Slashdot Mirror
Olympic Committee Cracks Down On Domain Owners
RollingThunder writes: "The Globe and Mail has a story about the International Olympic Committee suing to have 1,800 domains removed. All the domains contain the words 'Olympic', 'Olympics', or 'Olympiad', and variations thereof like '2004olimpics.com'. Interesting that they're going after the DNS hierarchy (the lawsuit is filed in Alexandria, Va.) rather than the daunting task of going after the domain owners themselves." Wow. Maybe they could organize something where the domain owners could compete in a variety of fitness tests and games, you know, like the... Oh, never mind.
This raises the question over who is responsible for copyright infringments in domain names. Should the owner of the domain be held accountable or the host? Are people going to have to be more concious of the domains of the people they host? What I find slightly unnerving is that it would mostly likely take legistlation to implent true copyrighting in domain names and to assign where the blame lies for violation...which could be far reaching =\
"that which does not kill me makes me bitter" -anon
Not always true. If the trademark is sufficiently famous (as decided by the court), then nobody can use it. Try opening a business called "Microsoft Burgers" and see how long it lasts.
Not long, though nothing to do with trademarks unless it could kidnap people at gunpoint to get customers then if would go bust PBQ.
It is possible for someone to open a resturant called "McDonalds" however. You'd need to get permission from Lord McDonald of McDonald, who takes a rather dim view of the American company misusing the name.
The IOC has since it?s beginnings held steadfast in it?s opinion that the word Olympic be used for the Olympic Games alone.
:)
Though when they started they at least stuck to sports events, not things completly unrelated. On the other hand had they complained to the White Star Line they might have been offered free tickets to the next ship
However, they expire if they are not defended - and the widespread use of Olympic in so many contexts makes it almost certain that, barring special statute protection a la the US, the IOC would lose trademark status if anyone fought them sriously.
Also the US special staute probably has no legal basis whatsoever. Unless it took the form of a constitutional ammendment...
So does that mean I can put a trademark on the work Jesus Christ? And sue anyone who has a domain like it? Or sue any churches?
I'ts not as bad st that, but it's still the same principle.
This is the domain name copyright/trademark infringement largest lawsuit I can remember. If they succeed, it will truely be a dark day for freedom and the internet. Baseball (mlb), football (nfl) and other professional sports are probably going to watch this one real close. They might be inclined to prevent 'fan sites' from throwing around their trademarked names as well. It seems that web sites are becoming the 'bootlegs' of the new millenia.
-- Moondog
Acually I worked at a now aquired isp who hosted olympic.net (another ISP on the olympic peninsula). Well I dont see the site up anymore so it looks like they were able to shut them down.
I rember them telling us about this and we all laughed. But which one is around now?
Guess I wont be donating anymone to any olympic teams until they figure out what they should be spending their money on.
The one thing that my (admitedly quick) perusal of responses here (and a survey of co-workers) shows is that nobody believes they'll get away with it.
Don't doubt for a second that the IOC can win this. They've successfully sued long-established businesses from using the term "Olympic" (as someone did mention -- Atlanta 1996).
The truly frightening thing, and I've asked about this before, is the fact that the understanding that "Trademarks are only for a certain domain of products" is very quickly withering away. Pilot pens suing over PalmPilot is but one example.
The big question, in my mind, is why is that principal tenet of Trademark Law disappearing? And why doesn't it (apparently) apply to the internet? Fact is, I *should* be allowed to register, say, coke.com, even if I have *nothing whatsoever* to do with CocaCola. As long as I don't sell a cola called 'Coke,' I'm not violating any trademark.
Just because it's stupid doesn't mean it can't happen.
Just out of curiosity what would happen if I registered "www.mpics.com" and then made the web site "oly.mpics.com"? Would they do anything about that? I think big companies/groups should stop trying to run over people all the time. Just because they have more money than the common folk doesn't mean that they can sue our stuff away from us.
I do think the deserve www.olympics.com but anything else is just ridiculous. "Hey, I tried to see what was happening with the Olympics but I keep getting this pizza place instead!" "That's because you accidentally type pizza after olympics..." "Oh! Silly me!"
You are correct that trademarks do expire over time. However, they expire if they are not defended - and the widespread use of Olympic in so many contexts makes it almost certain that, barring special statute protection a la the US, the IOC would lose trademark status if anyone fought them sriously.
Oh to be a multimillionaire happy to drop a few bucks on doing just that...
True, but you should be careful lest you perpetuate misinformation yourself.
Actually, I found no reference to the word 'dickhead' when I looked up the word.....
What dictonary are you using?
Feed The Need[goatse.cx]
I'm going to copyright my name, John. Then Im going to sue to have every else named John shot.
And then you would have to sue every bathroom user
Kilroy was here!
I would've found it far more interesting if the IOC was suing NSI for selling these names (especially since they're retaining the "ownership" of the names and hence the liability).
-soup (GNUrd, Speaker to Machines) "Laugh at yourself- Why should everyone else have all the fun?" -Romanchek's 6th Ru
This is an example of something that really should be in the public domain being hogged up by a special interest. The Olympic Committee thinks their rights are being edged out -- well, the Olympics themselves belong to the world. Who do they think they are?
true still = 1, now more than ever!
Doesn't NSI only claim to own all the .com, .net, and .org registered to THEM? I personally use another registrar, with their own database and whois server. To claim that NSI also owns those domain names not even registered with them is laughable.
we don't want consumers duped into purchasing items they think are Olympic-related when they are not
translation: we DO want users duped into purchasing any useless item, just because is "official sponsor of the Olympic Games"
Kilroy was here!
Can I register ïëõìðéáêüò NSI or does the IOC also have a trademark on the Greek. How about registering olympiakos?
ATTN: IOC -- Legal Dept
Registrant:
Olympiakos A.E. (OLYMPIAKOS-DOM)
3643 Elder Oaks BLVD Suite 6209
Bowie, MD 20716
US
Domain Name: OLYMPIAKOS.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact, Billing Contact:
Georgiou, Kiriakos (KG120) kiriakos@UNFORGETTABLE.COM
Olympiakos A.E.
3643 Elder Oaks Blvd Suite 6209
Bowie, MD 20716
301 809 6157
Record last updated on 17-Apr-2000.
Record expires on 04-May-2001.
Record created on 03-May-1995.
Database last updated on 13-Jul-2000 21:05:17 EDT.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS2.OLYMPIAKOS.COM 207.176.88.85
NS1.TPC.INT 207.102.129.130
Registrant:
NICK TSOUFLIDIS (OLYMPIAKOS6-DOM)
708 ELMWOOD AVE
BUFFALO, NY 14222
US
Domain Name: OLYMPIAKOS.NET
Administrative Contact, Billing Contact:
Tsouflidis, Nick (NT2329) webmaster@MODERN-NET.COM
Modern Networks
708 Elmwood Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14222
none of your business (FAX) none of your business
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
mydomain Support (MS311-ORG) support@MYINTERNET.COM
mydomain Support
Email to address provided
Email to address provided
BM
+1 (888) 700-4087
Record last updated on 26-Jun-2000.
Record expires on 07-Apr-2002.
Record created on 07-Apr-2000.
Database last updated on 13-Jul-2000 21:05:17 EDT.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM 216.34.89.1
NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM 216.34.89.2
NS3.MYDOMAIN.COM 216.34.89.3
NS4.MYDOMAIN.COM 216.34.89.4
they don't do this because they have always zealously protected their trademarks. the corporate sponsors of the olympics (like mcdonalds) pay lots of money to use the trademarks. the olympics feels it has a responsibility to make sure that no one uses those trademarks who doesn't pay.
Think of all the special "olympic stuff" that you can get from places like mcdonalds, etc.. mcdonalds makes lots of money off that stuff.. and they give the olympics alot of money to use the logos..
it's money that's the issue.. not misrepresentation.
wish
---
Actually, I was using the dictonary reference not to establish their ownership on the word Olympic, but I was merely using it for reference.
They do have a point in going after sites that are blatently trying to use the Olympic games/Committee to make a quick buck, ususally in a not so tasteful fashion. what I have a real problem with is them doing this carte blanche lawsuit to nail *everyone* who even remotely refers to the word Olympics. Far too many innocent people are going to get nailed due to their arrogance.....
Feed The Need[goatse.cx]
what can adequately be explained by stupidity: Why don't they just go after the names they actually plan on using, instead of attacking anything with olympics in it? After all, it's not like the fake names will confuse people -- they will see the web site name from marketing, on TV.
Or maybe they figured that since they were going to the DNS services anyway instead of the individual owners, they would be able to get rid of everything in one fell swoop. How canthey be that callous with other people's resources?
Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
Many countries name their science competitions "olympiads" or something like that. Here's a smallish list. By the way, the 41st International Mathematical Olympiad is being held in South Korea right now.
Check out 'The New Lords of the Rings' by Andrew Jennings. I've worked for someone who was involved with various Olympic Committees and some of the tales are amazing - the extent of Samaranch's involvement with Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and the strings that Coke allegedly pulled to get the Games to Atlanta for example.
Many other sports organizations have to modify the rules of their games somewhat, or face prosecution from the Olympics.
I mean, aren't these the same people who were taking bribes?
I worked for a company that provided web hosting services. This included registering customer's domain names with NSI.
I registered one customers domain name, and a couple days later I recieved an email from NSI stating the domain name we were registering was invalid because it contained the word 'olympics' in it.
The domain name? joescigars.com (not the real domain name, but it was for a cigar company).
It took two weeks worth of phonecalls to them to clear this up.
Is that even possible with the way the DNS system is set up?
:)
No. Note the address of my web page...
The Elgin National Watch Company made high tech watches from 1864 until around 1964. At the time, the watch movements (think CPUs) were made by different companies than the watch cases (think computer cases).]
Well, I think I can shed some light here by quoting/paraphrasing some stuff from "Elgin: An American History" by E. C. Alft. (The book is really about the history of the city of Elgin, but the city and the watch company are very related. A good book even if you don't care too much about the particular company/city because it describes how one, reasonably typical american city grew from 1835 until 1985.)
Anyway, here is the quote:
SPF support for most open source mail servers can be found at libspf2.
Main Entry: Olympic Pronunciation: &-'lim-pik, O- Function: adjective Date: 1590 1 : 1OLYMPIAN 2 : of or relating to the Olympic Games
So, the word itself refers to the Olympic games, and there is no reference to other uses. The only legitimate claim is for people who live in, or near, places like Olympia in Washington state, or have registered trademarks using the mythological work Olympia or Olympic (Like Olympic Meats).
My point? While they may have a legitimate beef against companies trying to profit on the Olympics name (like sex sites), trying to have 1800 web sites pulled is ludicrous. They should do their research first, and check to see if the site has a legitimate claim to the URL.
Now, if someone could only register the URL www.OlympicsForDummies.com, then we could REALLY have a fun time.
Feed The Need[goatse.cx]
In my hometown, a greek diner called the Olympic Diner was sued by IOC for their name. Anybody out their who knows what OM, or Odyssey of the Mind, competitions are might remember that they used to be called Olympics of the Mind before IOC sent their pack of trained watch-lawyers after 'em.
It is things like this that make me realize I don't have the foggiest idea how the court system in this country is supposed to work.
CJW
So is microsoft going to start going after companies that make those clear things in walls we see out of? Everyone knows that Microsoft owns windows.. Perhaps slashdot could remove anybody that uses a slash and a dot in their domain name.... hmm, i'm seeing all sorts of usefull ideas here...
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If God Droppd Acid, Would he see People???
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
This is really pathetic. I mean, really? What does it matter? If someone types in "Olympics" in Yahoo, Google, etc., I'd say 10 to 1 that the very first web match is going to be the official site. What's there really to complain about?
Here's my problem with all this...whitehouse.gov and whitehouse.com. The two have existed now for at least four years. I am posative that if the government really wanted to, they could "pressure" whitehouse.com to change their domain name, but they don't. Why? Well, they're probably smart enough to know that they'd get some heavy fire if they did, but even so...one little mistake and some innocent kid looking up a government web site could find himself at a porn site.
So, if a government web site and a porn site can get along, why can't some stupid difference between www.olympics.com and www.olympics24_7.com?
I wouldn't need any permission from Lord McDonald to open such a restaurant in the US. He has no legal grounds to stop me. McDonald's Corporation would, however, put a stop to it real quick. I doubt I could open a McDonald's laundromat without facing their lawyers.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
But it is worse than ridiculous that legitimate websites are being shut down in order to preserve their own profits.
Apple is also a trademark of Apple computers, inc. They wouldn't have a legal ground to stand for when suing, for instance the Apple Grocery Store. or whatever. HOWEVER, historically in DNS-space, such concerns are typically ignored, since there is only ONE www.apple.com, usually only the THREAT of legal action will scare NSI or whoever into reneging on your contract.
Any ways, my point is, this has absolutely nothing to do with the phrase "Prior Art", which really only means anything in terms of patents.
Trees can't go dancing
So do them a big favor
Pretend dancing stinks!
This has to rank as one of the most stupid things I've seen not only on salshdot, but anywhere on the net, and the net is a famously vast repository of stupidity.
Try spending some time with people with emphysema. It's one of the least pleasant ways you can die, and one of the least pleasant ways for friends and family to have to watch someone go.
Olympic Paint
Guess I'd better buy my paint quick before the IOC puts them out of business!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Boss of nothin. Big deal.
Son, go get daddy's hard plastic eyes.
Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.
The IOC has the copyright to ANY design of five interlocking rings. A few years ago they sued a company that makes a card game called Legend of the Five Rings. The card game (which is very good, go pick up some starters at your local game store) has nothing to do with the olympics. In fact its loosely based on Mirumoto Musashi's A Book of Five Rings. The company had to immediately change its packaging and now has to remove their logo from the card backs. How on earth did they get a copyright that is so vague and covers such a huge area?
Around here, in Seattle, we have the Olympic mountains to the west of us. A few years back, the IOC was running around here threatening to sue anyone who used the work Olympic in their business. I don't know if they ever pressured the Olympic National Park to change their name, but nothing much came of it that I heard of - still plenty of businesses with Olympic in their name around here.
One wonders what people who live in the Olympics mountain range in Washington State might think about this. Or those people who do business in Olympia, our state capitol.
Kind of hard to trademark a place name, if you get my drift.
www.olympicshardware.com for example (not a real URL, probably) or www.olynews.com for a weekly newspaper.
Will in Seattle
Hmmm. The city of Olympia, Washington is gonna have to rename itself if they want a web page. And Olympia Dukakis, watch out ...
So based on a special law passed in the US, the IOC is going to sue (in the US) to remove domains owned by people in other countries? Can't wait for some other countries to catch on and start passing laws to give themselves the Rights (tm) to all sorts of Valuable (tm) Trademarks (tm)
Is that even possible with the way the DNS system is set up?
I recall a friend who, about two years ago, noticed that a great many Olympic-related domain names were unregistered, and tried to register one. I don't recall which domain it was specifically, but he then received an email from NSI informing him that they couldn't allow him to register that domain because of that Congress-granted special status of the term 'Olympic'.
There are obviously now registered domains containing the term 'Olympic'. When did this policy change?
(Or am I mistaken as to the scope of this former ban?)
Life is far too important to be taken seriously.
...but I'm honestly surprised that their annual arts & sciences event / fighting tournament, called "Olympiad", hasn't been slapped down yet.
Maybe a smallish LARP founded in the American southwest slips under their radar? (Maybe the people of Amtgard take great pains to make sure that, if any Olympic events are in the US, Olympiad is located well away from the area, as it's held in a different "kingdom" each year...)
Jay (=
(For more info on Amtgard, to go http://www.amtgard.com/)
Network Soluation and the other register services are just clearing houses. There is no reason for this. The ICO has got to realize that the word Olympic is almost getting so popular that it can't be protected with such vigur.
You nitwit. Prior Art is only even a meaningful term for patents. This is a trademark issue, and a misapplication of that.
Trees can't go dancing
So do them a big favor
Pretend dancing stinks!
Yeah, but that goes out the window in cases of very high-profile tradmarks. Take Apple records vs. Apple Computers as an example. So while "Olymp*" may technically refer to "near or pertaining to Mount Olympus or any other similarly named mountains", what comes to mind first for damn near everybody in the world is the Olympic Games, so they have a high risk of trademark dilution.
I hope they get laughed out of court.
Topher
Got Freedom?
We're talking about the people who won't let you use footage of *yourself* competing for less than $1000/second... even though they've never shown the footage to anyone, and nobody ever saw you win your medal. They're cutting back numbers in most sports (particularly those with weight classes, like wrestling, weightlifting, judo and taekwondo), so that they can economicially keep including more sports (like synchronized swimming and fscking ballroom dancing), for media reasons. Similarly, countries must now qualify their athletes, if they want to compete in the games. Of course they still talk about de Coubertain's vision... "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle."
Anyway, that's the IOC's up to on the surface. I won't go into the corruption stuff, since I can't substantiate it... I just saw a lot of it, and heard about a lot more. Suffice it to say that the bribery scandals weren't much of a shock. The amusing thing was, just as they were going on, the USOC was cutting back towel service for the OTC athletes, due to lack of funding. Scumbags. They're worse than the NCAA, and that's saying something.
Anyway, no, this is a huge moneymaking organization which certainly doesn't give a damn about anyone else's resources. Heck, they even warned us not to use the rings on our web pages or fundraising stuff. This sort of thing is very typical of them; it's not stupidity.
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." - Alexander Hamilton
Eric
They made a pizza place change its name! I mean, Olympic just refers to something having to do with Olympus, and pizza places seem to always have greek shit on the walls, so olympic pizza is a fine name for a pizza place. This is just so wrong!
Hey, why do pizza places have greek shit on the walls anyway? Isn't pizza sposed to be italian or something?
Trademarks only apply if the alleged violator is participating in the same business activity as the holder.
How can the Olympic Commitee claim to own the word Olympic? It's been part of the english (and other languages) lexicon since before english even existed
I remember when Zilog started sending threatening letters to any computer company that had the letter Z in its name, claiming that it it infringed on their corporate identity (they were best known for their Z80 processor), or some such nonsense. I seriously doubt that they'd have prevailed in most cases, but few wanted the costs of taking on a major corporation (backed by Exxon, incidentally), so they had to rename their companies. The point being, they don't necessarily have to have a valid legal case, they can use the intimidation factor to get their way.
Not necessarily. Just because the IOC has anything Olympi* trademarked doesn't mean that they won't/haven't given other groups the right to use it. My guess is that Special Olympics has long requested and has been granted rights to use the terms contained in Olymp*
ObTangent: This whole thing is about as lame as having the term Realtor trademarked...
Good Fast Cheap. Pick any two.
------------ ...
And now, live from Utah, the capital for Olympic (TM) bullshit
from the same award winning team that brought you bribery, illegal scholarships, collapsing buildings and corrupt Olympic (TM) officials, its "Get your damn hands off of my name"
*clap*clap*clap*
-----------------
But seriously folks, be glad you don't live here in Salt Lake City, we have to put up with this hipocracy daily. They lie cheat and steal to get the Olympics here, but now that they have it, they will be angry if anyone butts in.... I am truely, truely sorry that you all have to watch the 2002 winter olymipics in your own country be so throughly screwed up. I really am.
You know, I agree with their restriction against people using the 5 rings. Thats their defining symbol, they should be allowed to use it. But going after the world "olympic"???? Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't olympic mean more than "2 week long corporate sponsoring orgy?" I am pretty sure it also means "grandious" (as in the Olympia Mountains as someone has previously mentioned).
Seriously now... the USOC and the IOC and the SLOC (Salt Lake Olympic (TM) Committee) have f*cked up enough. Save your dignity and have some respect for what the Olympics are really about.
Do you have Linux and a DotPal? Click here now!
Special Olympics survived.
Gay Olympics lost the trademark suit.
I knew there would be a good reason not to go to the Olympics when they get here. I sure hope that the NBA and NFL don't get any ideas from the IOC and start hunting down people with basketball, football and any other sport title in their domain name... This is seriously a joke.
Maybe IOC wants also to change the names of: Olympous (Highest Greek mountain and the home of the Olympic Gods of ancient Greece). Olympia (the birthplace of the Olympics, Greece). Come on guys this is at least ridiculous, the Olympics is not a trademark of anybody, and if it is, it belongs to the ancient Greek people and to the whole world. The spirit of Olympism (the participation and the good game counts...) is an idea that can't be trademarked and narrowed down to the games. That's how we have also para-Olympics, chess-Olympics etc. :)))))
Cheers from Olympous,Greece (I hope I'm not sued by anybody just for living near the original Olympous
Which is completely different from the public domain issue. In copyright and patent law, IP passes into the public domain after a certain period of time, regardless of how strongly it has been protected by the company which owns the IP. A trademark may stay trademarked indefinitely.
Never take moderation advice from sigs, including this one.
100years maybe - the modern Olympics didn't start till 1896.
True on both counts. Pity I had to go run errands and couldn't stick around to feed the little beast.
Microsoft? Screw them, they're not responsible. Try going after whoexer created the deliberately ass-backwards QWERTY layout (was it Remington? I think it was) so their typewriter keys wouldn't stick all the time. (Yeah, I know that it was also designed so that salespeople could hammer out the word "typewriter" all on one row, but the inefficiency still plagues us)
They don't seem to have any problem with "Olympus", but their trademarked terms "Olympics" and "Olympiad". Of course if they don't have a problem with Olympus, why would they have one with Olimpics?
icqqm [ICQ:11952102]
I had a teacher who tried to regester something like Olympics2002.com A few days later the FBI called him and said that regestering the name broke some law about amateur sports. He had to give up the domain names, but he didn't lose the money.
There are exactly 42,935,718 letter sized sheets in a square mile.
I did something call Science Olympiad. Are they treading on toes. I guess they can't have a website either. It would be so cool too, you know how much work geek high school students put into a website.
Kate
_________________________ Visit me at http://pornforcomputers.com
Try opening a business called "Microsoft Burgers" and see how long it lasts.
Would you buy a microsoft burger? It would probably be out of business before microsoft could even sue them...
Dur... aren't the atheletes amatuers? Well, except for special cases such as basketball, 'cause the US donated enough money to the IOC.
Yes, I realize that what they want to mean here is that the money goes to facilities for the atheletes, but come on - using the word "Olympic" is not infringement in probably 75% of these cases, and certainly not taking profit away from the vast merchandising arm of the IOC.
The big corporations aren't the only ones that sue.
When you require that a bond be posted, you may make it impossible for average people to bring suits when they have legitimate grounds. If they can't afford the bond then that means they can't sue.
When a bond doesn't have to be posted, at least justice has a chance to be served by way of a suit. When a bond does have to be posted, some legitimate suits might not even have the chance to come to fruition because the plaintiff can't afford to cover the defendant's legal costs.
Those pigs once sued (or threatened to sue) a Foodmart grocery store for advertising Olympic sized savings! in a newspaper.
Who in their right mind would buy any food product from "Microsoft Burgers"? That's like naming your burger place "Shit Burgers". It just does not have good connotations.
So vote for Ralph Nader
[javac] 100 errors
"This is clearly wrong. We are going to continue going after these cybersquatters for three main reasons," Mr. Pound added. "One, we don't want people making profit from Olympic trademarks that does not get returned to the athletes in some way. Two, we don't want consumers duped into purchasing items they think are Olympic-related when they are not. Three, we need to protect the values of the Olympic Movement against uses out there that are clearly illicit."
IMHO, it might be good to steer clear of everyone in the Olympic Committee for a while. The Greek Gods never had good aim with those lightning bolts.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I used to work for the Alderac Entertainment Group -- we made the Legend of the Five Rings card game. (Wizards of the Coast eventually bought the game, but AEG continued to do the design.)
L5R's logo was an ancient Japanese symbol -- 5 interlocked rings in a circle. The IOC found out about it and threatened a lawsuit if we didn't change it. Never mind that it didn't look anything like the Olympics symbol -- the IOC has an interest in any logo that consists of any kind of linked rings.
We managed to get the IOC to stop short of making us change the card backs, which would have been devastating. We had to change the logo on T-shirts, etc. though.
The old logo, threatening to dilute the branding of the Olympics:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Labyrinth/8321/
The new logo, judged safe for the Olympics:
http://www.wizards.com/l5r/
At the time, at least, you could not sue the IOC -- they were protected by an international treaty, and were above the law in many respects. It's probably still that way. God help you if they set their sights on you.
Bstards.
cellophane
escalator
thermos
nylon
harmonica
linoleum
trampoline
yo-yo
zipper
Here's a link and here's another.
So the question is did the Olympics become common usage or has the modern olympic commite reinstated the mark's value through their promotion, and thus should get exclusive use of the mark. Aparently the people who assign trademarks felt they had a valid mark (but its equally possible they were wrong).
However, trademarks are only protected for use in trade and aren't ment to stop free expression. Thus you should be able to set up a non-profit site like www.theolympicssuck.org and they shouldn't be able to stop you. OTOH the intent and the implementation of the law often aren't the same.
Always be aware of the basic rule of the road, you may be in the right but do you really want to try to prove it by stepping into a crosswalk in front of the speeding truck?
-------- This space intentionally left blank --------
At some point, this fact got the US Olympic Committee majorly pissed.
Since then, they've got the makers of the game (which since then has been bought out and transferred over into mega-gamesters Wizards of the Coast) to change the logo used on boxes and advertising to a "five coins" type of design. This was kinda annoying, but of no major consequence. The thing is, they've kept going, and they're trying to get the logos on the backs of the cards changed. This would obviously be a major problem. Imagine playing poker in a game where most of the cards are red-backed, with the exception of Queens and up, which have blue backs. This would lead to all sorts of problems with marked cards. As it stands now, it looks like WotC might give in, and this is making a lot of fans of the games really angry.
So remember, just because you don't call it Olympic, heck, even if it doesn't have anything to do with the olympics, doesn't mean you're safe.
Ikura
-suck thesaurus-
They changed their name to SilverLink.net after the IOC sent a threatening letter. And I've since moved on...
KICKBACK. It's not enough that they've squeezed prospective host-cities for college scholarships for their kids, now they'll bring this lawsuit against all these domains so they can squeeze them for 'license fees', cash only, please.
OK, let's all say this together now,
"Copyright != trademark != patent != copyright"
See, that wasn't so hard now, was it?
Never take moderation advice from sigs, including this one.
I didn't think it would offend anyone if I made a simple mistake. I think the point still gets cross though, so settle down dude.
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"I'm not gonna say anything inspirational, I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot"
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Last night I went out and saw the movie Gladiator and it occured to me that if they added a gladiator event, or better yet a gladiator elemement to all the events. It would make for far more interesting viewing and increased ratings! Think about this: If figure skaters were gladiators would Tara Lipinski have won the gold, or Cristi Yamagucci? Maybe we ought to start a pettition and send it to the olympic committe?
Comments?
I used to work at a little ISP called Olympic Net in 1995 when the same thing happened. They had to give up their entire domain name and are now called "Silverlink". Where do we live? We live at the base of the Olympic Mountains in Washington State (who's capital is named Olympia). We asked why they weren't pursuing all of the local companies with Olympic in their name and they said that the Internet was international.
We were just a small ISP at the time and there's no way we could have fought it so we just caved. The most irritating thing was that I checked "olympic.net" a few years later and it was being used by "Olympic Paints".
--
Quantum Linux Laboratories - Accelerating Business with Linux
* Education
* Integration
* Support
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
Don't worry about the organizers of the "Special Olympics" and the "Science Olympiad" - they have permission.
Damn, I was hoping that they'd try to sue the Special Olympics so that entire IOC would be immediately tarred and feathered, putting a just yet comical end to this utter bullshit.
It would bring new meaning to the phrase "international community" when representatives of every nation on the planet compete at outdoing each other in expressing moral outrage at those who bring lawsuits against disabled children.
- bridgette
I don't care if you downmoderate me as redundant, I'm going to keep saying it as long as people keep making the mistake.
Never take moderation advice from sigs, including this one.
IMO, Payne will do nothing. This is the same bozo who repeatedly denied that the 1996 Olympics (i.e. the Coca-Cola Olympics) had any unusual problems. TWR
Oh, and did I mention? .... everyone will have to compete naked .... that whould keep the NBCs of the world away .....
If it was called the "The Games" they'd probably sue anyone who uses the word "the" in any context.
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Oh my god, Bear is driving! How can this be?
ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
Heck, the IOC would have huge legal fees if they had 1800 cases against the domain holders. I would think the individuals could intimidate IOC if they threatened to force IOC to bring suits against 1800 people. Which would probably force the IOC to trim the number down to just a few most important/rich/press-attention-getting domains.
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For example, Olympic Pizza, a Greek pizza joint that had been operating for decades.
The whole inane olympic system is woefully overdue for some serious reform.
One simple rule for its versus it's
This whole thing is about as lame as having the term Realtor trademarked...
The generic term for REALTOR® is "real estate agent." But "Olympic" itself is a semi-generic term that can also mean "near or pertaining to Mount Olympus or any other similarly named mountains." (Fully generic terms are not protected under US trademark law.) And doesn't trademark law have separate "spheres" of trademark rights? (Sports is one sphere; pizza is another sphere; etc.)
<O
( \
Will I retire or break 10K?
pronoblem
Damn right, you heard me. I cannot stand to support anything that is so stupid to claim ownership to simple commonly used words. I am going to patent the word *broom* and any variation of it. Slick
While it seems ridiculous to claim a trademark over a word that's thousands of years old, this case is specifically empowered by Congress. The US olympic committee (and I guess by extention the IOC) were given the trademark rights to the word Olympic (despite its very common use) by Congress a something like fifty years ago. So it's actually very likely that this will stand up in court. I think a really interesting question is the one of the remedies the olympic committee is seeking. They seem to want Network Solutions to use a filter to automatically reject any registration with the words olympic in it. This seems pretty extreme and is the part of the suit I'd really like (and expect) to see thrown out.
There are many, many sites that have legitimate claim to a domain with "Olympic" in the name. The exceptions are those that use "Olympic" or one of its derivations to leech off the IOC's reputation, and I think Olympicsex might qualify there. Still, there is a very good argument that the term is so widely used, and since the term was originated thousands of years ago, that it may rightly be public domain.
Regardless of whether or not these points are valid, this kind of thing MUST be handled on a case-by-case basis. That's how the American legal system works.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
O-LYM-PI-AN, a Pertaining to Olympus, or Olympia, a town in Greece.
Olympic Games, or Olympics: solemn games among the ancient Greeks, dedicated to the Olympian Jupiter, and celebrated once in four years at Olympia.
Ben Masel: 51,282 votes for US Senate in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary
You are not funny. Disgusting is a better word.
First, no serious scholar refers to the varieties of English spoken by African USians as "Ebonics" since the early 70s. It is only the misinformed that use this word, and by such use, conveying their overwhelming ignorance. (Yes, the media use the word. They are one of the main locuses of the spread of misinformation on this issue.)
The way the language is usually called is "African American Vernacular English", abbreviated AAVE. Of course, this term has a serious flaw-- America is a *continent*, not a nation, after all. The correct name then should be "African Unitedstatesian Vernacular English", or AUVE.
Are you adequate?
Many years ago a rather large and significant international competition for elementary through college students called Olympics of the Mind was forced to change its name (now Odyssey of the Mind) by the purveyors of what I once thought to be the finest example of international interaction. Of course we shouldn't be surprised that what something seems to be at its root is radically different when you consider the politics and economics of its organizing body.
Downmoderate me as redundant, but I'll keep posting it until people learn.
See http://www.nolo.com/encycloped ia/faqs/pct/pct31.html
and http://www.nolo.com/encycloped ia/faqs/pct/pct11.html.
Never take moderation advice from sigs, including this one.
Dude, joke. Laugh.
Wow. Better not let all that anti-clue come into contact with a normal clue, or you'll vaporize the universe.
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
they cant exactly sue the domain operators, since they dont own the domains :)
:)
NSI set themselves up to be sued... remember how everyone was/is mad at them for saying that they OWN all domain names? well, now it's comming back to bite them in the asses
In 108 years, the Olympic Committee seems to have forgotten that the very spirit and name of the olympics was lifted wholesale from the ancient games. It's not as if they obtained rights to the term in a legal transaction with the original trademark owners.
They could use the term 'olympics' for the modern game because it was already in the three-thousand year old public domain. Just because the modern incarnation has been around for a century and has become high profile doesn't give them a magical right to take the trademark out of the public domain!
Going after others that use the name in the spirit of the original games (science olympiad, special olympics, etc.) is admitting that the modern olympics shouldn't have had the right to use the name for the past century!
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
At the conclusion of the Gay Games this past month in Amsterdam, an ancient question arose. Why can't the Gay Games be the Gay Olympics? Many participants seemed to be perturbed that the games were being unfairly made to refrain from the use of the word Olympic.
The answer has it's historic roots in decisions made by the resurrectors of the Olympic Games over 100 years ago. No games has been singled out or treated differently. The IOC has since it's beginnings held steadfast in it's opinion that the word Olympic be used for the Olympic Games alone, the Special Olympics being the one exception.
In 1913, Japan, China and the Philippines established a regional games which were called the "First Asian Olympic Games". The name was changed to the Far East Championships for all subsequent editions.
When Alice Milliat, the founder of the Federation Sportive Feminine International, wanted to establish events for women in 1922, she called her games the Jeux Olympiques Feminins. Pierre de Coubertin and the IAAF took notice. A compromise of sorts was agreed to. The FSFI would drop the use of the word Olympic, and the IOC would admit women into it's games.
In 1923 Frenchman Jean Petitjean was promoting his first games for university students as the University Olympic Games. De Coubertin again protested and convinced him to change the name. The International University Games were established, and are know known around the world as the World University Games, World Student Games or Universiade.
More recently the Huntsman World Senior Games were inaugurated in 1987 as the World Senior Olympics, but were made to change their name to the World Senior Games the following year.
Various Police and Fire Olympics have been asked to refrain from using the word Olympic to describe their events.
The case involving the Gay Games (International Olympic Committee vs. San Francisco Arts and Athletics, 781 F. 2d 733) was decided in January of 1986.
So what about the Special Olympics? The Special Olympics were begun by Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1968. The use of the word Olympic by her organization was addressed by the USOC in 1971. At that time the USOC gave it's approval for the Special Olympics to be the exception to the rule and the only organization outside the Olympic movement with permission to use the word Olympic. This permission would be expanded in 1988 when the IOC recognized and endorsed the Special Olympics movement.
In this context the lawsuit between the IOC and the Gay Games in the early 80s becomes just one of many instances in which the IOC has asked organizations to reserve the use of the word Olympic for the Olympic Games.
--
And, for those of you that want to know, fucktheolympics.com, fucktheioc.com, and olympicdoghumping.com are all available.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
Totally. I've submitted some news items that would interest a great deal of Slashdot readers, but they have been rejected. I don't know how to make it better, but the submission system is not working well. Either they have a massive overload and can't dig the gems out of the chaff, or they just have (poorly) trained monkeys hitting "Reject" or "Post."
Ahem. You mean trained squirrels, perhaps? Read Submit a Story to Slashdot
I don't get the impression that this is really giving them a lot of good press.
If they're so strong and established, what do they have to fear from Olympic Pizza? I think the IOC is lashing out in fear, because for the first time their image has been seriously tarnished (by the bribes). And when you attack out of fear rather than out of strength, you pull dumb stunts like this.
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
holy shit! what happens when jim croce's wife or son come after me for my domain name, leroybrown.com?!?!?!?!? disregard the fact that i actually know two people named leroy brown.
Founder, Americans Allied Against Alliteration
Clearly you missed my point. Since I was alluding to the protection of the word 'Pizza', rather than anything that actually happened.
gitm
- The pen is mightier than the sword, the court is mightier than the pen, and the sword is mightier than the court.
Well, the domain name thing is new... I unfortunately, had to suffer through the 88 winter olympics as a resident Calgarian... Naturally, a lot of small businesses got warnings about their naming choices including one Greek restaurant owner who grew up 10 mi. from mount Olympus (no, not the one on mars). My fave of all time, though, was the Salvation Army's silhouette billboard campaign that featured one particular piece of artwork that the IOC claimed "looked" too much like a bobsled logo. The artwork in question featured a person in a wheelchair. If you can mistake a wheelchair for a bobsled, then you're suitably out of touch with winter sports that your mindshare shouldn't really matter to the IOC.
2 1337 4 u!
Personally, I don't give a rats ass about the olympics. I would rather be out participating in a sport than watching it in some tramped up production put on by scoundrels.
But, that is just my humble opinion.
The middle mind speaks!
Oh, what about all those sites related to mythology? I think perhaps in the spirit of getting even, they (website owners) should let all their sites get taken down, and then sue the Olympic Committee. Come on now, the committee is going to be disrupting a lot of legitamite bussinesses here.
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"I'm not gonna say anything inspirational, I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot"
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Arrgh.
sulli
sulli
RTFJ.
Then a bond should be done based upon ability to pay. E.G. User X (having $50,000 in the bank) suing M$ shouldn't have to put up a bond. But M$ suing user X should.
-- no
SpecialOlympics.org is going to be pretty fucked. Maybe the Olympic Comittie should push some of those wheelchairs down the stairs while they're at it...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Does this mean that I can no longer put up my memorial to the Titanic's sister ship the Olympic? The ship that has it's keel laid three months before the Titanic's?
What the bloody hell are these people thinking? There are numerous concepts, names, places that use olympic or varations of it.
The more time passes and the more lawsuits that keep cropping up, the more the need becomes more urgent to have more suffexes for websites.
Examples:
.per - Personal websites that are for untouchable by corporations. A good example of a need for this was the famous Veronica.org suit last year.
.xxx - Adult sites. Enforcement of this idea would make screening software so much more effective. And before anyone complains about the sites going along with this...the honest sites that I've talked to say that they would encourage this and would willingly go along with it
.spam - God would we love to add this to site blocker software in our E-Mail
.twp - Twp in the state of NJ is the abbriviation of township. This would be perfect for towns/cities to be able to post information. Olympia Wash. would be safe from the IOC then
And if we DID go with this plan, we would need strict enforcement of it. If you are Matel and own Barbie.com then you CAN NOT touch barbie.per or barbi.org or barbie.anything.
Just my 2 centicred.
-- Wiccan Army, 13th Airborne Division "We will not fly silently into the night"
I think organizations that attempt to have domains pulled should have to post a bond to cover the owner's costs if the owner prevails. Right now, you're looking at a costly legal fight that penalizes you even if you win. Companies and others use this to intimidate innocent targets into backing down.
Dude, not especiially funny.
Last I checked, the word Olympic belongs to the Greek language, and not to the IOC.
This is about as ridiculous as Amazon's attempt to patent one-click buying.
Maybe I'll form a pizza-cooperative and begin suing pizza-hut, papa john's, etc...
gitm
- The pen is mightier than the sword, the court is mightier than the pen, and the sword is mightier than the court.
How can the Olympic Commitee claim to own the word Olympic? It's been part of the english (and other languages) lexicon since before english even existed, and I imagine it was in use for a heck of a long time before the Olympics were ressurrected during the last century.
This is another example of shoddy copyright protection, and it unfortunately puts the burden of proof on the accused (the people with the domains) instead of the accusers, due to the way the commission is doing this.
So, what's next, do they start forbidding the sale of commemorative Wheaties boxes with Mary Lou Rhetton on them? Maybe they'll sue all the sites with action based names like jump.com and runner.com and swim.org because they refer to activities that occur at the Olympics.
In reference to your sig; no can do. I already boycotted boycotting.
Long signatures suck.
not too seem like a biggot(sp?), but "the gay olympics"? gay runners aren't fast enough to compete with others? everyone would be very ticked if they created the "black people olympics" or the "white people olympics", how is this different? i feel about this the way i feel about black history month. that is not to say they shouldn't acknowledge the accomplishments of black americans, but that they shouldn't have to have a special setting apart of it. it should be one big history, not white history, black history. just american history.
justathought
what hump?
Does this mean that anyone that has the phone number 654-6742 (which spells olimpic) could be sued too?
OM is also Olympique Marseille (Marseille's soccer team). Do they have permission from the IOC, or does the French spelling protect them?
the domain "theInternationalOlympicCommitteeneedsahobby.com
What if your company name was Polym Pics?
roflmao@IOC!
"Never wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it."
Even when the law is on our side, we have no way to fight for our rights because a long court battle will just bankrupt us. If huge companies going into a lawsuit were made to post a bond like this, it would allow people to fight on issues they would normally have to just back out of.
Of course it could also be that I'm just stupid! :)
I thought someone said there was going to be free beer!
WWW.COM, Inc. already thought of it. Good thing they're not suing anybody.
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$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I mean, really. I heard on the news back around the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, they sued some Greek guy over the name of his restaurant, because he had the word "Olympic" in there somewhere. They remind me a lot of some large corporations, ahem, BELLSOUTH, who search out domain names that are derogotory towards them and then try to intimidate the owners into selling them the domain.
Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
You know, it's completely personal. They just hate you.
I want to turn in the criminal activity of a little greek resteraunt here called 'Piza OLYMPIA' This activity can not be tolerated.
Companies suing to protect trademarks, patents, trade secrets, etc. . . Consumers shafted - but not always:
$145 billion judgement against the tobacco companies. (just announced)
Wow. I wish I was a smoker with Emphysema right about now.
Will Microsoft be paying out $145 billion to all the RSI-injured out there?
Well, I guess this stuff works both ways. I'm holding out for the giant asteroid to come and put an end to it.
if it ain't broke, then fix it 'till it is!
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Forgive me, but I can't seem to find the section of the constitution regarding "granting exclusive use of english words to a single organization". I do remember some bit about inventors and creative works and stuff, but nothing about "give us money for whatever law you want".
Yep, just reread that section, and guess what: It's not there. The closest congress comes is regulation of interstate trade, which the current supreme court actually thinks means "interstate trade", as opposed to congress's "whatever the hell we want". Trademark is protection against fraud. This law granting exclusive use of this word to a single organization is not about protecting against fraud, and isn't about anything congress is empowered to do.
The Olympics people are very, very agressive about preserving their namesake. I am affiliated with a nonprofit that runs an annual athletic event with the word "Olympics" in the event name and the US committee lawyers paid us a visit a few years ago. The only reason we are able to keep using the name is because we have been doing the event for many decades (well before their trademark was established).
I understand about wanting to protect the rings.. That's definately OK.
<offtopic>
Remeber those cigars that came out in 1996 called "Victory Spirit" that had used the ring logo without permission? Man, those were good. I know a store who bought the entire stock and still has some...
</offtopic>
Anyway, yeah, i completely understand about the rings... But to hold a trademark on the word 'olympic'?? The article mentioned a previous lawsuit against a mom-and-pop pizza joint called "Olympic Pizza". In my opinion, this is too far.
Olympic isn't some great new word like "Pentium" or "Athalon" or "PocketPC"... It's a very old word, that was around long before the IOC. It would be like me trying to trademark "Philosophy" or something..
the IOC goes too far..
wish
---
I am getting pretty sick of people that own a trademark thinking they have the right to a word. I beleive Olympic, Olympiad and the likes have been around in several languages long enough to mean something other than the organization going after these domains. Personally, if I want to have a domain named 2004Olympicgames.com and want to post information to the public about the 2004 Olympic games I should have the right to. Why doesn't George Bush Jr. sue himself for slanderous Domain names .. (ie. www.georgebushsucks.com errata). This is sheer ignorance of how things should work. Should be first come first serve. To make things confusing I also feel that trademark names that are not part of any language should have a right to a .com with thier name (ex. microsoft.com). Domain names that are explicitly taken from corporations that have sole use of the word that was made up to name the corporation should have the right to use the Domain. Of course if M$ didn't jump on the ball and get the domain name first they'd have to deal with whomever got it. This is just another abuse of an organization that does not have a global thought process to see where someone else might have a use for the word olympic. I would place this lawsuit in the audaciously ignorant attitude and file it under "explain it to them later."
When they were here in Atlanta in 1996, they had every store with a name similar to "Olympic" change its name. The local news profiled one small cafe' with the name something like "Olympic Cafe" that had been in business for over ten years. They changed their name to avoid the suit. Typical strong arm tactics. It would seem that a trademark like "Olympic" would be sufficiently diluted after, oh, 2500 years...
-tim
Hey, it could be worse, you could be in Sydney.
It's so bad over here that one of Australia's top rating shows is The Games, a mockumentary satirising the Sydney Olympics' organisation.One of the more amusing storylines was the registration of a personal domain by a Mr. Sydney Games . . .
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
So apparently, I can now copyright normal words in the english language, like say, names? I'm going to copyright my name, John. Then Im going to sue to have every else named John shot. This is the exact same scenario that is presented by the Olympic Committee.
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"I'm not gonna say anything inspirational, I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot"
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Pets.com is suing for exclusive use of the words "pet," "pets," or ".com". Similer actions are being taken by other companies to reclaim these words:
amazon
yahoo
vineyards
slash
dot
books
real
estate
wall
street
journal
All web sites with these words in their names will likely be reclaimed by their rightful owners in the near future. Also, a ban on use of these words in writing and speech is being worked out in the Senate. As a possible solution in the U.S., some are considering changing the official language to German...
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
Then, in a while someone will come by and take away my domain name because they own a glass company, and feel I might be misdirecting their customers. Sun will sue for the rights to Slashdot.org, because their trademark (We put the dot in .com) uses the word 'dot' and so does Slashdot's web address. But no... evils like that would and could never happen. I am being too far fetched. Remember, the first things lawyers look for is a presidence. When a judge grants the Olympic organizers the rights to take away these domains, someone will come along in a year and demand other domains be given to them, and their lawyers will point out this case.
/. is a commercial entity. goto slashdot.com
Of putting the Olympic (tm?) games out of its misery by running it to the ground. Excuse me but throughout this (ur, actually, last) century it has been used to support the Nazis, used as a pissing contest between the Soviet - US blocs, and now as some second-rate corporate whore. Is that Samaranch (spelling?) bastard still running the committee despite the fact that he's been proven (maybe not in a court, but the evidence is overhelming) to be corrupt, along with almost every single other members of the committee?
Oh yeah, how much does it cost to get an athlete to pass a drug test? They might as well get on this "darn Internet thing" and set up an secure E-Commerce site for the purpose of taking bribes.
Welcome to the future of the Olympics, brought to you by McDonalds (food of choice for a new generation of drug taking athletes, now introducing McBuff - the fat free burger enriched with performance enhancing drugs, just don't ask us what's in the pattie), Nike (all the athletes are under our payroll, and our sweatshops are the nicest!) and Microsoft (bring the same damned highlights of the same few games the rest of you stupid audiences are staring at in front of that other idiot-box (accord to the demographics, courtesy of the FBI - consumer protection division, B2B department), in ultra low frame rate, 32x32 block pixel format, a technological breakthrough that is incorporated in Windows Media Player. Where do you want go today (if you don't tell us we'll find out anyway)?)
// End Rant
Kill'em! Kill'em all!
Not always true. If the trademark is sufficiently famous (as decided by the court), then nobody can use it. Try opening a business called "Microsoft Burgers" and see how long it lasts.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Apparently, only outside of the US. I was living near Atlanta during the Olympics in 1996 and it was a landslide of corporate sponsorship.
Note the Winter Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. Now *that* was a class act!
Actually posting a bond is a pretty good idea overall. IANAL and all, but I don't think that is common practice
I think that there is one area where it's used now (at least in the U.S.). If you lose a lawsuit and are assessed damages, you have to post a bond of some percentage of those damages (sorry, I forget how much. It may vary from state to state.) if you decide to appeal.
Maybe someone can persuade Matt and Trey to let Big Gay Al have some Big Gay Olympics, just to piss these guys off...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
When is all this crazy ® stuff going to stop? I mean, I can understand trade-marking a brand or something like that (as long as it isn't simply a word in common usage... like olympic), but who was the genius who first thought of trade-marking whole sentences ("Mr. Christie makes tasty biscuits."®, or something like that)? Or more importantly, who was the arse who granted it?
What if the IOC buys Olympia, where the original games took place? Do they then have a legitimate claim to ownership of the word olympic? What happens to the hundreds of places with similar or derived toponyms?
I'd better go and trade-mark my name before someone gets there first...®
--
sig is gone.
That is the funniest article I have ever seen on /. and rights-over-domains type legal action is getting more and more absurd. It's like trying to sue the restaurant because the particular table you wanted to sit at is already taken. Where was it written in the Law of the Internet (for dummies) that these major organizations had exclusive rights to every concievable domain that includes a word in the english language that remotely pertains to their organization? I must have missed that commandment. Oh crap, I better watch out, I already took jookynet.org from Namezero, I hope Sprite doesn't ask for it! And those poor poor people at jooky.com and .net! Yikes. Or what if the US Postal service claims Hotmail, since they are, after the ORIGINAL mail people?! Or what if Union Pacific wanted every single domain name imaginable with the word 'union' in it? Don't they have rights to them? Apparently....*walks away* I'm already fed up with it.
supruzr
Since Network Solutions now owns all domains (well at lease .com .org .net) dose that make them responsible for all the infringing domains. Since they want to claim ownership for them all. After all they are just renting them out. If they do not want to not get sued, then sell them not rent them like they used to.
I'll start a company called "www" or maybe "com"...
Boycott Shampoo! Demand REAL POO!