Olympians Banned From Blogging

nodwick writes "CNN reports that in a bid to protect its lucrative media contracts, the IOC is barring competitors, coaches, and support personnel from writing firsthand accounts of their Olympic experience, on the web or in print, for the duration of the Games. Nor are they allowed to ever post photographs or movies that they've taken, including media of themselves, even after the Games are finished. They've threatened to disqualify anyone that violates their restrictions and sue them for monetary damages. Looks like an effort to clamp down on grassroots, word-of-mouth publicity for the Olympics -- good thing they're not having any problems selling tickets anyways, eh?"

Comments

What Idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Why on earth would you want to prevent these people from telling there stories? I know that some of the challenges they go through to get there and during the games, would be well worth sharing with others. Guess the Games have become about money too now.

Re:What Idiots

[jburroug]

Because if they allowed the Olympians to share their personal stories directly with their fans online like this then NBC woudln't have any fresh material for the fluff pieces they use as filler when non-U.S. athletes are competing.

Think about it, that would deprive NBC of like, half it's Olympic broadcast content.

*sigh*

[hot_Karls_bad_cavern]

"....that in a bid to protect its lucrative media contracts, the IOC is barring..."

...and i stopped reading. i'm not going to rant about the legacy of the games or this and that...i'm just going to say: keep 'em, keep the money, keep your coverage, keep the contracts and consider me disgusted.

Re:*sigh*

[garcia]

You mean you aren't impressed with the coverage? I am. I haven't seen anything other than swimming, gymnastics, or beach volleyball. Isn't that all that's on the Olympics anyway?

Now for my rant about a specific Olympian and the media's quest to make the rest of us idolize him. Mind you, I was a swimmer (not at the international level though), and I always wanted to see more coverage of swimming. Problem with this year is the over-hype of that immature little prick that makes entirely too much money.

So we have a 19 year old that set his first cocky record at 15 years and 9 months (youngest male ever in swimming and probably other sports). He got a huge contract from Visa but he had to forego his college elligibility to compete for money. He never grew up and he has a big mouth. The media helps his bad attitude by telling everyone he could break Spitz's record. He claims he only wanted one gold but I saw his cocky little smile showing that he wanted MONEY.

If the IOC wants to make some fucking rules why not make rules banning professionals from competing? Then we can end this coverage of how bad the NBA stars suck at playing a TEAM SPORT and how Michael Phelps didn't make Spitz's record (BTW Spitz did them all in WR time).

I'm more disgusted in hype than stupid IOC rules.

How pathetic of Big Media

[twitter]

Don't these people have any confidence in the superiority of their skills, equipment and planning? How sorry can they get?

If I'm interested in a sport, I will want to see the full quality version. Sure, I'd love to read a blog or two, but what I'm really interested in is the event itself and I'll figure a way around M$NBC's stupid internet black out to get it.

If I were an athlete, I'd tell the IOC to shove it just as soon as my event was over and post whatever I wanted my family and friends to see.

Super Easy Solution!!

[MrNally]

All this will take to reverse is one gold medalist posting a bunch of photos and movies their parents took of them.

It doesn't matter what any court anywhere would say, they would be so pressured by public opinion over the matter that this wouldn't last.

Just imagine if they tried to not let them compete, or take away a medal or something.

Case closed.

Re:One more reason...

[chris_mahan]

You know who's pissed off? The Nepalese communist rebels. They've been blockading the capital Katmandu now for 2 days and no mention of it in the news. Even the 1.5 million people in the city don't find it amusing, and food prices are climbing steadily.

Of course, the 16 year old from texas who can jump gets the coverage.

I use my TV as a viewing device for my DVD player.

Container becomes Content

[crucini]

Here are three trends:

1. Universities were originally mere facilities in which learned professors could teach. The professor was the drawing power, and could teach in a self-rented hall or in the College. Gradually, the University has swollen in cost and power until it overshadows the professors. The University makes lots of rules to govern professors and students, and any one professor is disposable. Lately universities have been demanding ownership of online lecture produced by professors, so they can play them over and over, extracting revenue.
   
2. Software companies own the copyright to code written by their employees. Increasingly, they even own patents. So the actually creative people are legally obstructed, but the mere shell, which produces nothing in itself, is increasingly powerful. We are approaching the point where there's no value in being a programmer, because the only value is in owning the rights that enable a certain application.
   
3. The Olympics is ostensibly centered on the athletes. But more and more news stories illuminate the fact that the Olympics is a very powerful organization that can dictate terms to athletes. Although the athletes create all the value here, they own nothing.
   

These professors, programmers and athletes get a small share of the value they create. Most of the value goes to those who have cleverly extended the "container" and claim the individual's achievement in the name of the container.

It is an error to attribute the individual's achievement to the container in which he works.