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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."
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Its a good point, and you're correct that Canadian law *should* in theory have allowed this. If you want an example of what happens in practice though, check out the "icravetv.com" story and the resulting effect...
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172941.html
Once again, it doesn't matter who's right... it matters who has more money. As long as you can buy... I mean *lobby* the CRTC and/or a good number of MPs, you can just get the offending law changed.
The Olympics are nothing more than a greed fest, as this little tidbit from the featured article points out:
'Nuff said.
Well, of course. This is slashdot. We probably were talking about it yesterday.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
The old "amateurs only" thing was so only the idle wealthy (or those who had wealthy benefactors) could participate. Now, the NBA players can participate, too!
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Few people (read: International Olympic Committee) realize the power of the net. Those that do are often terriffied of it. The multi-million dollar corporations are as likely to be scared of internet broadcasts of the olympics as the IOC and justifiably so. The Olympics mean $$$$$$ and the threat of the net taking away money from the IOC and the television industry is real and growing everyday.
Eventually I believe all broadcasts of any kind (be it data, voice, radio, TV, etc.) will be linked to the net and this will disappear. As televisions and computers merge (a not-too-distant possibility in many wealthier households) television and internet companies will merge. We've already seen that with AOL/Time Warner haven't we?
When ABC, CBS, BBc, etc. begin to merge with broadband vendors, we'll see internet TV replace mainstream TV, but untill then, people with money will fight to keep the little man (in this case the net), out of his business.
Slackware forever. Honestly, what else would you trust when it absolutely positively has to be stable, secure, and easy
Then you would see the Olympics for what it really is.
The investors would not like that.
.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.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Most of it revolved around some sort bizarre Ice Capades show starring "The Child of Light."
I didn't know that Belgarion could ice skate!!!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
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.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Actually that's because every year, NBC simply decides that you only REALLY want to see any sport where Americans will probably (99.9% chance) get a medal, preferrably a gold.
Happily for you, this year an American seems to have a good chance at a biathalon medal, possibly a gold. So that means that most likley they will be broadcasting the biathalon to a much greater extent - or at least his portion of it. They had a longish ad about it last night after the opening ceremony which seems to indicate a good chance at least of some coverege.
Probably the coverage will be fairly short, but hopefully you'll see SOMETHING.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
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
What's a sig?
Actually, that's not really true, especially with regard to conflict between states. The idea that wars stopped for the ancient games is shown by historian Harvey Abrams by to be a modern misunderstanding.