Slashdot Mirror
The Web And The Olympics
Anonymous Coward writes: "Here is a nice article about how the IOC (International Olympic Committee) is banning the Internet from the Sydney Games. Here is the link: http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/08/15/olympic.ban.idg/index.html". This story came from the Industry Standard, but since on their site it's an unfriendly multi-page format, we'll link to CNN. Are the Olympics nothing more than eyeballs to be sold to the highest bidder? Very thoughtful article. (A mostly-unrelated aside: Don't use the e-mail kiosks at the 2002 Olympics.)
OK, so they're kiosks and whatnot. That's a bummer, because they're likely not to allow floppy disk access or installation. But people can still use web-based (semi)secure email like hushmail (I think the password is sent over SSL, so it might only be good for one-offs...
Of course, the kiosks might have java disabled...
But seriously, this is weak. There is a need for safety, but what stupid ass nutcase is going to email people about their terrorist act from the location? Are they seriously thinking that they'll intercept some message alerting them to someone placing a bomb somewhere?
Now that the monitoring is becoming public knowledge, is there any chance that they won't be jammed with prank messages ("I saw a guy leaving an unmarked duffel bag under the bleachers! I hope it's not a BOMB!", or, "Dear Osamu, I left your package where you asked, hope your friend finds it!")
If they are really expecting reliable results, I want some of what they;re smoking. But really, I want to know what's really going on. Test-run of a new carnivore product?
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
Are you going to get all pushed out of shape about Coca Cola commercials not being broadcast on the web? So why worry about what happens with the Olympics? Do you really care whether one doped athlete beats another one by 1/100's of a second?
You don't need an expensive, canned media extravaganza to aspire to the "olympic ideals". Participate in sports yourself, travel, learn languages, and get to know people. You'll be healthier and do more for the world than the "official" Olympics ever did.
www.sportsjones.com
Just two examples of legitamate, well-run sports journalism sites. Sadly, your ignorance on this subject is all too common amongst PR departments and SID's. Hopefully, this task force will help correct that problem.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Burris
This is par for the course. As an athlete, I have three peers who went to the 96 Olympics and said the drug testing outside of USOC was a total farce ( Including a growth hormone (hGH) detection machine being shutdown after the first two days of testing ).
This is related, because only drugged athlete's break other drugged athlete's records.
I dont think the IOC has any Olympic spirit left.
The almighty buck...
What about the new sports that women are breaking into, like pole vaulting and sumo wrestling?
(OK, I made the part about sumo up, but now I've got a vision in my head that's making me think twice about eating lunch today)
For more information, click here.
After the last article of his linked to from slashdot, where he explained his laughable theory that the purpose of carnivore was to "shut down the Internet," I wasn't expecting much from his this time. The first 3/4 of the article talked about S.W.A.T. teams, and how police don't need them, even though they are primarily used for apprehending suspects that they think may turn violent, and not blowing stuff up, as Cringley seems to think. Yeah, the S.W.A.T. team really helped take down those two Columbine killers! Fucking cowards. Anyways, in the final paragraph, he then "[blows] the lid off" a secret plan to steal the "passwords" (?) of the "business elite" via web kiosks at the Olympics. This guy is either nuts, or dumb.
---
I am the dot in slashdot.org
No idea how this affects any web coverage on their part though... But who needs transpacific cell phone calls if your satellite dish will do?
Fsck the IOC.
:-)
As far as the broadcasting over the net....
Anyone got about $100,000 to piss off the IOC? Thats what it would take to put a good camera in a helicopter for a few events and get the data to a to a well connected streaming server. Of course the banner ads would quickly make up for that. Most of the Olympic park in Sydney would be a radio mess but with good antennas in the right places, wireless ethernet will work. The real problem is that once security knows whats going on, you loose the camera, equipment and other tickets but thouse problems can be solved with enough $$.
Any takers
That is my second biggest gripe with NBC's so-called coverage, and it fits right into my biggest gripe. Why don't they ditch the 'she boldly overcame acne to become america's favorite scantily clad pre-pubescent gymnast!' crap and show some sports other than Gymnastics (female for the most part), Basketball (Don't tell me who's gonna win, just gimee the spread), and the shorter Field & Track and Swimming events. As a fan of Soccer and Fencing I have been hoping against hope that I might be able to find some coverage of these events online (soccer? yea right, no time for commercials or human interest), but once again my hopes are dashed in favor of the publics slightly disturbing fixations on jailbait gymnasts and lopsided basketball victories.
Fuck NBC, Fuck the IOC, and fuck the Olympics in general.
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
(Actually, I've seen an article during the 98 Olympics that said NBC showed sports only 10-20% of the time.)
I mean, if I got rich and gave them a trillion dollars, in exchange for exclusive rights, and decide not to show the games at all, would they accept my money?
It's not just real-time streaming that's being banned, but also media credentials for on-line sports journalists. Oh, and there's no radio play-by-play, either. Nobody is saying that the IOC shouldn't sell the real-time video rights (TV) to the highest bidder. But to exclude on-line media outlets altogether, and restrict radio (what the hell is up with that?) only serves to restrict unnecessarily the public's participation in what can be a wonderful event.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Old habits die hard... I hit the 'Anonymous' button without thinking about it.
Let's get real, here. If the "amateur" athletes were there for the love of the sport, they wouldn't NEED multi-billion dollar contracts for wearing some brand-name clothes.
If the Olympics is to have it's REAL meaning of being an OPEN celebration of amateur athletics, then SHOVE the banner adverts, the promotions, the "unofficial" prizes, etc.
On the other hand, if the money is what's important, then STOP PRETENDING and only show it on the home shopping channels.
The recent corruption scandal is no surprise. The Olympics became corrupt the moment that people focussed on the cash. TRUE amateurs (such as Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards) have been excluded by deliberately tailored "requirements".
IMHO, the IOC and the Olympics as they currently are, have long outlived their usefulness. Scrap them, and build something that REALLY honors the spirit of the Greek Olympiads.
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)
...the whole 'amateur' thing was concocted up for the modern Olympics to ensure only wealthy folks could participate. A steel worker in Sheffield in the 1890s couldn't afford to seriously train for a sport and *not* get paid for it, while the Duke of Somewhereshire had plenty of leisure time on his hands. Winners in the ancient Olympic games received great material rewards, not just a medal and a laurel wreath.
Really, the whole 'amateur' thing has been a farce for a long time. How exactly were Soviet athletes amateurs? In my book, if you don't have a full-time, non-sports related job, and all you do is train, and someone takes care of your food and housing, then your *job* is being an athlete and you are a professional. (You may be underpaid, but that is another issue.) I doubt many of the Red Army hockey players spent time walking point in Afghanistan.
Lest anyone think I'm just digging on the Soviets, it's hardly better here. Carl Lewis or Michael Johnson don't go off to day jobs after their training sessions. Odds are that a track star went to college on a scholarship and hasn't seen a regular job since. Athletes get paid for appearances, for sponsorships, etc. -- the only thing they don't get paid for is the actual competition, and this is only a small portion of the money a pro athlete makes. Just ask Tiger Woods.
Save for Team Handball and Curling, there really aren't any true amateurs in the Olympics anymore, and there haven't been for a long time.
>laundry room - bleach and chlorine. Everyone >knows what mixing those does.
Uh.... yeah. It gets your whites whiter. And mabye you use it in your swimming pool too.
I think you meant to say *ammonia* and chlorine, which, when mixed together in strong enough concentrations, form a gaseous poison remarkably similar to WWI mustard gas.
john
Resistance is NOT futile!!!
Haiku:
I am not a drone.
Remove the collective if
Imagine all the people...
You'll probably notice a pattern: it's all targetted at high-tech groups.. groups, like us. Computers can be used to "terrorize" people? Take down wall street? Crash planes? We've heard it all. Yet, despite all the hype, none of these things have happened. Most errors out there are due to human stupidity - but rather than blame themselves, many organizations choose to use the hype to create their own escape goat. Enter, "The Hacker". A mystical entity nobody can see that seems to have no motivations for anything, yet goes out on wonton destruction. The image falls apart under any scrutiny, yet most people are willing to just accept it - who cares, just gimme my SUV and big screen TV.
This is media hype, it's not the government - it's not the FBI, yes most people believe it, but those are not people that matter. You are trying to use the fact that the media jumps all over some new buzzword of the day to convince me that some government branch is targetting high-tech users?
Of course, I don't like the email kiosks being sniffed, but don't try to convince me there is a big government push to persecute the high-tech crowd..
Last week ZDNet Australia ran a story noting complaints from the sight impaired community that the official site for the Games www.olympics.com failed to provide a significant amount of information formatted in ways that can be read by text only (and therefor text-to-speech enabled) browsers. Examples of non-text friendly data include "the sport index, which provides event schedule information for 36 Olympic sports" and the results of competitions, "Something which [a representative for the site] claims will cost AU$4 million and take 368 days to do," according to one of the complainants.
This also means that the site is not meeting guidelines laid out by the WWW Consortium.
The combination of not providing a site meeting the needs of all users, and then censoring what others can report from the Games, means a total blackout of Internet information for these users.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
Amateurs (true amateurs, who pay with their own money and have no sponsors) do it for the love of their sport. Professional athletes do it for money.
"but even more, the real problem is that the IOC is out of touch, out of the loop, and quite possibly too old to understand the internet, the people who use it, and why it is important"
that's probably true, but it's up to the IOC to change their business practices to work with the changing environment and culture of the world, not up to the users to start pirating the content. It's up to the company to decide to "open source" their content, not for the user to decide to open source it and distribute it for them.
But this is also why the X-Games, hosted by ESPN and a bunch of others are making such headway into becoming a valid sporting event with strong viewership and financial rewards. They're more in touch with the audience of today and take a different approach to how the events are marketted.
But again, the IOC doesn't need to respect your rights, you're not contributing to the event at all. You need to respect their rights since they are hosting the event and paying for the event to occur. I'm not saying that their business model will be successful in the coming years, but it's not our job to change it for them. Don't like it, go elsewhere.
PBS's Rob Cringely wrote about the web kiosks at the olympics being intercepted by a carnivore-on-steroids that can choose to bounce emails--not ever deliver them.
/. discussion.
Right. must reduce my caffeine intake before jumping three steps in
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
You can't be serious - can you? The Olympics have degenerated from an amateur competition into a gigantic marketing blitz for multi-nationals. Amateur - when they lost that, they lost something very important. There are already many arenas in the world for paid athletes, and they get press all the time. How much of the "Sports" section in your local paper is devoted to paid athletics: 80%? 95% of the front page?
Furthermore, what part of the Olympics do you really see? The events in which the US is favored to win, pretty much. The events which generate the most advertising dollars. It's pretty clear - if NBC can't sell ads for it, they won't show it. For most people, the Olympics is a feverish contest in which the good old US of A wins a bunch of medals from countries no one's ever heard of.
Maybe this is ok with you. Maybe you're happy to have your little slice of Olympics served up courtesy of Giganto, Inc., complete with the same professional athletes you know and love from home. Personally, it make me want to puke. If NBC had real broadcast competition they'd have to show more than the top 3 events. That's what this is about: a really profitable Olympics or a really interesting one. Take your pick.
This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
The main problem I have with this is that any it makes it just about impossible for those of us who want to follow other countries' events here in the United States to do so. If NBC's broadcast is similar to the previous Olympics' broadcast, only the events where American athletes and teams compete AND are likely to win medals, will get any coverage. If web broadcasting was allowed, those of us who are foreigners living in this country should be able to follow our nations' events via webcasts from our national news and sports online sites. But without these webcasts, all we can do is read the results in the next day's papers.
When you think about carefully, the Spanish Empire rests upon a huge infrastructure, and this, unsuprisingly enough, costs a lot of money. How else are they going to obtain this money without sending mercenaries to rape and pillage in the New World.
What is all of this drivel supposed to mean? Are you trying to make some kind of "point" here? The IOC is hardly oppressing anybody, merely deciding on who gets to watch an event they own. Nothing could be fairer.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Your wish to make money does not take precedence over my right to share information.
Yes, I'm sure you can justify theft in many ways. But it's not your information, and just because you don't want to pay for it doesn't make it any less true. Sorry.
---
Jon E. Erikson
Jon Erikson, IT guru
Quokka's a company that was largely built on the promise of the 2000 games on the web.
NBC is a major partner, and they teamed up to make NBC Olympics site. Realtime stats and progress of sporting events is what Quokka's all about. Are they supposed to abandon the games? Doesn't NBC's agreement cover this?
If not, they got royally rooked because they've poured millions and millions into a web presence and information dissemination point for the games, and paid the IOC a huge sum for the exclusive rights.
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
I'm at 1024x768, but I prefer to run multiple browser windows. Most Slashdot stories look just fine, but sometimes a poorly constructed header or troll will make the entire article scroll-happy until it's fixed or moderated down.
Here, I used the comments-only facility to filter out the header.
For more information, click here.
Personally, I'm not going to be watching much of the Olympics. Why? Cuz I like to see the events, not the two dozen "Life Stories" that take up 90% of the broadcast time. Sure, it's great that Bob the Sprinter overcame but I wanna see him race. Not that I don't have feelings for the guy, but I seriously doubt said problem is on his mind when he's neck and neck with Sam the Speedy. These guys and gals aren't here because of commercials. They came here to do their best. TV on the other hand... Anyone remember that much hyped Greene vs Johnson?
My personal off topic rant - I'm a distance runner. Have been for almost 16 years now so I do enjoy watching those races that aren't over in a matter of seconds. Unfortunetly, anything that takes more than 5 minutes to complete, the Networks don't see fit to broadcast. I want to see who wins the 10,000 or the Marathon. These are my idols and heroes. These are the people who don't have huge endorsement contracts. They work their 9-5 jobs, fit in time for training, and pull this all off with very little financial support from anyone else. But unless I go to a speciality site (www.runnersworld.com for instance), I can't find out if my idols managed to pull off their life dream. The Networks don't care.
----------------------------------------- Well damn...so that's what that does...
Being an online sports journalist myself, I'd kindly suggest you go suck an egg. While there are plenty of hacks out there running there own sites, there are also a plethora of professionally run, independent online sports journals (follow the link in my sig to the best independent hockey site on the web - www.inthecrease.com).
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
/. is getting nice and confusing with Troll's aplenty but I'm still going to assume your for real and tell you how I see it.
Many of the olympic sports are contested between athletes who are heros at home, basketball is no exception to this. I personally believe that first and foremost an olympic gold medal should say you are the best, not that you are the best of all those people who aren't good enough to earn money from their sport. I love to see the NBA superstars in the Olympics because they raise the level of competition and I will love it even more the first year they lose the final (it will happen soon enough, how many great foreigners play in the NBA). I haven't read any complaints about tennis, is this because the tennis stars are more evenly distributed on an international scale? Where are the professional boxers? I would love to see Lennox Lewis, the world pro heavywieght champion stepping into an Olympic tournament with about 5 fights ahead of him against unknown opponents (will it be Tyson or Holyfield). The olympics should be about the highest quality of sport first and this will bring the IOC their revenue.
The way I see it this whole argument draws fabulous parallels to the mp3 and decss arguments, and yet again it is the forces of corporatism (the tv networks and sponsers) fighting against the new technology and its logical conclusions to try and protect their outdated revenue models. Once again they will discover that the horse has bolted and will need to refine their practices to deal with this (one Visor+camera+mobile phone = live webcam, hell you could also have a second mobile to dial a PC which encodes it to a live audio stream). I can understand that the IOC must make the noises to try and ensure they get the money they have been promised, but as long as the NBCs of this world are not covering every event locally live people will go elsewhere to see the events they want (soccer). Why not tell the sites that they can do anything they want as long as they:
- don't broadcast live (event must be over before coverage starts) if a licensed broadcaster is present
- Carry the official sponsor(s) of the events logo on any page which refers to the event or be sued (so you can avoid this is you make no money of the whole affair, but if you even have a banner on your page....)
Only losers are the TV companies who can lose advertising revenue directed at events they aren't even showing, or can lose revenue to people who are doing a better job of covering it online without live coverage.Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
From stunts like the Salt Lake City bribes, to that "Dream Team" basketball garbage of several years back, to the simple fact that the participants are "amateurs" only by dint of not being directly paid for their talents (yet), the Games have shifted from being a celebration of worldwide athleticism to a cash cow of Biblical proportions.
An acquaintance of mine could have been on the Canadian biathlon team-- but for one problem: money. You see, biathletes are (or at least were) required to spend a gawdsawful amount of money on specially designed rifles. He couldn't afford it (he was quoted around 20-25k CDN), and even if he could find a sponsor, he would have considered it unethical.
My solution to everything Olympic? Shut it down completely. Disband the IOC, and have a hypothetical third party purchase the Olympic trademarks (to prevent their use). Granted, at least a half-dozen competing "worldwide games" would sprout up immediately, but none of them could hide their pretense behind the skirts of Olympic tradition.
Five tons of flax.
They can still make money off of Internet coverage, though. Just get a few of those "official Olympic sponsors" to pay extra for the privilege of having their ads run in a frame when you're watching video.
On top of it all, the quality of Internet video isn't exactly giving TV a run for its money. Can you imagine watching a race, only to see "Net congestion, buffering" as the runners approach the finish line neck-and-neck? Funny, that doesn't usually happen with TV...
For more information, click here.
They would compartmentalize the Games into various sections (Track & Field, gymnastics, martial arts, etc) and auction off the broadcast rights seperately. By doing so they would be likely to get much higher overall revenue, and the Games would be covered much more completely and professionally. Just think of all the events that aren't going to be covered because there is an artificial limit on TV time.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Even "biowarfare", the latest buzzword law enforcement is using to scare us (before it was "The Bomb" - which had school children crouching under their desks to avoid "The Bomb".. really useful, that). Let's think about it for a moment:
There's alot of substances out there that can cause serious health problems. Many of them are in your house. Uncontrolled. This doesn't concern the FBI or law enforcement a bit. Take two common things you probably have in your laundry room - bleach and chlorine. Everyone knows what mixing those does. The FBI is woefully underpreparing for its latest "threat".
So, I think I've managed to demonstrate reasonable doubt over who our government's targets are. Now, let's take all the recent legislation and put it together. You'll probably notice a pattern: it's all targetted at high-tech groups.. groups, like us. Computers can be used to "terrorize" people? Take down wall street? Crash planes? We've heard it all. Yet, despite all the hype, none of these things have happened. Most errors out there are due to human stupidity - but rather than blame themselves, many organizations choose to use the hype to create their own escape goat. Enter, "The Hacker". A mystical entity nobody can see that seems to have no motivations for anything, yet goes out on wonton destruction. The image falls apart under any scrutiny, yet most people are willing to just accept it - who cares, just gimme my SUV and big screen TV.
Our government DOES have a target - it is the computer industry. They want to regulate it. By regulate, I mean control. They understand, as do we, that technological progress is the way the wealth of various countries are generated. I can't blame them for wanting to control it.. but I think it's misplaced. I recall the USSR had a similar method of control.. with disasterous results. The first step in that control, however, is to demonize the people and technology which will make it easy for people to swallow the lie that it is "for their protection".
Beware of any legislator who claims something is necessary "for your protection". Be very, very wary.
Let's also not forget that mercantilism eventually almost completely destroyed the Spanish economy through hyperinflation.
DNA just wants to be free...
For the 1992 Games in Barcelona, the IOC decreed that athletes from the breakaway nations of the former USSR were not in fact entitled to be recognized as such. They were forced to play for the "Commonwealth of Independent States". Just another throwback to the glorious days of Soviet domination and a slap in the face to athletes who were robbed of the opportunity to represent their native countries.
Why was this permitted to happen? Because the IOC is the epitome of a greedy, self-serving, multinational corporation.
For the link impaired, here is just a brief summary of the article:
These are the people who proclaim to represent the ideal of amateur sport: of fair play and of the innocence of honest competition.
These back-stabbing, power-hungry bastards.
Considering this, that the IOC is making another power grab and shutting out the Internet, is not surprising in the least.
--
Are you suggesting "regional encoded" Olympic events?
Ah well, the Olympics is built on a contradiction anyway: that the success of individuals in a country reflects the strength of that country as a whole. But tying geographic politics into athletics is about as arbitrary as you can get.
Read my brother's editorial on how there will be NO live coverage of the Olympics, and basically why we hate what NBC has done to the Games.
Do you want to see the Olympics? DON'T watch NBC.
I seem to remember the Olympics running pre-NBC coverage just fine. I got round-the-clock coverage of sports I wanted to see, and learned about sports I'd never heard of. Table Tennis, Team Handball, Fencing, the High Jump...all of that isn't going to be ANYWHERE on NBC.
Instead, I can look forward to seeing a whole week and a half of GYMNASTICS! WOO F*CKING HOO! In between, we'll show the Dream Team 70 beat every other team in the world with coaches alone, and some human interest stories about those beloved Gymnasts, and if the Women's Soccer doesn't lose, you can bet there will be a day or two of them.
When I was young, corporations ran HUGE promotions with the Olympics...but I still saw live coverage of sports. All the sports. In fact, I wish McDonalds would run sponsorship they way they ran it back in '88 and '84. They gave you these little scratch cards with prizes for Bronze, Silver and Gold. If the US won a medal in that event, you won the prize scratched off. You got some really random events like Women's Field Hockey and stuff, but you wanted that Big Mac, so you watched that event.
Now the only people I see getting excited about the Olympics are women. Because here are the events you will see on NBC, F*CKING GUARANTEED:
The Olympics I loved as a kid are gone. I have to derive my own enjoyment by looking at the box scores to find out who won, but now I'm not going to even be able to find out about those real time. "Pirate" the Olympics, go right f*cking ahead!
In addition, do you have any idea how ordinary people like you & me get tickets for the games? We'd would ostensibly send away money to reserve our tickets. If they're popular events, you won't get tickets, but get this, if you don't get a seat, THEY F*CKING KEEP YOUR MONEY ANYWAY!
My brother went to the games in Atlanta. He ran into people who lost upwards of $5,000 trying to get tickets for events that the sponsors had ALREADY FILLED, and they got JACK SHIT for $5,000.
This year, to make room for extra cameras, they booted another group of people from the opening cermonies...no refunds for them! What kind of f*cking scam is that?! Sell the seat 4 times over, don't give refunds, and award the seat to a sponsor. The IOOC and NBC win the gold again this year for screwing the people UP THE ASS!
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
The athletes where amatuer, the IOC never was!
"Do you think we could wipe out world hunger forever if scientists figured out how to make AOL's Free CD's edible?"-
Of course you're right about the IOC needing to finance themselves and the Olypics costing a lot of money, but over the last few years, the IOC have shown themselves to be such money grubbing whores that it's hard to take them seriously when they say all these altruistic things about "tradition".
-B
You can question my "logic" all you want, but I didn't write the book on time zones. If you built a house on the International Date Line, the kitchen and the living room could be 24 hours away. Of course, you'd need a system to deal with the water that would be constantly flooding your house, but that's another issue.
For more information, click here.
Hushmail was the first thought in my mind when I read Cringeley's article. I'd love to see an open source version of a mail reader, similar to Imp, using either SSL or a java applet with a reasonable encryption.
:-)
A better solution for major companies is to block external access to their internal e-mail, thus forcing their executives to use something other than kiosks to check in. There will be a worry of keystroke grabbers on the kiosks, and packet sniffers at various locations on that network. I would expect any smart company already forbids logging into the company network from the internet side, except for a slightly secured home machine. Certainly you wouldn't log into root on your home machine from an olympic kiosk, would you?
As for terrorists needing communications, they probably do. If it is a small group of inbred hicks from north carolina wanting to set off pipe bombs, they may be stupid enough to email each other with enough information for the FBI to pick them up after the fact. They might use cell phones, assuming they can't be tracked, or maybe even pay phones. The sad fact, for terrorists, is that the counter-terrorist parts of the FBI cover all forms of communication already.
Rumour has it the algerian terrorists in france a few years ago shunned all electronic communication, making it very difficult for the french to track them down. All communication between the cells was face to face, the only exception was a guy in Lille made a call on a payphone in his neigborhood to a payphone in Lyon, and that unwrapped the case. The french anti-terrorist investigators had to fall back on footwork and following leads the old fashioned way, which is why it took years to capture most of the terrorists.
the AC
(I just realised my post has enough keywords in it to trigger every echelon filter from here to langley
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
As much as it may pain download-happy net users, I think that the IOC is right to prevent websites from broadcasting the Olympics, and even more right to be worried about people sneaking in with digital cameras and mobile phones for live broadcasts.
Ohh, so just because the IOC wants a few more bucks I'm going to miss the TKD and Judo prelims and lower ranked bouts. They only show the final few rounds of the Martial arts competitions if even that much. I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing some of the people I've competed with fight in the Olympics this year, and If I miss them because of this I'm gonna be pissed.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
Forget digital cameras and cell phones for a minute -- let's just consider good ol' fashioned written word. How does the IOC expect to prevent journalists from ESPN.com from simply buying event tickets and running quick write-ups about them?
If score results and highlights are posted on a 15-minute delay, and television coverage is on a 15-hour delay, how much interest will US audiences still have? Most prime time Olympics viewers are white collar -- which means they will read the written web coverage at work.
The IOC can keep out cameras, if they handle events like a rock concert -- with bouncer/ushers roaming the stands. They can't really keep out cell phones, though. How tough would web-based radio coverage be? A lapel-mounted mic to a cell phone dialed into an office across town could record the entirety of an event without trouble.
What is the legal ground for preventing this? Are they expecting to put a fair-use agreement on the back of every ticket? What is Australian law on freedom of the press?
The irony is that if they *would* formulate agreements with 'net sites, then they could contractually limit their actions. But by refusing outright to grant them press privledges, they have no rights to limit anything they do! I hope some people get in there and cover it just out of spite.
I can understand the IOC wanting to protect their coverage -- the amazing part is that they are failing to do EXACTLY THAT!
the olympics used to be for the amateur. then "sports superstars" starting showing up like the "NBA Dreamteam". how ridiculous. now the independent internet media groups cant even cover something that is supposed to be for the world. very sad.
"it could just be the midgets. You've got to be careful with midgets in Spandex." --Jamie Richardson
The IOC could have made millions allowing Internet sites like ESPN.com and Sportsline to buy rights to deliver content from the Olympics. They even refused to allow radio play-by-play coverage! Instead, they insist that NBC is the only authorized provider for the Olympics, shutting out many other partners.
I can't wait for the wonderful live-on-tape NBC coverage, like when they showed Kerri Strug's winning vault in '96 (in ATLANTA, in the SAME FRIGGIN TIME ZONE as New York) on tape. Meanwhile, Kerri was being interviewed on Larry King Live _before_ viewers even saw her vault on TV.
For more information, click here.
-"I'm sorry sir but you can't bring that handy cam in here."
-"But my son/daughter is competing!"
When you think about carefully, the Olympics rests upon a huge infrastructure, and this, unsuprisingly enough, costs a lot of money. How else are they going to obtain this money without licensing and sponsership deals with major corporations? Selling drugs? Running arms?
I wonder how the columbian olympic committee fundraises?
The Olympics is the greatest sporting event in the world, and since it's only once every 4 years anyway I don't think it's unfair of the IOC to use it finance themselves. After all, its for the good of every country in the world that competes in the Olympics.
Yeah the IOC and Wan Antonio Samaranch, use it to fund thier jet setting lifestyles. They take bribes from whomever they can get them from, and live like kings. All for the greater glory of amature sport. Denver was just the tip of the iceberg, and you are naive to think that this event does good for every country. This event does good for some (small) number of individuals, who take bribes, get contracts, or get enough fame so that the local banana dictator doesn't decide to shoot them tomorrow. What about all the people who go home as failures to the scourge of thier local despot.
As for how often the olympics are, well they used to be both winter and summer games the same year, then they got moved to two years offset, so that the IOC could make more money. Further, if someone rips you off once every four years, then they're still ripping you off (see below).
Unfortunately what with the attitude of most /.ers that everything should be "free" and online, I'm sure that there'll be
attmepts to get pirate coverage, sneak people in and the like. I wish they wouldn't - it's just selfish to think about
yourself before an event that brings the whole world together.
You'll be watching the synchronized swimming, and the trampolining right?... I am sick and tired of hearing that every /. is out to steal every piece of content in existance. The fact is that the Olympics in thier current form serve as a vehicle for the IOC and everyone on down to get richer. IOC gets gifts, lifestyle, etc. Companies, get advertising, prestige. Athletes, get fame and contracts. Now, that money has to come form somewhere. In the end that money comes from the consumer/tax payer. This ends up being transfered to me as either increased product cost, to recoup advertising, or as crappy service (a la NBC -will someone please take bob costas out back and put him out of the world's collective misery). So, first off, I'm already paying for all this crap if I like it or not. Second, if you want noone to see the games, and you to control their distibution, hold them at the bottom of the nutrino observatory (bottom of a mine shaft). Practically speaking either the olympics, and the world cup are not held in asia/ociania untill the local markets for sport make the US and europe irrelevant, or the people involved will agree that the scores have to be presented in realtime. How are you going to stop the parent of an athlete from putting up thier home video on a website for thier friends to see? This is the result of the low cost of telecoms, not the greed of /.ers.
--locust
Ohh, so just because the IOC wants a few more bucks I'm going to miss the TKD and Judo prelims and lower ranked bouts. They only show the final few rounds of the Martial arts competitions if even that much. I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing some of the people I've competed with fight in the Olympics this year, and If I miss them because of this I'm gonna be pissed.
Kintanon
A-flonqing-men!
I hold a belt in TKD (black stripe) and I _REALLY_ would love to see the Olympic TKD competiton.
But I won't. Because it's not swimming, it's not track-and-field, and it's not gymnastics.
And I'm irritated highly. Probably going to give the entire Olympics a miss because of it.
I'd also love to see the fencing bouts. Or Olympic Judo. Won't see either one.
*sigh*
Redhawk
I've been involved in a bit of sports reporting, and this doesn't surprise me in the least.
First of all, no matter what the sport is, video is video, and the rights to transmit it are sold, period. Doesn't matter how it's distributed, if you're not a TV licensee, you're not allowed to do video. Some sports allow extraneous video to news outlets, like locker-room press conferences and pre-gmae stuff. But once the event starts, only the licensed video is shot. The NFL has been allowing local sports reporters to tape segments on the sidelines during the games, but that's the only exception that comes to mind.
Traditionally, the threshhold for getting media credentials was whether you had a publication or not. The cost of printing and distribution was enough of a barrier to separate the real reporters from the wannabes.
But since the 'net has come to prominence, it's lowered those barriers so much that event officials are swamped with requests. And the way they usually deal iwth it is to simply refuse credentials to all online organizations. Indeed, I've seen situations where we had been credentialled for years, but once the 'net became a buzzword, we were shut out, or at least had to remind the organizers that we had been there all along.
It also gets sticky when you realize that an online reporter can post reports before the event is over, something that print journalists couldn't do. Even a text report during the game blows their mind, since it treads on those valuable broadcast rights. One organizer offered us credentials with the provision that we would refrain from posting any reports until after midnight. When we said no thanks, they offered to sell us broadcast rights.
Not to say that this is all wrong, either; no event organizer can afford to provide press facilities for every bozo with a web site, and the lines between broadcast and 'netcast are indeed quite blurry. It's just one of the curiosities of the way the 'net has changed things. By lowering the barriers to entry, it has increased the number of "journalists" to such an extent that nobody really knows which ones have a legitimate readership.
Yes it does - if you do not have legal rights to that information, you have no right to share it.
--
Did you know that there's such a thing as the International Date Line? The same line that prevents you from going back in time by flying faster than the Earth's rotation also plays an important role in the usage of time zones. Take New York time and add 15 hours, and you get Australia time. (11:16 AM Thu -> 2:16 AM Fri, for example) Take New York time and subtract nine hours, and you get 11:16 AM Thu -> 2:16 AM Thu. Oh, and then account for the International Date Line. Whoops. That's 15 hours.
Sorry, thanks for playing.
For more information, click here.
On-line sports journalists have always had difficulty getting taken seriously by some organizations. The NCAA (at this year's Final Four) in particular has been less than supportive of this new medium for getting sports news and information out to a waiting audience. A nice summary of the issues involved can be found here
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more