Slashdot Mirror
Businesses To Be Censored on Use of Olympics
pitpe writes "The BBC reports that the proposed London 2012 Olympics Bill bans the use of words related to the Olympics by non-sponsors, including 'Olympic', '2012', 'gold', 'summer' and 'games', amongst others. The bill is aimed at
ensuring corporate sponsors, who have provided £790m of the IOC's £2.25bn marketing revenue over the last four years, will not be deterred by 'ambush marketing' where rivals to the official sponsors try to take advantage, but businesses warn it could make it technically illegal for pubs to use chalkboards to flag up coverage of the Games." From the article: "The London 2012 website has already posted a warning listing a string of Olympic-related words and images that are off limits to all but official sponsors. And advertisers' representatives have criticised the new Olympics bill because they believe it will make it almost impossible for most companies to even acknowledge that the Games are happening without getting into trouble. "
There must be at least one brewer that's planning on putting up the cash to be an official sponsor, and if not, there should be. All they need to do is print signs which are then distributed to pubs that sell their beer that have their brand, the Olympic brand (authorized because they paid), and say that the games can be viewed here. The big American brewers do this all the time for big events...
-JMP
Prime Minister Tony Blair passionately, though unintelligibly, defended the controversial law, saying that "t[h]e I[O]C s [h]ave [it] [q]uite cl[ea]r that [o]ur role [is] [t]o def[en]d the i[n]ve[stm]en[t]s of [l]egiti[mat]e [adve]rti[s]er[s]" who have signed on with the IOC.
Blair also pointed to the limited timeframe of the bill, which only allows surveillance during a two-year period before and after the bill, and said that this showed that public opinion had been considered strongly during the formulation period. "[Wh]at m[or]e [d]o th[ey] wa[nt]?" he asked rhetorically
Free Software Foundation founder and figurehead Richard M. Stallman was unavailable comment. A source close to the activist said that "he's working on renaming GCC in Cyrillic".
Carousel is a lie!
...will begin sometime between 2011 and 2013.
They won't allow The Olympic Hopefuls to use Olympic in their name either. It's amazing that this crap was written in to law. Now the band has to change to "The Hopefuls".
Seriously, I love how they were given powers over a word that was around LONG before "The Games" were.
What a bunch of shit.
That would be hard on a lot of businesses... Calendar makers, for instance :-)
Does this extend to mean that only the sponsoring news organizations can report on olympic news. Sounds tricky.
Coming soon to your bittorrent sites. I wonder how the Olympics will handle torrents of their events. DMCA?
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
And the word summer NEVER comes up in normal conversation. Nor does the word 2012 come up either...
I can see it now
Tom: "Hey, I can't wait till the summer of 2012 becau--"
Trademark Police: "Stop right there, infringer!"
Tom: "I didn't do anything wrong!"
Trademark Police: "According to this law you did. Those words are trademarked."
Tom: "How the hell did they trademark a year and a season?!"
Pitiful
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
Thank heavens the 1st Amendment prohibits this type of corporate welfare in the USA.
...a greak year for geeks everywhere to go and visit Paris.
Beep beep.
My chalk board would be like this:
"This pub does not show the London 2012 Olympic Summer Games on TV."
bash$
It was bad enough when a certain network gained exclusive broadcast in the US rights and the BBC World Service had to black out their stream every time there was any mention of the Olympic games. This is ridiculous.
Yeah? If by "engaging in the unauthorised use of the Olympic Marks" you mean by using them at all, how about you respect the people, and not make such fuchking unreasoanble demands in the first place?
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
The IOC has always been very vigorous in defending the branding rights to the games. They even tried to get the Special Olympics to change before the public backlash made them decide to change their minds.
Think about it. If you're Coca-Cola (or some other huge multinational) that's spending 8-9 figures to be the "official whatever of the Olympics", you're going to want to be pretty sure that your competitor isn't going to just say the same thing unofficially. Pretty sure in this case means contractual language with teeth. Hence, the IOC turning around and doing the same thing.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I wish i had the funds to start a true olympic games. A nice non-profit event. Maybe even center ed around the athletes. What we have currently just hurts my head. Spectators aren't allowed to drink the wrong drink or wear a shirt with a non-sponser on it. I feel kinda sick.
See 36 USC 220506... the US has had the same law for a long time. The Olympic commitee has even tried to be quite heavy-handed about it, on more than one occasion.
Get Your Official Olympically Sponsored Calendar here!
I am unamerican, and proud of it!
So established businesses in London, who have contributed tax dollars for years to the city do not get to benefit from the event being there. The whole reason to have the games in London is so that the IOC can profit? Are businesses that do not sponsor the Olympics banned from doing business with people who show up for the games?
It won't be long until athletes are winning bronze, silver and gold coke cans.
http://www.kubuntu.org/
When the Olympics were in Atlanta back in 1996, the press (much of it foreign) lambasted the U.S. and ACOG (Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games) for all of the corporate advertising. London will be no different as far as the omnipresent billboards, electronic displays, banners, etc.
What would make infinitely more sense is if sponsors got to use the Olympic logo (and perhaps other olympic-related logos "team GB"? ) and non-sponsors don't.
Or is there already such a provision, and the sponsors want even more? If so, that's fucking pathetic.
There are 11 types of people. Those who understand binary, those who don't and those who are sick of this lame joke.
it will make it almost impossible for most companies to even acknowledge that the Games are happening
So we will not hear about these games?
That is good news for me. Maybe this time we'll be able to continue with our lives without being constantly invaded by this Olympics craziness...
Official sponsors of the Super Bowl get to actually use the words "Super Bowl" in their ads or on their packaging. Everyone else who wants to sell TVs or potato chips or beer for the game usually use the phrase "the big game" since they can't use the SB word...
"This? I can make a hat, I can make a brooch, I can make a pterodactyl..."
An ungodly heap of money trumps your rights.
An ungodly heap of money trumps common sense.
Come to thing of it,
an ungodly heap of money trumps everything.
Why are you so surprised?
'But the new bill will make it illegal to combine words like "games", "medals", "gold", "2012", "sponsor" or "summer" in any form of advertising.'
Where the hell do they get off selling "Summer 2012" to some multinational corporation like the IOC? Those are English words, and this is England. Isn't this kind of thing the reason the English keep the Queen around? Isn't it "the Queen's English"? Is she getting some kind of kickback, which requires her to sell out her subjects? Get Elizabeth in here, Slashdot wants to talk with her.
--
make install -not war
How about we just cut the crap and stop trying to stop people from simply living. This is common sense; why are we letting corporate sponsors yet again judge where we can use common words in every day life because they're deemed competitive or inapprpriate? I don't even mean the words like "summer" or "games". If I want to throw up a sign that celebrates the Olympics, I should be able to for whatever reason.
Maybe we can start a new trend of just selling our human rights for profit! Because right now they're just being stolen.
Olympork, right?
About a year back there was something like this going on in Vancouver, with alot of controversy. There was a man who owned a restaurant called "The Olympic" or something along those lines. The restaurant was around for 30+ years, and yet he still had to change the name of it. Although I understand the basis for these sorts of laws, sometimes it is a bit extreme. It should be restricted to some LOGICAL extent.
The international athletic event that takes place where city officials are willing to provide the biggest bribes to the committee is now in London.
or
The international athletic event where people from all countries use performance-enhancing drugs is now in London (and no it's not the Tour de France).
"And advertisers' representatives have criticised the new Olympics bill because they believe it will make it almost impossible for most companies to even acknowledge that the Games are happening without getting into trouble."
Good. It's time to kill of the olympics.
A event like this only means something when the organization running it isn't corrupt from top to bottom. They have the nerve to tell ticket holders that "You can't drink Dr. Pepper here, but you can buy a $20 can of Coke! Coke is it!". The "Olympic Village" is now corporate-sponsored Sodom and Gomorrah. Home improvement companies spend millions on advertisements to say that they are proud to support their olympians ("You've got no marketable skills outside of athletics, so as long as you work 9-to-5 for minimum wage, we've got your back!").... I'm absolutley not surprised to see London sell themselves out by grabbing the Olympic bid.
Now, if nobody CAN mention the Olympics, perhaps they'll just go away. We'll all be better off for it.
For one, there are geographical features which have priority over copyrights, I am currently a resident of the Olympic pennisula, over here in the states. Greece also might have a problem, since they own they have good ol' Mount Olympus; Not to mention the ancient pantheon of Olympic gods. As to holding rights to 'gold', 'silver', 'bronze'... can I copyright 'steel', 'oxygen', 'water' and 'copyright'? And they want the copyright to a NUMBER!?!? I thought that sports events broadcasts were tight ("All pictures, descriptions, and accounts of the game...") but I can't even say the yeay unless I pay to be an IOC sponsor? Nobody, but nobody, has a legitimate claim to that. I might watch the games, but I now have respect only for the athletes- the games themselves have proven holllow.
I think it's appalling that they are censoring words related to the....um...you know, the international event where people play sport against each other and...eh...they get shiny metal necklaces when they win, with go...oops...yellow being the best color to get. Bah.
I couldn't be happier. The more insane and over-the-top this copyright/trademark/patent idiocy gets, the sooner it will be over. And this bill brings us all one step closer to that day.
Boycott everything - they're all trying to fuck you one way or another
"...We dive 2012 meters to where the Olymipc, the sister ship to the titanic, lays. Its luxurious interiors feature gold railings and marble floors. The shuffleboard deck, once used for games, is a feature of the ship..."
A morning without coffee is like something without something else.
A large number of the pubs are owned by breweries in the UK. Only the pubs owned by the sponsor, or free houses not beholden to a chain, could use this approach.
As I read TFA, I cannot help but think you Europeans have surpassed the USA in 'slim-ness'. You Europeans won't even be able to use the words "summer", "gold" or "games"! Damn! That is pretty bad! So umm, how exactly will you Europeans describe the period of the year where it is warmer and the Earth is farther from the Sun? Did you get a new code-word to use until after 2012? What about the word "games"? What will European kids call what they play? What will all the home-boyz call those metal teeth they have if they can't say gold? Will "bling" still be in style in 2010 + 2?
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
What these great legal and business minds don't seem to understand is the spirit of the games.
Sacrifice some oxen and play ball.
All a pub has to do to get around this type of stupididty is use a chalkboard with a logo from some beer company that is an official sponsor. I'm sure there will be plenty of these made available for free to pubs with such a desire.
2112...
could be a great yerar for Rush to play at Olympics !
-- Sam
No one really likes the ******** anyway. When was the last time you enjoyed watching one of the events, or rather, were allowed to enjoy the event without minutely interruptions from sponsors and sponsored talking heads. The events aren't that exciting in general anyway (POWER WALKING!).
Maybe in 20** when a pub isn't allowed to say they're showing the ***** without paying a million dollar licensing fee, they'll decide to just not show them. And no one will miss them.
when I find myself you'll be the first to know.
Wow, I didn't know you could copyright, trademark, or otherwise reserve numbers! Does that apply to just the number 2012 (whoops... I used it!), or does it reach all it's factors and multiples? I can see the headlines now: "New Theorem Cannot Be Proven Without Infringing Upon Copyright Laws", and desperate pleas by mathematicians to raise the funds to use the numbers they need! I'd better hurry up and reserve 1337 so no one else can use it! Ever!
The famous and influential cruicible of improvisation in Chicago, Improv Olympic, had to change it's name to "IO" after Charna Halpern received a letter from the U.S. Olympic Committee ordering her to drop "Olympic" from the company name.
Photography, technology, and my dog Scout - http://mattstratton.com
Is it just me, or is this past the point of even remote sanity? I mean, intellectual property laws have been getting crazier and crazier, but... getting to the point where you're not allowed to say certain WORDS because someone else "owns" them?
Uh..
How the HECK do you justify any sort of legal backing for that? None of the people with exclusive rights to the words in question invented such words. There are SURE as heck a lot of examples of prior art. It's not as if they made up some NEW words, and said they were off limits. That would be (slightly) more resonable. But you can't just take a chunk of an already existing language, and reserve certain words in an attempt to give a financial advantage to certain companies.
Er. Ok, I guess in UK you can. (And I have no doubt that such a thing could happen here in the US as well.)
But you SHOULDN'T be able to. To me, this is a very loud and clear sign that something in our system is kinda broke.
Now taking room reservations for that athletic thingy happening between 2011 and 2013 in the big English town that sold their bridge to some podunk Arizona town. Three levels to choose from: Platinumy, Titaniumy, and Irony from only $290.oo per night.
:)
Contact:
'Not Fall, Not Winter, Not Spring' Cottages
2433 W 'Kinda yellowish stuff' Blvd
That big city from Above
England
Aye, that makes great ad copy what's the problem
... our time traveling friend John Titor said there won't be Olympics after 2004 (dunno if this counts for the '06 winter olympics or not) due to too much conflict over the entire thing. It isn't until 2036 until they try and start it all back up again. I can't wait for this civil war to start, I'm gonna quit my job and head to the hills. I've learned to embrace his prophecy and understand the true meaning of life thanks to Titor.
For those who don't know about John Titor
P.S. Anyone know where I can find that video of him traveling time in his car when he goes BACK TO THE FUTURE?
Sig: I stole this sig.
I'm in big trouble now.
But seriously, this is kind of ridiculous. I am now no longer allowed to post on a blog "I hope to be an Olympian in the London 2012 Olympic games."? (If you say it only applies to businesses, like the headline says, check the London2012.com Olympic Marks guidelines. That definitely sounds like it applies to anybody.) That's a little extreme. If they can do that, I want a law saying that nobody can say 'masterzora' or any derivative thereof unless they give me lots of money. I mean, if they can do it, I can, right?
Remember, open source is free as in speech, not free as in bear.
Refuse to talk about, or even acknowledge the existence of the olympics.
Commercial speech---who needs it anyway?
Great, now not only do I have to pay for us to host this bloody circus out of my tax money but they can ban me from speaking the words "summer 2012" too. Nice.
The olympics has become nothing more than another oppurtunity for business to get their snouts in the trough, the public funds some pointless building program for massive sports venues that will never be used again and the only ones to benifit are the sponsors and the contractors.
Any of the old olympic values are long gone and forgotten anyway, it's all about cash.
Spend the money that will be spent on the Olympics bringing some genuinely usefull redevelopment to east london that will actually benifit people, not on this pointless joke.
"Today is July 1, the year before 2013, and boy is it hot on this hot season-after-spring day. The kids are all in the house playing video entertainment and someone got a metallic-personal-achievement-notation. Now a word from the people who advertise thus bringing in revenue so this program doesn't go off the air."
Give me a break.
They can kiss my coloured ring sporting festival in seven years time.
Reliable, Great Value Hosting: $7.95/mo 2.4G/120G
Bill Gates releases Microsoft Windows 2012 Gold Editiob
What is 1000 + 1012 in England?
BANNED IN THE UK!
computerdude33's stuff: My blog of wonder.
You can support the 2012 Games by...
A more accurate way of putting it would be "You are legally obliged to support the 2012 Games by...".
The /. and the BBC articles are quite misleading. The proposed Law for the Olymp*c G*mes only amends the current "Olympic Symbol etc. (Protection) Act 1995"
By the way, this 1995 law really has a funny name...
This is downright ridiclous. Everyone in the UK (like myself) should buy a plain white T-shirt and draw the Olympic rings on it then write all these words over it and wear them in London around the Olympics. If enough people did it, it'd show off the point of how ridiclous this law is.
I like muppets.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Canada is doing the same think. A local business in Vancouver, around for a decade (and long before the games were coming near here) was attacked by the olympic committee over having the olympic rings logo over the"Olympic Pizza" restaurant.
It's big-business greed at it's very best, especially since the coming of the olympics will ensure that the Whistler skihill will be inaccessible to anybody but the rich, as the cost of attending the olympics is beyond many average folk, and the rates in the area are already skyrocketing in anticipation of the games.
Olympics were around long before trademarks, and used to be for the people... now they're only for big-business and rich people, go figure.
I'm afraid you're still using the words in an advertisement of sorts. How about:
"This pub shows the internationally famous competetive events based on body movements on TV."
Of course the sentence is now unreadable to most and has ambiguities (for example, some people may think of some other internationally famous event where people dance whilst on top of a TV set and mix the two up).
Yes, I realize this was a joke, and I laughed out loud when I read it, but as someone who spends an inordinate amount of his life racing bicycles, I felt the need to comment:
Bicycle racing is drug-tested to absolutely stupid levels. In general, every day in the Tour, the overall winners are tested, the winner of the stage is tested, and people who the Tour organizers don't like are tested.
I would be absolutely floored if a majority of people in the Tour de France are using performance-enhancing drugs.
Now track and field competitions on the other hand ...
In soviet russia, You ask not what country do for you, but what you do for country!
Oh wait...
I haven't been interested in the games since about 1984. I can't imagine a reason for wanting to attend in person. Overpriced tickets, hotels, food, everything. It would take two or three years of normal "vacation" budget to go to just part of an olymic games. They have become the "Jurassic Park" of enntertainment - they can charge anything they want, and do. And they don't even have a coupon day.
I'd like to see everyone just ignore them. Unless I hear that the Swedish platform diver loses her bathing suit top and its caught on the underwater film camera, I doubt I'll even be interested much in the results, much less the actual telecast. (btw - that happened in 1984, and the vcr happened to be running. For a lad at the tender age of 15, it was a good reason to watch the olympics.)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Hmmm. So there won't be any video games released in 2012? We can't fill in the entire date that year when we write cheques to pay bills? And there will only be three seasons to talk about?
Wake up. It's England.
Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
the No-Corporate-Assholes-Allowed games.
(What do you mean, NCAA is already taken?? What the hell does that stand for? You sure you don't mean NCSA??)
The Greek games began in 776 BC as a competition among amateur athletes from the different city-states. The purpose was to bring the citizens of the rival cities together in an apolitical gathering, which would reduce squabbling and develop a larger sense of community.
The rising merchant class in those cities subsequently inverted their purpose by introducing the idea of city rivalry into the games. The city-states then began subsidizing their athletes indirectly and often invisibly. The amateur athletes were soon living a parady of amateurism. They had careers and future income riding on the competition. Winners became heroes, that is to say political heroes. They were fed at the cost of the state for the rest of their lives.
Subtle corruption gradually turned into rank dishonesty. Athletes were eventually bribed to lose. In AD 395 the games were abolished because they had become a parody of the amateur idea, a focus for corruption and a source for political rivalry.
The Olympic Games were re-established in 1896 as a competition among amateur athletes. One of the purposes was to bring citizens of rival countries together in an apolitical gathering. What the Greeks managed to do in 1170 years, we have done in less than 100.
- John Ralston Saul
IOC sues Slashdot and all members who have mentioned the word "Olympics" in this post...
eTrade SUCKS
Does anyone have a list of sponsors so we can know who not to purchase goods and servces from?
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
I say this story calls for the foot, not censorman. Banning the use of words related to the [thing] because it might hurt those buying ads around [time] in [place]? That's gotta be the third stupidist thing I've heard today, and I've been reading the internet all day.
If it actually flies I'd like to see people talking in terms of "the thing at the place" all the time . . . . .
The "2012 Olympic gold summer games" can suck my sweet ass, and I'll be damned if I watch one minute of their commercial events or give one revenue dollar to their sponsors.
2012 Olympic gold summer games
2012 Olympic gold summer games
2012 Olympic gold summer games
2012 Olympic gold summer games
2012 Olympic gold summer games
Think about it. Stores all over the country will have signs saying things like: "Get The Goods on a Barely Legal Date!", "Banned Substances at Discount Prices!" and "We Can't Say What We're Selling, but Come In And Get Some!"
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)
Who cares about this crap anymore?
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Its amazing in my opinion how just about everything, not just natural resources like water, rivers, perhaps even air in the future, are just getting owned / regulared and "privatized". Meaning something that once was public and beloging to all for free - a God given right, gets just snatched by some egocentric insecure individuals that believe money is the only important thing on the planet.
:/
The Olympics is no exception. Its supposed to represent the unity of mankind through a sporting event. Now somebody has the "rights" to it. Its now just another business for milking the population of their hard earned money. A bill such as this should never be passed - its absurd.
Its only natural and expected that the companies that are investing in the games should get some sort of protection - but it should be intelligent protection, which, IMHO means one that protects not just those companies, but the public interest and the ideal of the Games. This is irresponsible of the Olympic Comittee and only serves to prove its demagocical abuse of the Olympic ideal.
My 2 cents anyway.
seriously,
with the olympics becoming more and more like a professional sport with the advertising, lucrative contracts and shit, i am getting more and more turned off to it.
If a country wants to host the olympics, the requirement should be that it have ZERO corporate logo's anywhere on the properties of the stadiums. and that news stations can get equal coverage of the games.
Or better yet, LOTTERY off coverage of games. So that i dont have to flip through 12 channles of figure skating or gymnastics. I would like to check out some of the other sports--outside of what the news feeds think will get the best coverage.
grrrr
Troll, Troll, go away and flame again some other day
So, what are you doing this summe... shit!
If not, then they have just violated the law.
"Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
I think I figured it out. The Mayan calender ends in 2012, right? And everyone thinks that means that's when the world is going to end. You're with me, right? And 2012, that's when the Olympics are going to start trademarking our system of measuring time... Meaning, of course, that calender publishers are going to have to get permission to print the years, dates and months... Still with me? This means the Mayans weren't predicting armaggeddon after all. They were just avoiding any possible lawsuits from trademark violation.
Tune in to Art Bell tonight, they're interviewing me from 1 am to 7 am.
So, we're going to have to rename 2012 unless we want the election candidates to sponsor the olympics. Oh, wait, I cant use the number 2012 or the word olympics unless I sponsor them.
Wake up. It's the UK.
England's merely a region within the country known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It used to be a country in its own right, but that was hundreds of years ago.
This bill is being proposed in Parliament, which makes law that applies to the whole of the UK, not just England.
Oh, and the UK is part of Europe, just in case there's any misconception there. Us Brits have got into the habit of referring to continental Europe as "Europe", so sometimes it sounds like we aren't part of Europe, but that isn't the case.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
I am getting to the point where I will not be giving my eyeballs to those who try and pull stuff like this.
I enjoy watching some games coverage, but I can give it up.
What, do we need to start the amateur games again?
all the best,
drew
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/43358
FreeMusicPush If you want to see more Free Music made, listen to Free
The Olympic Committee holds a number of trademarks (as you might imagine) and has gone after organizations using the phrase "Olympics", with more or less success. For example, the well-respected "Olympics of the Mind" (OM) high-school creativity contest was required to change to "Odyssey of the Mind" about ten years ago. To my knowledge, the Olympic Committee has only given one organization permission to retain the term: The Special Olympics.
Ambush Marketing doesn't need to use specific words like "summer" or "olympics". For instance, Nike has been ambush-marketing the Olympics for years, and in 1996, many people thought they were an official sponsor.
Here's how Nike ambushes: Put up billboards of Nike athletes all over London; buy TV advertising that shows, say, a top Nike sprinter winning a generic race. People won't tell the difference. In the past, "official" advertisers would put an Olympic logo on their ads to prove they were legit, but people didn't notice or care. This silly list of no-no words will be the same -- no viewer will think, "Coke used the word 'Gold'? They must be official!" The law won't stop ambush marketing at all.
What does make an advertiser look "official" is repetition, and this is the problem with official sponsorships. For Atlanta they cost US $50 million; for London they'll be much more. Spend that much on the sponsorship, and Reebok simply can't afford to blanket the airwaves as much as Nike can. So Nike has more TV spots than Reebok, and thus viewers think Nike is "official."
The only way the Olympic Committee could really help their official sponsors is by giving them signage at the venues. Like, if during a basketball game Reebok could put its logo on the scorer's table. (As of now, the Olympics bans all venue advertising, a relic of its "amateur" history.) I wouldn't be surprised to see this happen by 2012.
Fax Baba!
Disclaimer: "Mom," "Love" and "Screen Door" are registered trademarks of Mom-Corp.
sic transit gloria mundi
Sue me, bitches.
Would J.K. Rowling be upset if they were called "The Games-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named"?
The Olymp?c (can't use the word after all or I'd be breaking the law) ideal has obviously gone down the toilet. It's become a cynical excercise in money making. The atheletes take drugs, the committee is corrupt, "sponsors" sue businesses into oblivion. Media accounts are strictly controlled and censored to the point where the atheletes can't post pictures, audio or video.
Yet people still watch this crud. Isn't it time to vote with your feet (or rather your tele remotes)? The more garbage people put up with from big business, the more garbage they can expect.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
A new pirate simulation called "2010 peaces of gold" to hit the market 2008.
Suggested retail price is $20.10.
Published by Gold Standard software.
PS. No such game exists.
I don't actually exist.
Wouldn't the easy answer to subverison of this law be attributed to the almight Counter Strike??
Smith's Ale House: Proud sponsor of teh ?o!2 5u/v\/v\3r ()1ymp1cs!!lolz!!11!!
The posters were only on campus, but the AOC threatened legal action over them.
Stupid thing is that the official advertisers would have only benefitted as by having more people watching the telecasts, more people would have been exposed to the advertising...
Somewhat over the top, IMO.
I heard that your library burnt down and destroyed your only two books - and one was not even coloured in yet.
Australia did the same thing for the 2000 Olympics. Existing businesses were not forced to change their name though. (Or perhaps the only place I knew of that had 'olympic' in it was too small to worry about.)
My plans for www.2012olympicgold.xxx are now officially on hold
5 38243&tid=153&tid=95&tid=103&tid=219
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/16/1
Corporate interest's stampeding the rights of the average Joe to earn his living. It's the same between the US and the UK no matter how you look at it. Their will always be something to this effect in any supposed "democratic" goverment.
Notice the fact that they proposed a bill on something that is only going to happen once and is not covered under the British constitution. It's complete utter bullshit. What sucks is the opiate masses are too lazy or down trodden to take note since this problem only affects the people trying to take advantage of the upcoming Olympics ( bar keeps and the like ).
So where did the other 2.25bn - 790m = 1.46b come from? I'm guessing from country contributions which came from their taxpayers.
So do the taxpayors of these countries get to use all of these words too?
I haven't read TFA, but surely the bill is aimed at words in context of the Olympics. For example, I can certainly use the word "gold" -- unrelated to the Olympics -- in my advertising elsewhere as long as it cannot be misconstrued to represent the Olympics. Otherwise this posting would be illegal. Our world has not gone that mad yet, despite the article posting makes it sound that way.
He who has the gold, makes the rules.
BTW, At current exchange rates, this rule was bought at a price of 108 standard tons of gold. I was hoping to see how many Libraries of Congress that would fill, but that's only 181 cu. ft. Kinda disappointing really.
The olympics are dumb, corrupt, and even worse, incredibly boring.
I have always and will always boycott any product that claims to be the official olympic so-and-so, because its just so degrading & insulting.
Yea, cortle is the official soda-pop of the 2012 US olympic swim team, im sure theyre all drinking chortle at the swim meets. I'll bet if I drink chortle, itll make me a better swimmer, & ill get into the next olympics.
Advertising is so hateful, insulting, and rude. If you want me to purchase your product, make a good product. Otherwise shaddap & leave me the hell alone!
sorry about that, i overdosed on advertising a few years ago, & im still not fully recovered. I think ill go out now & buy a new pickup truck.
It's called Cockney Rhyming Slang. eg. Tea-Leaf = Thief Dog-And-Bone = Phone Stuffy-Pricks = Olympics (I made that one up...can you tell?)
Well, in the summer of 2012, my record - The bronze game medal, is going to go gold. It has no sponsor currently, but feel free to mention me in London.
But my friends call me Olly M. Pick for short.
Are any taxes being used to support the O****** G**** in L***** in 2***? And if so, will companies that are not sponsors get a tax break so they won't have to help pay for the O****** G****?
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
parent doubleletter ungood indic possible twitch possible crimethink, reread antecomment.
(Remember: Any deviation, no matter how slight, may indicate a thought criminal. I'm not a petty grammar Nazi, I'm watching your back!)
Imagine if the Olympics were some kind of free-for-all where just any country could participate. This would deprive a lot of big organizations of money. I think people fail to realize how important money is. They seem to think the whole Olympics thing is about sports and competition. Get a grip. The Olympics aren't about money. Pay attention to the news!
"Coke"®, "Coca-Cola"®, "The Real Thing"©, "Always"©, "It"©, "Christmas"©, "Summer"©, "The Olympics"© and most other words are owned by the Coca-Cola® Corporation. #246624
Unless they somehow get an legal right to be the only ones to use those common words, they can bite my olympic sized, gold plated heinie. Now if you will excuse me, I will go enjoy the summer, play some games and party like it was 2012.
Carbon based humanoid in training.
I guess a Bill is the only way you could get trademark on something as broad as "games" or "2012"... (Do these fascists do this in every country they invade?)
Still, sounds like the end of days to me.
The Olympics ARE about money.
Sorry bout that.
I remember some years back a card game called legend of the 5 rings, which has NOTHING to do with the olympics, was forced to change the backs of it's cards by the IOC. Why? because it had an image of 5 interlocking rings. This was in America, mind you, I thought England was above this type of crap. I guess you can buy laws anywhere you want now.
I forget what happened to those businesses, but I remember being struck with the sheer stupidity of Congress passing a law that mindlessly. Give a politician a bit of money, and his/her brain flies out the window. I suspect the British parliament will behave just as badly.
Personally, all the obsession with money and the decreasing sportmanship have turned me off so much, I don't even pay any attention to the games anymore. My only goal with respect to them is to oppose their coming wherever I'm living. They enrich a well-connected few and make life miserable for the everyone else.
--Mike Perry, Seattle
They better also ban because otherwise, there will be lots of obvious comparisons...
Over all I agree with you about the Olympics I don't watch NFL, NBA, MLB, or any of the other over sold sports. There is nothing noble about the Olympics anymore. Somebody needs to put a bullet in this dying horse.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
About a decade ago, when the Olypics were in the US, there was a pizza delivery business in the same city as the games. It was named "Olypic Pizza".
The olypic games' sponsorship branch sued the pants off the small-business owner, to get him to change the name of his business. Eventually he had to relent, after the legal fees nearly bankrupted him.
Why did he fight it? Simple. The store was NAMED AFTER HIM, and he had been in business WITH A TRADEMARK ON "OLYPIC PIZZA" FOR OVER 10 YEARS!
So because the olypic sponsors didn't to eal with the "ambush advertising" this guy represented, he had to give up the business name he had in the area FIRST, his trademark, and couldn't even use his full name during local interviews.
Screw the olympics, and boycott every single damn company that sponsors them!
If you wrote banned words in leetspeak?
Their rights to such stuff should stop at trademarks.
There are already problems as is with trademarks but they are not big problems so far.
Allowing a government to restrict usage of words to make some org happy is as bad as a government banning words just because...
I'd find it amazing if the British public and newspapers put up with this.
These days the Olympics are more about the money than the competition.
It started back in Team Fortress Classic
make them return to their roots - I predict that if we force all the athletes to go back to performing nude like in the good old days then US TV advertizing revenue will dry up and the olympics will go back to being the amateur event it used to be .... besides no one will have anywhere to attach sponsor's logos ....
The London 2012 Olympic organisation has released this template for all companies that have not obtained a sponsorship deal.
Example only:
(Black screen)
(each line of text fades in to white while the line is being read)
Voiceover: "You know why you are here,
We know why you are here,
We cannot say why you are here,
While you are here,
Eat at Hungry Jacks."
(fade in corporate logo)
(fade to black)
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
LOMDON (AP) - A consortium of corporate sponsors today announced the Olympic Letter Management (OLM) initiative to enact mandatory technological measures to prevent uncontrolled use of alphabetic characters to steal valueable Intellectual Property.
"It's outrageuous!" exclaimed OLM spokesperson Bert Kneecapper, "After TrendySportingShoe(TM) spends billions buying Olympic (TM) naming rights, some thieving punk can steal our trademarks using a 20c crayon bought from any corner store!"
Under the OLM initiative, and device capable of reproducing alphabetic characters must implement a mechanism to honour the OLM Tradkemark flag, thereby preventing the device from reproducing trademarked sequences unless a valid licence exists. With time, they intend the service to extend to the enforcement of other text controls, such as micro-payments for use of famous quotes, and retrospective editing of history books.
Bert Kneecapper went on reject crayon manufacturer representations that the scheme was impractical, "Our members lose billions of dollars in un-earned revenue, how can they justify 20c crayons in the face of such flagerant theft?".
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Yep, I remember here in Atlanta as the '96 Games approached, they really cracked down. Even on some little convenience stores and diners that had been in business decades before most Atlantans even had a thought that the Olympics could ever come to Georgia! It was pretty ridiculous!
Where's your Olympic* spirit my friend?
* (c), (R), Patent Pending, void where prohibited by law. "Olympic" is a registered trademark of the International Olympic Comittee. All materials and content related to the Olympic Games, including, but not limited to, images, illustrations, text, audio clips, and video clips, are protected by or consist of copyrights, trademarks, service marks, and/or other intellectual property rights ("Intellectual Property"). The Intellectual Property is governed and protected by United States and worldwide copyright, trademark, and/or other intellectual property laws and treaty provisions, privacy and publicity laws, and communications regulations and statutes. The Intellectual Property is owned or controlled by us or other parties that have licensed to us the right to use their Intellectual Property or the right to market their products and/or services (collectively the "IP Providers").
You agree to abide by all additional copyright notices, information, or restrictions contained in any material or content on the Site. Other than as may be expressly permitted by us, in writing, (i) the Intellectual Property is provided solely for your personal, non-commercial use; and you may download any Intellectual Property solely for your personal, non-commercial use, consistent with these Terms, provided that you maintain all copyright and other notices contained in such Intellectual Property. You may not copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, distribute, and/or exploit any Intellectual Property in any way (including by e-mail or other electronic means) without our prior written consent or that of the IP Providers - particularly the words 'Olympic', 'games', 'gold', 'silver', 'bronze', 'doping scandal', 'bribery', and other words that are implicit in the Olympic Games. Modification of any Intellectual Property or use of any Intellectual Property for any other purpose is a violation of the copyrights, trademark rights, and other proprietary rights; that includes photoshopped naughty images of Jacques Rogge. The use of any Intellectual Property on any other site or networked computer environment, or maintaining unauthorized links to the Site, is prohibited by these Terms.
Advertise the competition thusly:
"Drink Pepsi, because if you drink the competitor's vile toilet-bowl cleaner some people pass off as a cola, you are supporting the spawn-of-Satan event that cannot be mentioned, which every four years is taking more and more of YOUR rights away!"
How did I miss that??
IANAL, but I seem to remember a claim from Subway that their subs sandwiches had less fat that the Big Mac and the Whopper. During their claim, they had a disclaimer stating that "Big Mac is a registered trademark of McDonald's" and "Whopper is a registered trademark of Burger King". I really never heard that Burger King and McDonalds sue Subway for use of their trademarks recently, so there must be some sort of fair use, right?
Coderz 4 Life
I wish they'd linked to the exact text of the bill. I'm a bit reluctant to say "No matter how you look at it this is a very bad law" because I can't help but think that from the description it's so WILDLY bad that it must have been mis-described.
According to somebody opposing the bill, "You won't even be able to say 'come to London in 2012' because it will infringe the act." But that's not a lawyer or other objective observer; that's coming from an advertiser who wants to take advantage of the fact that the Olympics are in London. Her complaint is not so much about the free speech aspects in general as the fact that only official sponsors are going to be able to use the Olympics in advertising, so other London businesses aren't getting any benefit.
I can't help but think that the article is slanted. I find it very odd that the article's description of the banned words lists (comparatively) uncontroversial ones like "Olympiad" first, but lumps the really scary ones like "summer" and "2012" into the bottom bucket. Yes, I realize that there will be plenty of people who will say that they have no business restricting words like "Olympics" either, but I think we can all agree that claiming to own the word "summer" is truly outrageous.
It's so outrageous that I feel that I'm not being told something. I suspect that the bill probably contains more detailed language than "You can't use the word 'summer' in any advertising", and it's impossible for me to evaluate the bill knowing only what its opponents say about it.
Reading between the lines as best I can, it does sound like a badly-written bill that covers far more than they really need. Presumably they have no intent of actually preventing people from combining clearly public-domain terms, and the bill probably doesn't make that clear. But those are the outrageous aspects, and need to be cleaned up. We should be arguing about the free-speech aspects of the less outrageous parts, but we can't until we've finished arguing about the silly ones. Or having dismissed those claims as a deliberate misreading by those with a financial interest in doing so. Without the bill I can't say.
Ordinarily I expect better from the BBC, so perhaps I'm wrong. Or perhaps the BBC was hoping to benefit from some "halo effect" as well.
Heij, Kantundustan, 17 AUG:- Up and coming AYWABTU Corp is presently engaged in registering as Trademarks all previously unregistered words in major world languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, French, and Mandarin Chinese.
"While entities from around the world have registered many nouns and adjectives, we have made great progress with establishing our rights to significant numbers of verbs, articles, conjunctions and prepositions," said AYWABTU Corp's CEO Kurt D'Astard at a press conference earlier today. "These parts of speech are a huge untapped resource and until now their commercial potential has been largely neglected."
While seemingly a massive task for the new start-up, AYWABTU Corp has made impressive progress in its business plans due to securing rights to significant numbers of "high-yield" words in 102 countries so far. Asked to comment on the International Olympic Committe's recent registration of words like "Olympics"(R)(TM), a smiling Mr D'Astard replied that a letter had been delivered to the IOC yesterday. "As we now hold rights to the definite articles 'the', 'les', 'los', 'die', 'i', 'os' and 'de' (amongst others), the IOC needs to come to an arrangement with us should they wish continue to refer to THE Olympic Games, for example."
AYWABTU Corp has indicated that they will permit the continued free use of their registered parts of speech for personal and non-commercial use, however corporations, governments and other greedy profit-making entities should consult AYWABTU's website for EULA details and information on swingeing fees for written and verbal use of AYWABTU Corp's linguistic property.
AYWABTU Corp also announced their registration of individual letters from more than five popular international alphabets. An AYWABTU spokesman described the ongoing work in this area as "a means protecting our other investments."
AYWABTU stock prices have risen dramatically in major global financial markets in the last few days.
I dare everybody in Vancouver (2010 Olympics) and London to put stickers all over the city that say "Slashdot: the official gold website of the 2010/2012 Winter/Summer Olympics".
Are they going to ban spectators from using cameras?
5-6 Megapixel camera with image stabilize 12x optical zooms are under $500 now. Photohosting is cheap. Now imagine seven years in the future.
I imagine there will be a whole lot of amature photographer/journalists at the olympics.
When you consider that Australia (the city of Melbourne, Australia strictly speaking), has the highest population of Greek folks of any city in the world outside of Greece (and Sydney isn't too far behind) then you can bet your bottom dollar that there's going to be a fair swag of small "Mom-and-Pop" businesses, corner stores, etc with some form of 'Olypic' in the name.
Our newspapers regularly carried stories of small businesses being steamrollered by IOC Corporation and its hired thugs (by hired thugs, I mean the government of the host country).
Another common story was the officials and security being briefed to look out for spectators and general public wearing promotional gear (hats, t-shirts, etc) from companies that competed with official sponsors. A coca cola t-shirt for example would leave you being offered the choice of handing it over, covering up, or going home.
Despite all the talk of leaving town for the duration, etc, etc, I did end up sticking around (but I didn't get involved in any of the events organised by IOC Corporation). Strangely, Sydney was a really really nice place to be for those two weeks. Many people dreaded the five ringed circus coming to town, but by the time they packed up their tents and their wagons and rolled out of town again, many of the same were sad to see them go.
That ain't no excuse for steam rollering thousands of little people in the name of corporate greed though. IOC Corporation has NOTHING to do with sport, excellence, peace, tradition or ANY of that nice stuff - it's about corporations and hired governments pumping the people for money.
Me, I make careful note of the companies that sponsor IOC Corporation, and put them on my personal do not buy list for life.
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
The Olympics has been overhyped and commercialized ad nauseum. It used to be a great spectacle, an actual sporting event. Now it's like a giant ad. I haven't watched it in several years. It's just lost its spirit.
Someone should register olympic-2012-gold-summer-games.com. Oops, too late.
This is rediculous and arrogant. The way to stop this type of tyrany is just to boycott the olympics and the advertisers that sponser them. You think after the problems they had at Athens they would have learned.
damn good thing the Olympic Mountain Range isn't visible from Whistler, then again, some are sure to be held in Vancouver.
Yeah, I'll second that cycling is pretty heavily tested, though testing for EPO is still iffy, and they have an upper limit on hematocrit instead. US track cycling nationals were last week in here LA and there was a whole lot of testing going on there.
What's maybe more interesting is that I read recently (in the LA times maybe?) that softball, which is being dropped from the olympics, is one of the few sports that didn't have any positive drug tests in Athens.
This happened during the Cricket World Cup held in the Indian subcontinent in '96. Coke was the official sponsor and painted the town red. Pepsi ran a great small ad that said...'Pepsi. Nothing official about it.' Pepsi sales really took off after that.
Instead of watching your favorite atheletes win the Gold at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, come down to my bar for a drink!
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
ROFL.. too funny
In a recent update, the OLM have taken several 10 year olds and a whole class of preschoolers to court for using crayons and markers to draw pictures of the OlympicsTM in class
haha
- paul
Pmp @ DeviantArt
Well, in fact i know a french guy who was inthe second french league adn wanted to get in the first. And he learned the followign things: - First he learned that you *have* to know how to roll behind someone and touch his rear wheel with your front wheel in a way that he crashes without hurting you. - second this is how the teams get tested for drugs: first: there is *no team* in the tour de france that takes no drugs! not even a single one! second: every team gets tested by a doctor of another (concurring team). but the doctors gave their team the drugs so if they test the other team dey don't find anything because the don't want to. it's like adeal between all the teams. third: if you get in the situation where you did somethign stupid and someone wants to kick your ass then the doctor just has to do real tests and you're out of the game. so of course they test everything like crazy. and of course they normally do find nothing. but they still take drugs, because they all have an unwritten agreement for this. so i'm sorry to shock you but this ist first hand information (from 2001, but i can't imagine that it changed)!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
of European hypocricy. Criticize America for being corporate driven bastards, yet lo and behold the venerable UK for passing this kind of bullshit.
How can the olympics be trademarked when the term was originated a couple thousand years ago in Greece? Sure, they can trademark the interlocking circle glyph, but the word?
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
That is why they are passing this law. Trademark law does not apply as this law is more strict and doesn't have any Fair Use provisions in it.
I went to college in Savannah Georgia aroung the time of the Atlanta Olypmpics.
There was a Greek restaurant on River street named the Olympic Cafe. Due to the fact that there were event being held in Savannah the name had to be changed to the Olympia Cafe. Which according to current reports would not even be allowed.
What a bunch of Crap.
This could get interesting. Imagine a non-sponsor having to say "The year (45^2)-13", or "the year after 2011 but before 2013"...
Stupid if you ask me...
MTW
Judging by the fragmentary, disjointed, clueless, incoherent mish-mash that passes for in-depth Olympics coverage these days, it's almost impossible to acknowledge that the Games are happening anyway. If it weren't for the Internet, I'd never have bothered trying to follow the Sydney Olympics.
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
Does Shell sell Bronze, Silver, Gold gasoline (sorry, petrol) in the UK? Are they a sponsor?
This is probably an idea of IT service companies, whos market has collapsed after the Y2K bug.
How many computers and softwares will have to be fixed to NOT display 2012? Is it allowed to take it into mortgage calculations? Is this year supposed NOT to exist before the end of the not-to-be-named-event?
This will lead in the UK to as much IT spendings as year 2000. Brilliant!
To sustain the IT activities, I propose we 'forbid' a random year about every 10 years (a different one per country to make it funnier), and we change currencies in Europe every 20 years (the Euro was another huge change that the UK has not yet done).
Christophe (Don't hesitate to point out my spelling and grammar mistakes, I want to learn - Thanks).
In summer 2012, war was beginning.
Someone set up olympic the games!
Main gold turn on!
Free as in mason.
Sounds like the US' MPAA and RIAA's Lawyers got in touch with English Olypic Planning Officials. Zing.
The Olympics and England are officially gay.
The same gov banned the use of *sexy* women and attractive men in all alcohol ads just a few weeks ago. Setting precedent through the exploitation of a demographic or cause with a follow-up of a practical application with corporate interests.
The truth is, sponsors paid for advertising seen by people watching the Olympics. This broadening definition is troubling but hardly new to much of North America.
Seeing a predictable pattern
So I guess we won't be having a Summer in 2012.. oh well, lets all stay inside and play some Games then... oh wait, can't do that either!
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Olympic. 2012. Gold. Summer. Games.
Olympic. 2012. Gold. Summer. Games.
Olympic. 2012. Gold. Summer. Games.
Olympic. 2012. Gold. Summer. Games.
Olympic. 2012. Gold. Summer. Games.
Only rich mega-corporations have enough money to become official Olympic sponsors. What about small British companies ? They're contributing to the games through their taxes (presumably the British government is throwing dollars at the games), why shouldn't they get some benefit in return through spinoff advertising ?
I really doubt that they have ANY legal basis to do that. Ok, they can't show five olympic circles, it is trademarked. But my pick is that Olympics as word is not trademarked. So, I call it bullshit.
Trademark your necesary trademarks and get done with it. Any other legal threats is just bullshiting.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Bugger. I suppose this means I won't be able to sell my "Fuck London and Fuck the London Olympics" T-Shirts without getting into trouble ?
;)
As usual I read stuff like this and wonder just how low humans can go... Every day it seems that the race is becoming more mindless, greedy and stupid.
Bring on the asteroid, it's time for a fresh start
It's a proposed law. There's lots of opportunities for it to be thoroughly mauled before it gets into the statute books.
"Suppose you are producing a suntan lotion, you can't say 'get bronze in London in 2012'.
Yeah, you'd be infringing the act. The immorality however is that you'd be lying!
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
to ban all commercial sports...
"Silver Fox tours will offer the possibility to visit Mt. Olympus in the summer of 2012. Our tours are designed to match the need of the all citizens that have reached the golden age. Besides Athes we will also arrange a guided tour to an exhibiton of WWII medals and to a bronze age settlement.
As for the whole Olympic selling-off-of-words-and-banning-the-use-of, well hey, slashdot is home to libertarian capitalism right? Free market rules and all that? you wanted it, you got it. I'm a bit disappointed in Ken (Livingstone) myself, hope he makes a bit of noise. What's going to happen to my favourite chip sho, the Golden Fish Bar?
"In a related story, the Spellympics is being sued by the Olympics for the use of the suffix.. lympics." -Kent Brockman
LONDON (Reuters) - In a press release, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced its intention to pursue legal action against Robert Louis Stevenson, over his poem Summer Sun, for two "illicit" uses of the word "golden", and one of the word "summer".
Stevenson, being long dead, declined to respond. However, visitors to his grave on Mount Vaea on Upolu, Samoa, have reported hearing a grinding sound from underground, as of something rotating in the dirt.
- Peter Ravn Rasmussen
The Olympics is just a glorified commercial event now. I had no motivation to watch them last year.
That's why the Olympics will never come to Seattle, as we have a great view of the Olympic Mountains, so a large number of businesses are named after them.
I was cheering for Paris all the way through the selection process.
As a result of London winning the olympics, my council tax is going to go up. I have to pay more each month for the next several years, to make the IOC richer. What did I do wrong ? I simply picked the wrong place to live.
Apparantly about 300 businesses are being forced off their land for this circus as well, and the potential job losses look to number around 20,000 at the moment. This is 20,000 local people who will be out of work so that some people can run around in circles.
Yet another bit of culture ruined by commercialization. I'm never watching the olympics again.
In order to maintain public calm, the word 'Freedom' is no longer to be used in it's archaic sense. Freedom now means: 'Conducting one's life in accordance with the wishes of our Glorious Leaders'.
cheers! You learn something every day... I never did get much beyond Macbeth with Shakespeare....
This so called "Olympic comittee" stole the year "2012" from The Original, CycleVision 2012 recumbent event, to be held in the summer of 2012. Our summer! Our year! Prior art! It's the IP of the dutch recumbent riders!
Sue them!
Trust me, I work for the government.
This is exactly what happened in the last Olympics and the one before that, this is basically what the Olympics is about. As a Londoner I say go with it - Im not going to bother watching any of that bullshit, but if it means we can fleece stupid tourists out of their money and can all get something out of this for free (more transport systems etc) then go for it! You just have to remember that the Olympics is a bastardised version of some ancient Greek custom and its sole purpose is to make wonga. As far as im concerned, sponsors can have their advertising and businesses can make their profit as long as the general population is not going to be hampered by this, the locals are the most important people here.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
The olympics are about money, the big lie is to pretend that it is about sport.
I have a suspicision that if the first olympics were held in 776 BC, the word should have entered into the public domain around the time of the 25th dynasty of Egypt.
That's the sound the joke made flying straight over your head.
And not Marathon as I still miss.
Damn you Mars!
I hope Heineken make an 'illegal' NOT THE OLYMPICS can of lager.
Like they did with the Pint can of Lager 'contravenes some daft euro law!!'
Great, more British than British!
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
that reflects their sensible and considerate policies:
http://www.axelwolf.org/images/oly.png
I think Olympic is only allowed as a tradename of companies based in the Olympic Peninsula, WA.
If the IOC had their way, that bit of the mountain range would probably be renamed, or DRM in cameras would stop you photographing the mountains from seattle.
what is new is an attempt to control phrases like "summer 2012" or "london 2012" that dont have the word olympic in. Well, serves them right for using a campaign "London 2012" that didnt have the word olympic in; now they have to live by the consequences.
ah yes, another utterly and abhorrently stupid bill which seeks to empower the rich at the cost of the poor, will have horrible side-effects, and spits in the face of any concepts of equality or freedom.
Only in America could such a bill....oh.....wait....
Crap Euro Industrial Lager or American Macro Lager instead of real ale? No thanks.
Just say "The Games".
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
"The new Jaguar for the year between 2011 and 2013."
"Tonight: Sean Connery as James Bond in Atomic Number 79-Finger, followed by The Endless Hot Season."
"Get an X-Box bundled with two exciting, uh, things that you play, for just..."
> technically illegal for pubs to use chalkboards to flag up coverage of the Games
Stupid over-reaction by the poster or the BBC.
My local pub has T Shirts for sale that say "2012 Hackney Olympics". The organisers aren't going after them, and in the same way they won't go after pubs for advertising TV coverage!
They will never know the simple pleasure of a monkey knife fight
Sounds to me like a good reason to totally ignore any event occuring in Europe between 2011 and 2013.
Just to be, y'know, totally certain that I'm not unintentionally breaking any law. I suppose I'd better avoid any company claming association with said event(s), since I wouldn't want to give my money to someone who wasn't an authorized sponser.
I am NOT a man!
I am a free number!
Broadcasting rights? They must be easily more than that. And then there's ticket sales...
I think the tax money is going to building new stadiums, that sort of thing. Not to marketing.
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
I suggest we googlebomb "2012 Olympics" to that goat whatever .cz site which contains the appropriate photograpic response to this sort of behavior.
-- $G
I for one will be having some very animated words with my Member of Parliament - the tax money of the UK populace was used to fund the bid that brought these damn "games" (oh sorry, can't use that word, shall I say "hobbies" instead), under the premise that it would bring great economic benefit to London's more deprived areas.
If everyone except the governments paymasters are locked out of these purported benefits, then why are we bothering? Moreover, why should any more of my tax revenues go towards helping HMG's shady friends fill their pockets?
Besides, the government and courts both know that regulating the language people may or may not use cannot ever work.
If they keep this crap up, then it's only a matter of time before cheeky cockney entrepreneurs rename it as "the MMXII estival steroid-abuse contest" or something equally catchy, and I'm sure that will do wonders for their brand...
Good lord, no. Boobies photographed through water and recorded on a 1980 VCR at (probably) EP setting of an over-the-air broadcast on a minimal quality tape that's over 20 years old? We didn't have anything better back then, but today...go surf the usenet. ;-)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
But will Olympus just rename itself Bob's Cameras for the duration, or what?
'Olympic', '2012', 'gold', 'summer' and 'games'................
Please mod me 1 or troll. It's where the truth is these days, even on Slashdot. Beware the power of moderators everywh
*Golf Clap*
-Reid
It seems (to me) that this story a bit overblown. The use of combinations of these words will be prohibited if they imply an association between The London Olympics and the the goods/service being advertised or the provider of such goods or services. Now the lawyers may claim that me putting an advert in my pub: "Live Olympics on Big Screen TV" is suggesting an association between me and the Olympics; I would say that is a very hard claim to make. On the other hand there is lots of reference to how the Home Secretary shall act to comply with "The Host City Contract". Making laws to comply with a contract rather than vice-versa seems wholly immoral.
I'm susprized they didn't play the trump "terrorism" card as was done several years ago.
I can see it now, the non-sponsers using images that represent the words and putting
Watch the 2000 + 12 Olym + Picks race for the Goldfish - Fish.
Causing Chaos Everywhere,
Nik J.
The strange world of a loner, in a populous city, drowning in society
We have the same thing in the states around other big events. If you listen, people who aren't sponsors of the superbowl can't refer to the superbowl. So your local electronics store cannot tell you that you might wanna pick up a new big screen for the superbowl, they have to tell you to pick one up for "the big game". Your local grocery store cannot tell you to pick up extra bags of chips and beer for your superbowl party, it has to be your "bowl party".
I, for one, welcome out new O*****c newspeak overlords!
-- Real Stupidity is the Artificial Intelligence of the 21st century
Who cares... I'm not sure how many people know this but 2012 is over six years from now.
I don't care much about the Olympic games as it is, but the event is six years away- I don't think anyone is going to be watching it in pubs for a while.
I guess this is a perfect time to announce the formation of my my new company: Olympic Summer corporation of Gold Games production Extreme 2012 Ultra!
Gadgetoid.com - Gadgets & Games Journalism
/me starts printing t-shirts saying "I was at the 2k12 summër Olympïcs". Come and get me bitches.
The Olympic comittee needs needs to drop the corporate whoring and get back to their roots! The need to go back to just the two naked guys wrestling, and get in touch with who they really are -- what the Olympics is REALLY about!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Sorry pal - that's trademarked too...
Jewelers, KFC (their ads about how people should buy their Fried Chicken before Fall comes), Expedia (their ads about how people should have vacations between Spring and Fall), Internet Cafe (they can't advertise their installation of FPS or Role Playing Simulations), etc etc...
The International (competition with a Greek name) Committee was already bad enough at Vancouver BC for the Winter competition coming up, and this is just too far. Why don't they ban our thoughts while they're at it. Perhaps a boycott is in order.
How did this get moderated interesting. Are the moderators all smoking crack? This is one of the funniest posts I have seen on /. in ages.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
Hmm. How much for "to" ?
Beat I could make a mint on that one!
While the strong arm tactics of the IP enforcers are deplorable, the significant fact here is that "a special law" was passed to enhance the IP protection of this event. Some of the standard defenses against trademark suits was specifically eliminated. Here is a clear case of legislating for the benefit of a small group of businesses.
On the other hand, IS still the only events watched by a large % of humanity where people from differerent cultures are treated with respect and interest. Contrast this with the pervasive sniping and putdown of other cultures in the popular media: Polish jokes, Freedom Fries, any one?
With this perspective, the is still valuable. Even more so if there were unfettered coverage of all events. Unfortunately, the need to obtain commercial funding distorts and limits its effectiveness.
Hi, Scip Mylo here, reporting from the (insert Chinese calendar year here) large sporting event attended by the peoples of the world.
Done. What's the problem? Excuse me while I get back to not double-clicking on illegal plugin technologies on my VAX system...
did you win a free ipod? build a case for it here
As usual, the slashdot summary is completely misleading and sesationalising. Please RTFA.
World Series, Fall Classic, American League Championship Series, National League Championship Series, American League Division Series, National League Division Series, Little League World Series
NBA Finals, March Madness, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four
Superbowl, Wild Card Weekend, AFC Championship Game, NFC Championship Game, Half Time Show, Vince Lombardi Trophy
Stanley Cup Playoffs
All Star Game
MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, NCAA, MLS, PBA, PGA
Olympic Games, Olympiad, Olympics, Olympian, London 2012, london2012.com, 2012london.com, Citius, Altius, Fortius/Faster, Higher, Stronger, Summer, Games, (What the hell) Winter, medals, gold, silver, bronze, 2012, sponsor.
Attention all Marketing personnel, from this day forth it will be required that all Marketers must read the novel "Life, The Universe, and Everything" by Douglas Adams. This is required reading in hopes that you'll all gain an understanding that yes, we WILL do this to you someday unless you stop acting like complete morons when it comes to forbidding language.
"...the shortest distance between two points may be straight line, but it is by no means the most interesting."
...I recommend moderating the parent comment up. The only way to deal with terrorist attacks is humour.
Ron dies in chapter 9 of book 7.
You're worried about your human rights being sold for profit? What do you think the official organizers of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese Communist Party, are doing in Chinese-occupied Tibet every single day? The London games organizers may be greedy and stupid assholes but are they wiping out whole nations (not just Tibetans but Uighurs too) while the "corporate sponsors" (i.e. governments and multinationals of the world) are not just clapping their hands but actively participating in feeding the oppressive machinery of China's neo-imperial dictators.
If awarding the olympic games to Berlin in 1936 was a grave mistake, Moscow 1980 (at the height of USSR's expansionist frenzy) and soon Beijing 2008 are all the proof one needs to show that vague concepts like humanity, brotherhood and fair play (between peoples) have no place left in today's "olympic movement by multinationals".
Should invading one's peaceful neighbours be opposed, or rewarded with trade deals?
Wait a second, so people who aren't sponsors can't use 2012!?
Man, this stinks for Car companies, Video game companies (So much for sports games ending in 2012), US presidential races ("Decision 2012") and college and high schools (Class of 2012).
They're all in deep trouble. Run folks, the BRITISH AND THE IOC ARE AFTER YOU! AHHH!
Oh yes, the Olympics are non-profit... for the athletes.
For everyone else involved, there's an absolutely incredible amount of money flying in all directions.
Results 1 - 10 of about 61,900 for IOC corruption. (0.20 seconds
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
What if your London brew-pub won a "best beer" gold medal from an organization other than the Olympics? Are you not allowed to advertise that fact? Completely stupid.
Following a particularly bad coverage of the olympics*, I boycott the olympics and preferentially avoid products I see involved.
The olympics have a long history of sponsorship and propaganda, but there is a international spirit to the event with people from all ends of the earth joining in. In the time I made to sit down and watch some olympic coverage**, that spirit was missing. The few American ( 's look good ) events covered were mostly commentators and commercials and the occasional interruption from the actual sport. No only did I loose interest in watching the olympics, I boycott to discourage this type of coverage spreading. Who knows, the Olympics may be worth watching again someday.
- #1
* I forget what season it was, probably between 1995 and 2000.
** 5-10 hours for the event.
Sorry, I'm not allowed to say!
I can't wait until 2012 when in the summer duke nukem will go gold, looks like a good time for games!!
Uh oh, am i going to jail now?
. . . to enforce actual trademark law, which means that the Olympic trademark only applies to the specific industry niche in which:
1. They are registered to do business as Olympics
2. They actually conduct business in that niche in which theya re registered, actively, and are not simply squatting on the brand
and 3. The word is commonplace and the trademark should be nullified, because the stupidity and greed of that organization is of Olympic proportions
Wow. So your all keen for the idea that private property should control fashion choices? Malls are private property and yet I somehow doubt that too many are going to banning customers from entering because they happen to be wearing a "non authorized" logos.
s a.shirt.reut/
Oh wait, they already did:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/03/04/iraq.u
Arrested for wearing clothing purchased *purchased within the mall itself* mind you, which takes the whole thing to a new level of lunacy. That would be akin to selling Coke at the games and then arresting those who bought it.
Of course, this is a political decision by the mall, akin to the removal of our politcal process from public venues to private property where the audiences can be hand picked for loyalty. Surely commercial enforcement of logos in the mall is a great idea too. "Sorry sir, we don't sell product X here, you have to leave."
Sig under construction since 1998.
Fascinating story, I'd honestly not heard of that incident. I did a little more digging, and it turns out the mall realized what PR disaster they'd created for themselves, and dropped the charges. While I still condone the mall's right to restrict what people wear on their private premises, it is obviously blatently hypocritical to expell a patron for wearing a shirt he purchased at that very same mall.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
The only crack the moderators see is also known as goatse
This sig is intentionally blank
Would it be possible to Trademark the TM logo. Surely?
Although understanding the truth may not be the point, the proposed law talks about combining that list of words, not the individual words, for instance:
"Fly Acme Airlines to the 2012 games in London"
"Go for the gold in 2012 with an Acme credit card"
"Acme - the official fish and chips of the Summer Games"
Anyhow, the Olympics is about athletic competition, not the money (right?)
Final 2006 "Proof of Global Warming" US Hurricane Count -> 0
This guy is blatantly baiting the United States Olympic Committee trademark enforcement gestapo
There are two kinds of people: those who take life seriously, and the people making fun of them.
I think that this bill is simply a way of covering the Games' tail. TV ratings for the Games have dropped considerably in the 500-channel universe, and the "official" sponsors don't need the Games nearly as much as the Games need the ad revenue. Don't get me wrong: Sydney had some very spectular moments and the whole fortnight in Athens was wrapped in the sheer energy of the Games being "home." It's harder than ever, though, to get excited about an event when it's getting more and more corrupted by those who only see dollar signs in the Olympic dream. Greed will cripple the Games until the "sponsors" won't support it anymore.
i do not suffer from Insanity... I revel in it.
Wow ! I can't wait seeing an ad saying "Microsoft Windows 2012, best platform for games and office use"
(all trademarks acknowledged)
why don't they just trademakr A E I O U and sometimes Y