“Music blasted over the public address system during Washington Redskins games is part of the entertainment experience, and deaf fans should have access to the lyrics of those songs, a federal appeals court has ruled.” [Leigh Jones, National Law Journal]
17 Comments
Do they have the rights to display the lyrics? Could they be stuck between a rock and a hard place with copyright-vio on one side and ADA on the other?
If they are deaf, how would they know that there was music being played?
As a broadcaster, I’m encouraged by this story. I now intend to sue all sports and other visual entertainment outlets on behalf of the blind. I believe the visually impaired deserve a professional announcer to describe, in great detail, everything that everybody else is seeing, above and beyond the role of the play-by-play booth.
What about deaf non-English speakers? We’ll need simultaneous translations into 37 languages, just for starters…
Just tell them it’s the “Home Away” song all the kids are playing these days.
Shouldn’t they also have access to the notes as well? Maybe the scoreboard should run the music score along with the words too.
maybe I am suspicious because of the date. I will believe it when I see it.
I love that it’s so hard to distinguish actual litigation news stories from April Fool hoaxes. But numerous other clips concur with this one:
http://www.nad.org/news/2011/3/deaf-washington-redskins-fans-win-stadium-access-case
Earlier at Overlawyered:
http://overlawyered.com/2006/09/deaf-sue-to-force-closed-captioning-of-redskin-football/
The Washington Redskins are, of course, an affluent organization, but mandates of this kind will affect many providers that are much smaller.
“Without access to lyrics played, for example, during cheerleader dance routines and the halftime show, plaintiffs would not fully and equally experience the planned and synchronized promotional entertainment that large stadiums like FedEx Field provide.”
What about the rights of the blind to fully experience the cheerleaders? Will they be allowed down onto the field to feel the cheerleaders?
And the obvious question – if I put out one of my eyes so that I am half-blind, am I then legally entitled to feel half of the cheerleaders?
And as far as questioning whether or not this is a joke – what does it say about the system that you can no longer tell the difference?
Laws by definition draw a line between what is allowable behavior and what is not allowable – laws need to be clear. A law that says you cannot chew gum while standing on one foot or you will be whacked in the head with a baseball bat is pretty clear. It may be stupid or unfair but it is not unclear. Stupid or unfair laws can be repealed. Unclear laws must be litigated.
Ideally, it is the job of legislators to draw up clear, fair, intelligent laws. It is the job of lawyers to clarify any shortcomings of the legislators in enacting unclear laws. But when the lawyers and the legislators are one and the same, it is in their best interests to enact laws that are as unclear as possible. As legislators, they can claim that the laws are not stupid or unfair and if the law is unclear how can you argue with that contention? And as lawyers of course, KACHING!
So any laws that use vague, subjective terms like ‘reasonable’ are not laws at all. They do not draw a line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. You might as well scrap the whole legal code and just say “Thou shalt not do bad things”. You want to know what ‘bad things’ are? We will find out when you get served with the arrest warrant or the lawsuit and a jury decides what ‘bad things’ are.
April Fool!
(Please tell me this is an April Fool joke).
Wouldn’t subtitled lyrics on the Jumbotron necessitate that the deaf patron watch the Jumbotron to see the words, thereby keeping said patron’s eyes off the field? Can the deaf patron then sue the team/field/city because the patron missed a vital play because the patron was watching the subtitles?
random thoughts:
1) Simple solution, play music with no lyrics…
2) every stadium now has a giant electronic screen, so in reality its not much of a burden
3) this lawsuit highlights much (but not all) that is wrong with our legal system
4) I hope this is a joke
If the Court really wanted to improve the experience of these fans, it should have enjoined the Redskins from loosing so many games. đŸ™‚
What is it with this team? Between this and the neverending trademark dispute, these guys certainly generate a lot of oddball litigation.
Hilarious. It may be a negative that deaf Redskins fans miss out on the lyrics to the Macarena, but it’s balanced out by the fact least they don’t have to listen to all the whining that goes on after they get beat every weekend.
[…] reality resulted in numerous headaches and legal absurdities. Witness the latest example (hat-tip: Overlawyered): The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled today that the Washington […]
What about something to help the blind referees?