The time has come once again for Nancy Holland’s business law class to put on their annual mock trial. On Dec. 4 the entire class will come together in OAB 251 to argue the “Keller v. EA” case.
Objecting to the use of his likeness in a college football video game, Samuel Keller, who was the starting quarterback for Arizona State University in 2005, filed a putative class-action complaint asserting, as relevant on appeal, that Electronic Arts violated his right of publicity under California Civil Code 3344 and California common law. The case was eventually settled out of court but the terms of the settlement between the athletes and EA were not disclosed in a federal court filing in Oakland, Calif.
“The thing of it is, is that NCAA has been supplying EA since 1989 with everything,” said Holland “so they have been in bed with each other for a long time.”
Electronic Arts, Inc. is the producer of the NCAA Football series of video games, which allow users to control avatars representing college football players as those avatars participate in simulated games.
“There is plenty of meat here for both sides,” said Holland. “This should be a really fun case.”
The class has explored the intricacies of this case and have debated the issues that they have found. Students were also able to visit the California Supreme Court to view first-hand how oral argument is conducted and see interaction between the attorneys and the justices.
“We got to see a really good attorney and a public defender,” said David Akoidu “And it taught us a lot about how hard these things can be when you’re not fully focused on it.”
As part of the learning experience, students from the business law and legal environment class conduct a semester-long project in the form of a mock trial. What you will see is a culmination of research and process done completely by the students in BA 18.
Performing a mock trial teaches students more about the law than what can be taught in the classroom because it’s hands-on and not scripted.
Every student in the class has a role to play in the trial. Frida Cardoza, Manuel Frias, Julieta Gonzalez, Sou Lee, Kyla Lennex and Leonardo Medina are associate justices with John Olson being the chief justice.
The Electronic Arts side of the case will be presented by Kimberly Gaytan with assistance from Nicol Carlos, Marc Forte, Victoria Garza, Matthew Giraldes, Larry Marquez, Nathan Perez and Jazzma Perry.
“As far as the case is concerned we are the underdogs,” said Perez.
The side of Samuel Keller will be represented by Emily Mesel with assistance from David Akoidu, Alana Best, Cristian Diaz, Michael McFarland, Janie Orozco and Zakry Taylor.
“We are hoping for a lot of people,” said Akoidu. “We feel like we are going to cream them and we would love to make that into a public spectacle.”
The trial is an open community event that members will be able to attend for free.
“The bigger the turnout the better the students do,” said Holland “They feel like they are being supported by the community and their peers and that peer pressure can be a great influence.”
