The Interactive arm of CBS has filed suit against the NFL Players Association, seeking to keep the group from collecting licensing fees from fantasy football hosts.

The suit, filed in federal court in Minneapolis, pursues a judgment that the NFLPA cannot “extract money from CBS Interactive for the use of publicly available football statistics” under federal antitrust guidelines, according to Bloomberg.com’s reading of the file.

“It’s encouraging to see CBS take this step,” says Jeff Thomas, president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association and founder and CEO of World Sports Technology Inc., which owns this site.

The motion comes just three months after the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Major League Baseball Advanced Media in a similar case resolved in favor of fantasy provider CBC, former parent company of CDM Sports.

“As an association, the FSTA worked hard and dedicated significant budget to support the CDM lawsuit,” Thomas says. “Now that the Supreme Court has supported the fact that licensing fees do not have to be paid, the largest fantasy companies are in a position to save seven figures annually. This is a great example of a leading-edge company showing confidence in the court decision and asking others to stop ignoring it.”

(Rick Wolf of Rotoworld/NBC Universal and chairman of the Fantasy Sports Association chose not to comment on the case, citing the NFLPA’s membership in the FSA.)

This latest suit has the potential to alter the apparent calm delivered by the MLBAM case or settle the notion once and for all that stats and player names exist in the public domain. Action between the NFL and fantasy providers has been expected even in light of the decision in the baseball case.

CBS’ move to sue the players association before the group might challenge fantasy hosts in court could be viewed as an attempt to keep any actions on the subject in more favorable judicial circumstances than if the league or NFLPA determined the jurisdiction. The Eighth Circuit, where the CBS suit has been filed, is the same federal district in which courts found in favor of CBC and one that is home to many fantasy sports businesses.

CBS already pays licensing fees to the NFLPA for things such player photos that display on the site, but the body is also still trying to collect for stats and use of names, which were ruled to exist in the public domain in the MLBAM case.

A ruling in favor of CBS here could clarify the rules on what information is freely available for all fantasy providers.

Visit FSB.com often for updates on the suit’s impact on fantasy sports and reaction from those within the industry.

A baseball analysis company that has been in business for 15 years has launched a new website to offer highly detailed reports.

MyInsideEdge.com offers users features that include player and team report cards, which assesses and grades performance versus league averages in categories such as plate discipline; scouting reports; and sortable stats with categories that you won’t find on your fantasy hosting site or MLB.com, such as a pitcher’s percentage of strikes thrown on off-speed pitches.

In addition, the apparently daily features titled “Edge Notes” and “Three Things to Watch” provide statistical trends pertinent to each day’s schedule of games. Today’s “Edge Notes,” for instance, tells us that:

Pirates third baseman Andy LaRoche has struggled mightily since his July 31st acquisition from the Los Angeles Dodgers. A high-contact hitter in the minors, LaRoche has swung and missed at 22 percent of pitches seen as a Pirate, above the 20 percent National League average. LaRoche has also pounded the ball into the ground 58 percent of the time (44 percent NL average) while posting just a .186 well-hit average, compared to the .278 NL average.

The current edition of “Three Things” points out — among other things – that Milwaukee starter Manny Parra doesn’t fare well on first pitches.

One thing that the site seems to be lacking is an explanation for its data. While it shouldn’t take too much for someone who knows baseball to figure out what the stat abbreviations mean, it would be helpful to know how things such as grades and success rates are determined.

The Minneapolis-based company, Inside Edge, “has provided an edge to MLB clubs and differentiating content to media with our outstanding reports and analysis” since 1993, according to the e-mail announcing the new website.

The information will be available on a subscription basis ($5.95/month, $29.95/year), but a free trial is available before Sept. 15.

A roundup of recent posts on the FSB News page.

– Thanks to a new deal with Major League Baseball, ESPN will offer even more channels for its coverage of the sport, at least through 2013.

– A Web-to-TV widget in development by Yahoo and Intel could be the best attempt to date of integrating internet browsing with television consumption.

– CBS recently hosted its first-ever expert mock for the college fantasy game.

– Bloggers of the Web unite and run your own fantasy football platform.

STATS LLC announced a deal Monday with the NFL that will make the company the exclusive provider of real-time league play-by-play, scoring data and statistics in the country.

Of course, the actual scope of any such agreement seems questionable. As far as I can tell, the summer ruling in Major League Baseball’s case against CDM — upheld by the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an appeal — seemed to confirm that all statistics (along with names and likenesses) exist in the public domain. Following that, one would have to assume that any person watching NFL games could legally compile the stats and pass them along freely.

Nevertheless, this deal clearly deepens the relationship between STATS and the NFL and means that no other companies can deliver official numbers from the games. The “multiyear” agreement also calls for broader use of STATS-exclusive content by NFL properties, STATS-provided AP content and fantasy updates on NFL.com and leaguewide use of StatPass, STATS’ proprietary web-based statistics tool.