Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Businesses To Be Censored on Use of Olympics

Posted by Zonk on from the 2012-is-now-offlimits dept.

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. "

3 of 520 comments (clear)

  1. Right by PunkOfLinux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  2. Already in the US by interiot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  3. I have an idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.