UM: Madden NFL

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GamesPolitics.com reports a dispute between UM economist  Jeffrey MacKie-Mason and Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. Pachter takes issue with a calculation that MacKie-Mason used, estimating that the gaming company Electronic Arts overcharged customers during a period of alleged anticompetitive behavior. MacKie-Mason is an expert witness for plaintiffs in a class-action suit alleging that EA exploited an exclusive NFL deal to overcharge for its Madden NFL video game. Pachter writes in an email: “It strikes me as irresponsible that the professor would focus on the NFL exclusive as if there is some god-given right for consumers to have all intellectual property available for exploitation by any business that chooses to do so in the name of competition…” [Source]