from Hacker News

Show HN: A Different Kind of Scoreboard

by dpearson on 12/16/12, 7:17 PM with 31 comments

  • by bstar77 on 12/16/12, 10:31 PM

    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...

    "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."

  • by Skywing on 12/16/12, 8:29 PM

    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.

  • by pseut on 12/16/12, 9:10 PM

    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.

  • by seanmccann on 12/16/12, 8:51 PM

    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?).

  • by tbjohns on 12/16/12, 8:55 PM

    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.

  • by josh_blum on 12/16/12, 8:30 PM

    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.

  • by joshuahornby on 12/16/12, 9:42 PM

    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!!!)

  • by soulashell on 12/16/12, 8:54 PM

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

  • by Kopion on 12/16/12, 11:59 PM

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

  • by ddw on 12/16/12, 8:11 PM

    Very cool. Where's the data come from?