sure they'd wait till the show is over to do anything, they wouldn't want to draw attention to the situation before then. It's not like the average MMA fan knows yet.

AverageJoe · 04:16 AM

I'm half wasted, but I'm pretty sure something called "Jouranlist Integrity" protects sources from being uncovered.

On second thought, I might be wayyyyy off base here, which case are you using as precedent? The two you listed are contradictory. But, yeah, like you said... I agree... someone will probably regret the leak.

Torgo · 07-16-2006, 06:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AverageJoe

I'm half wasted, but I'm pretty sure something called "Jouranlist Integrity" protects sources from being uncovered.

On second thought, I might be wayyyyy off base here, which case are you using as precedent? The two you listed are contradictory. But, yeah, like you said... I agree... someone will probably regret the leak.

I think journalists have to disclose their sources when a crime is involved. Any law students/experts out there want to clarify for us?

what?? · 07-16-2006, 06:18 AM

I missed the show that had this on it and I'm not a paid member so I can't hear it now. I would like to know who the final four are. Could someone pm me and clarify? Thanks.

wbubbles · 07-16-2006, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckeyenut

I was reading through a thread today that was discussing the possibility of Sherdog being sued by the UFC for releasing the names of the finalists for TUF 4. As usual, people stated that since there is no gag order on the people who run Sherdog that they could not be sued.

I then realized there is a precedent to this case.

The UFC can't sue Sherdog for releasing the names, but they can demand that Sherdog release sources of this information. If Sherdog refuses, according to the precedent, they will go to jail, as did the woman who released the name of an agent of the CIA and as the people who wrote the book "Game of Shadows" about steroids in baseball are facing now.

If the UFC plays their cards right, either Josh Gross is screwed or the person who gave him the info is.

Nice "precedents." You do know that the offences in each of your examples are totally different than one another? Anyways CIA leaks and illegal drug distribution are a little different than giving away the ending of a reality show. I hope you can see that.

Lethal_Striker · 07-16-2006, 06:52 AM

Most likely the situation won't get to that point. It would be a bad idea for UFC to sue Sherdog. It would just bring the wrong kind of attention to TUF 4. They are better off just ignoring what Gross said and hoping only people who post on the message boards know about it.

Lockdown · 07-16-2006, 11:25 AM

The only reason UFC would sue is if their ratings were noticably lower for this season, and they could claim that the ratings drop was a direct result of the finalists being revealed by Sherdog's Beatdown radio. I personally don't think ratings will take that much of a hit, if any. Most of the people who know the finalists are hardcore fans. Casual fans usually don't browse sites like sherdog or mmaweekly. Looking at the season and how good the fights have a potential to be, I wouldn't be surprised if the ratings actually got better and MORE hardcore fans were interested. They do have legal standing to subpoena Josh Gross for the source who told him the finalists if a) the information was correct (which we don't know, he could have lied or had false info) and/or b) there was a decline in ratings that could be attributed to the spoilers being released.

I wouldn't worry about any lawsuits just yet. If UFC tried to do anything now, they would essentially admit that the spoilers were correct and more people would go looking for them.

BuakawRules · 07-16-2006, 03:08 PM

hope sherdog doesn´t get fucked up other this...
this war btw the ufc and sherdog is ridiculous (on the part of the ufc i mean)

SHORT_BUS · 07-16-2006, 03:45 PM

You can file suit for almost anything. If the UFC legal team sat down and brain stormed this thing, i'm sure they could come up with a reason. First off the top of my head would be that Gross released the info to intentionally damage the UFC. Seems to be the easy argument to make. SHERDOG was booted from the weigh in's just days before and there were some hurt feelings. So as payback, he drops the names on the air. As mentioned above, I would not expect to see any legal action taken until the season has aired and the ratings are in. If there is a noticeable drop in ratings the UFC may have a case and I would expect to see this in court. Not saying that they would win, but at the very least they could drag this thing through the courts for quite some time causing SHERDOG to rack up some pretty hefty legal bills. We won't see anyone locked up for this, Gross won't go to the big house and be forced to make big rocks into small rocks and TJ won't have to bring him a cake with a file in it. In the end it comes down to two things, money and ego's (but mainly ego's in this case). Just like high school but all grown up, kind of......