Need to Contest HR 7228, The BIRDIE Act, IP Rights for Golf Course Designs?

[MadMax2021]

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr7228

The above bill introduced in February 2024 would seemingly require an intellectual property license to develop a TGC 2019 course or similar course for another platform if passed. On its face it only applies to post-1990 designs but presumably a renovation might count. If so, it would effectively cover nearly everything. This seems like a power grab by golf course architects and owners.

Has anyone looked at this as a potential threat to the use and further development of golf simulators? Is there any organized effort among the golf sim and golf sim designer community to prevent this bill from being passed as drafted?

One counterargument to the bill is that LIDAR data and aerial pictures are in the public domain subject in some cases to use licenses. To my knowledge, we don't have laws requiring IP licenses to create a road map of the Skyline Parkway running through Virginia or a digital city map (e.g., for maps of New York that contain Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge etc. notwithstanding that these were substantial architectural achievements and undergo constant renovations).

Note that Congressman Jimmy Panetta, one of the cosponsors, represents California 19. California 19 includes Spyglass, Pebble Beach, Cypress Point etc. It is easy to speculate about his motivation.

[GolfGuy72_2000]

Thanks for sharing this! I'm hoping this bill is mostly for the purpose of limiting the creation of copycat courses in real life, rather than digital recreations. But, I know some powerful clubs have already taken preventive measures to minimize their appearance in video games and simulators. I can't even imagine how this law would be applied, if passed. Would publishers be forced to pay royalties for user created content? Would individual designers? I could see TGC stopping all future uploads if something like this passed, and leaving only known fictional and/or public domain, pre-1990 designs on the course server. Also, in the case of Spyglass, Pebble Beach, and Cypress Point, would any architectural changes made to those courses post-1990 make them eligible for protection under this bill? Or would enforcement be based on the year the course was built, in which case, none of the above courses would apply? Really interesting, and a little scary for anyone who owns simulator software with user-created content!

[MadMax2021]

You could limit TGC 2019 and others to as of 1989 but proving that might not be so easy if the LIDAR data was downloaded post 1990 as would always be the case.

[GolfGuy72_2000]

Taking a second look at the link, I wonder how accurate the prognosis is? It says the bill has a 1% chance of being enacted. Fingers crossed that's the case! Thanks again for sharing this.

[MadMax2021]

I hope that is the case!

[GolfGuy72_2000]

Me, too! This could be a real can of worms for a lot of people if enacted. Fingers crossed!

[TheLidarKing]

I will state that there have been courses that I designed and the customer would ask the club for consent to build the course. The main thing lies in the name of the course. They do not want their course with their name in the game. I would publish them with a different name that has nothing to do with the Course name, but allows the customers to play the course that they pay membership dues for.

On the other hand, I have had many courses contact me about doing their courses for TGC 2019 and/or GSPro. Members can play the course in the simulators that the club owns, and they normally will allow users to request the course directly from me upon verification that they are members.