EA Sued By 6,000 Retired NFL Players

EA has had a lawsuit filed against it by approximately 6,000 retired NFL players, over the "unlawful" use of their likenesses in Madden NFL 09's historic teams.

The suit alleges that EA "knowingly and intentionally" used the retired players' likenesses in such a way to avoid having to pay licensing fees.

Former player Tony Davis claims that EA used the players' exact stats and positions from when they were active in the league, including height and weight, but removed their names and changed their uniform numbers to avoid licensing payments.

"The only significant detail that EA changes from the real-life retired NFL players is their jersey number," the lawsuit says.

"Despite EA's 'scrambling' of the retired NFL players' numbers, the games are designed so that consumers of the Madden NFL video game franchise will have no difficulty identifying who the 'historic' players are".

The lawsuit seeks punitive damages for "deprivation and violation of publicity rights".

When contacted, EA declined to comment on the litigation.

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