Net Still Not At Olympics

angkor writes "It's two years later and the net is still largely shut out of the Olympics It seems like we were talking about this in relation to the last Olympics yesterday."

Comments

Hypocritical bullshit

[pongo000]

The Olympics are a disgusting affair in which a small group of ultra-rich IOC committee members further engorge themselves by exploiting the trademark laws to the extent that they, and they alone, control access to the games. Why is this hypocritical? Because these old-geezer fat cats profit from what is supposed to be an "amateur" competition. Yeah, you can argue that the idea of "amateurism" has gone out the door now that pros are allowed to play, but there are still some Olympic sports which strive to uphold the idea that the Olympics should be a showcase for up and coming talent, not a parading ground for well-paid athletes stealing the spotlight from those who really deserve it.

The Olympics are nothing more than a greed fest, as this little tidbit from the featured article points out:

But this year,Olympic officials are allowing limited live Web broadcasts in a test to see whether technology can restrict access to video geographically.

'Nuff said.

Value of Content

[Alien54]

The value of content probably lies in it being unique. Artist peformances, sporting events, that sort of think.

.News is getting more generic. For example there is News Blaster, a bot that uses AI to generate news summaries based analysis of stories over several days. It is actually semi decent, and better then at least half the writers out there.

The end result is to devalue local writers and generic content. having something like this for Slash would probably inprove content no end.

This trend has been going on for years, and of cours the IOC is being conservative with broadcasts, since these make up the majority of their income. Why should they give away their bread and butter free?

Personally I would not mind if they made things like this available online a week after the fact. Same thing for other venues, like court trials, etc. Then folks will be able to see it if they want, but there is no conflict with the interests of the broadcasters. Deals could be made.

There's a good reason for that

[WIAKywbfatw]

Ever seen footage of how Hitler turned the 1936 Summer Games in Munich into a Nazi three-ring circus? How many of the athletes from foreign nations were forced to acknowledge the Fuhrer with Nazi salutes? Not exactly the Olympic movement's finest hour.

Perhaps you would be happy for the Stars and Stripes to be plastered all over this year's Winter Games, but would you be so happy if China was to push its political agenda just as vigorously when they host the Summer Games in 2008?

No, I didn't think so.

I can't believe the /. crowd...

[Jayde Stargunner]

Sure, the IOC is evil. Nike and Bud constantly advertising is evil. There are a lot of things about the way the Olympics are run that is evil.

But, seriously folks... Have some respect here. The Olympics are a wonderful event--and probably the crowning moment of many of the copetitors lives, no matter if the win anything or not.

That fact that thousands of athletes are coming together from a plethora of countries to compete in a fair, civil way is definitely no small feat. Not to mention that the people competeing in the Olymipics, by and large, have trained for most of their life to get there.

Just because they won't allow webcams and the IOC takes bribes, somehow "the Olympics suck"?! Give me a break. Forget about sticking it to "the man" for a moment, and enjoy what is a wonderful event that millions of people worldwide cherish for *the event itself*. Nobody cares about the IOC, or the Nike commercials. I watch the Olympics because of the competition and spirt of the games--that's all.

Of course...since I'm not bitching about something or another, I'm sure I'll get modded down for being "Offtopic" or something. Feh.

-Jayde