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Athletes Can Blog at Olympics - with Restrictions
Hugh Pickens writes "The IOC has given athletes the right to blog at the Beijing Games this summer, a first for the Olympics. They're allowed, as long as they follow the many rules it set to protect copyright agreements, confidential information and security. The IOC said blogs by athletes 'should take the form of a diary or journal' and should not contain any interviews with other competitors at the games. They also should not write about other athletes. Still pictures are allowed as long as they do not show Olympic events. Athletes must obtain the consent of their competitors if they wish to photograph them. Also, athletes cannot use their blogs for commercial gain."
From the summary, the rules are basically, "you may blog at the Olympics, but you may not blog about the Olympics. Unless you are blogging about what you had for breakfast at the Olympics, and you do not include pictures."
Woohoo, freedom of the press!
Nemilar http://www.techthrob.com - Visit Me!
Or is this a security issue? If it is, then they need to get over it. This is getting ridiculous.
I guess they forgot to add the clause, "except when in China".
After all the censorship, you might get to say two words and show a picture of your socks, assuming they're generic....
*boycots olympic games entirely*
0x or or snor perron?!
China can't just come in take athletes way to political prisons so what does the athletes have to lose?
China can't just come in take athletes way to political prisons so what does the athletes have to lose?
That is a dangerous thing to assume.
God spoke to me.
I woke up in China this morning. The place smells funny.
The group went to a sporting event today, kind of exciting.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll hear some music I like
Goodnight
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So... What exactly would happen to an athlete who violated this "rule"? Would they lose any medals? Be banned from competing? It's one thing to make such "rules", another to enforce them.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Today, the commercial spirit is so strong they have to carefully delimit anything that's published, pictures or words, about the event. Blogs must be carefully examined, lest there's something in there that might diminish the profits of the advertisers...
As they used to say when the Olympics were performed in the interests of sport alone, "O Tempora, O Mores!"
The insane restrictions of the IOC has really killed my interest in the Olympics. And along with the timeshifting the broadcast of events ruins my enjoyment.
The pre-Disney ABC coverage of the Olympics and their Wild World of Sports was the best coverage of the Olympics and no one is ever going to be that good again. Especially with the ironfisted control by the IOC. So fuck you, International Olympics Committee.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
First having the Olympics in China, now this. My family plans to attend the winter Olympics in Canada in a few years, and I told them in no uncertain terms that I will never again in my life watch, even on TV, the Olympics.
Even aside from the absurd profiteering, human rights violations, etc, when will people grow up and realize that we aren't monkeys anymore? Like a few weeks back when they told the guy with the prosthetic limb that he could not compete. Why is it alright for someone to dedicate their life to trying to run faster, but not alright to use actual innovation to do so?
The only difference between the Olympics and the NFL is the audience.
Whatever your reason for doing so, I would encourage anyone who wants to join me in permanently boycotting the Olympics to do so.
China can't just come in take athletes way to political prisons so what does the athletes have to lose?
No but they can sure disqualify them in a heartbeat, then how does that work?
There is no "disagree" moderation, and troll, flamebait and overrated are not valid substitutes
they can't make any money from there blogging.... sort of like how the IOC doesn't make money from selling TV rights... what a load... does the IOC share any of it's ill gotten gains with the athletes... lol how naive of me.
How I wish the Greek gods existed, so they'd blast China and any corporation involved with the Olympics to hell. The Olypmics used to be a free public event for the 'known world' at that time to compete for fame, honor, and glory. Now it's compete for sponsorship dollars, advertising dollars, and getting your picture on a Wheaties box.
I certainly won't be paying any attention to the Olympics, now. I'll be paying more attention to my cats in competition to see which one can get the little red dot that flies around every so often.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7237599.stm
Never mind that the modern Olympics has become rife with corporate sponsorship and bribery allegations. Just as long as the people who are supposed to count in all this - the athletes - don't make any money! Blech.
The thing that really gets me, though, is that althletes are not allowed to make political statements in the stadium - a stadium which is a political statement in itself: 'Hey guys! China's really quite nice! Never mind us raping Tibet, killing our own people and all that - look: Shiny Olympics! We're part of the civilized world! See!'
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-080215-blogging-olympics-ioc,1,7510480.story
Here is the link to the article without registration.
Anyone else notice that as the Olympics has shifted from Nationalism to Commercialism it's viewership and worldwide interest has dropped dramatically? I wonder when the people who run the Olympics will notice that. My guess: once it starts losing money.
1. Write at the end of every sentence : "China's Communism is COOL!".
2. Make sure you praise the wonderful air quality of China *cough* , Need 100% air filter for my North Face mask.
3. Make a second blog with the Mandarin version.
4. Ask every athlete at the olympics to write about them. Selling Olympic emails for 50 bucks an email.
5. Always include pictures of your most athletic muscle [ ie. runners are the feet, swimmers the arms, jumpers the thigh ]
6. Always praise China for the "priviledge" of walking on chinese soil. Nice lead...mmmmm.
7. NEVER mention the words freedom, free speech, democracy, tienamen square, religion, falun gong, etc.
China HATES freedom. They will kill you for even saying it.
8. I don't exist. This never happened. I am just a figment of your imagination.
End of Message.
Have you heard that the UK team could only go to the olympic games in China, if they signed (individually) a paper that they will not say anything against the regime? And that said regime has, instead of improving, further cracked down on human rights and democracy activists?
Furthermore.... did you know that the air in most venues is too polluted to hold ANY outdoors competitions, let alone marathons?
So why was China selected, and the other candidates dropped?
Money and power? Naaaahh... never!
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
The Olympics are still relevant to popular culture? Everyone knows the IOC are a bunch of litigious cunts. The games happen every two years which cheapens the event.
I will be boycotting the Olympics this year. I refuse to support such an event in a country that has such disregard for human rights and democracy. China should not have been allowed to host such an event until they demonstrate that they can behave decently.
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
The First Rule of the Olympics is:
You don't talk about the Olympics.
It's not just the Olympics, it's everything. From architects having copyrights of any picture taken of his building empire state building, copyrights over dance moves and the blood sucking music industry with its hold over the "Happy Birthday" song.
The world has become more pro IP rights, extending them and including rights on things that shouldn't be copyrighted in the first place.
Why not exactly? If they're in China they can surely be locked up just the same as anyone else, athlete or no athlete. On the one hand it'll give a far more entertaining chase on the news.
Without the athletes, the Olympics is nothing.
... ah, yes, I think we know how deep their feelings actually are.
If the athletes actually feel strongly about issues relating to China, then they can choose not to go. Sure, you'll lose out on marketing deals and fame and
Many arguments say the best way to bring China into the modern world is to integrate them despite their flaws, to expose their peoples to alternative viewpoints. If they are correct, then the Olympics will overall be a good thing despite any current issues.
Chinese modders censoring you down there..
Who cares?
Simply implement a language in English, using all of the right buzzwords that are politically correct, even award-winning, pro-regime statements.
Then, once the blog post has departed China, run it through a filter, to determine what the poster really meant.
Ideal Summer of Code project.
Couple of existing examples of this:
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
no they can't, china are just the host, its the IOC that have the say on that.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
that is now wars start and any ways if china locks up us athlete a trade ban will be very bad for them as the rest of the usa will not stand back and let that happen.
Considering the huge amount of commerce that goes on between the US and China, it will never happen. It's not exactly a tiny little island like Cuba.
That said, if it ever did happen, it would probably be very effective.
"The cup is in turn designed for holding hot or cold liquids, and has an open rim and closed base." --US Patent #5425497
... nobody would start a war over an athlete. Over a political figure possibly. Besides, unless it was a US athlete they wouldn't care anyway.
I wonder if part of this isn't for protection of revenue, but for protection of the athletes. It seems perfectly possible that some smaller nations could add professional reporters with only moderate athletic abilities to their teams, giving the reporters intrusive undercover access to the other athletes.
You're right, and they can't just drive tanks over protesters either.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I shall not be watching - so don't count my eyes when you work out what the TV rights will cost.
Not doing the Olympics unless they want to worse then Hitler.
Hitler took "Jews not wanted" signs down for the Olympics and Jesse Owen general treatment in Germany was better than he had previously received in America as he had no problem using public transportation or entering bars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Summer_Olympics
The IOC said blogs by athletes 'should take the form of a diary or journal and should not contain any interviews with other competitors at the games.
I see their point. They don't want their athletes using the event to springboard a journalism career. This does involve interfering with their freedom of speech though. What if they want to tell everyone about the games in a more dispassionate way? Why shouldn't they?
They also should not write about other athletes.
Privacy? A bit heavy handed.
Still pictures are allowed as long as they do not show Olympic events.
Seems the IOC has become a corporate enterprise. It used to be all about promoting sports for its own sake. It's a shame that things have gone this way.
Athletes must obtain the consent of their competitors if they wish to photograph them. Also, athletes cannot use their blogs for commercial gain."
Both of these are laudable. The first is about the privacy of the other athletes. The second is about keeping to the amateur spirit of the games.
Right. Practically speaking, China's hands are tied. If China were to react over anything said by an athlete, they would have an International public relations disaster on their hands. They know this, feel cornered and is why they have attempted to make athletes sign contracts to shut them up.
The IOC truly goes for the gold.
I don't know whether it will be a building collapse, a tainted product scandal, a massive protest, a large fire or what but I just know there's going to be some kind huge PRC meltdown overreaction replete with tanks in the streets, and deaths during this Olympics.
Here's something really whack. Freedom and knowledge, two more obscenities in today's world.
What?
You are right, of course, and the OP is ignorant (and the mods that modded that post up, even more so), but he/she is, by chance, also correct: how do you think China got the games in the first place? Or how do you think China gets away with what they indirectly do in Darfur?
Simple, just imagine a (phone?) conversation between a Chinese Communist Party high official and a minister of one of the countries represented in the olympic committee: "Dear minister, you are certainly aware of the prosperous and very large trade between our two countries. This is a clear sign of our friendly relations. We hope those relations will stay as amiable in the future, as our imports of goods are growing and your country is an important partner [blah blah]. One cloud that might obscure our relations could be the outcome of the vote in the IOC [blah blah / ok, I am not diplomatic enough, but you get the point]".
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Yes. But which country would suffer more?
Before you answer that question, think of where in general most of the stuff in world is manufactured.
What country would continue any kind of relations with China after they lock up one of said country's athletes for expressing themselves?
OSx86 FTW
I don't think this is about labor. The Olympics are being held in China because there are about a billion people there who've never had an Olympics in their country, and, if the games are truly global event, the Chinese must be included at some point.
Really? And how many guns does the IOC have? 'Cause the Chinese government has *lots*.
into irrelevance that is the Olympics and its masters, the IOC. So rife with corruption, so lousy with commercialism, so compromised by professional "amateur" athletes.
Really, the original intention of the Olympics has been completely sand-blasted away. The IOC not allowing the very people who are making the whole pageant possible to talk/blog about what the experience is like? It's the absurd cherry on top of one giant whopping sundae of hypocrisy.
I will probably be shouted down by those who can't wait to wave the patriotic flag of country X at the games, but I say down with the Olympics, down with the IOC, and down with commercialized professional sports, for that matter.
Wake me up if the world ever gets back to sports that are about community and excellence and human achievement. Until then, there are many better things to do.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Non free labor? Free industry? I think you're confusing your gnu/eulogies with the topic at hand.
The United States of Wal-mart, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, (your favorite "Evil-Company" name here), etc.
This is in fact rather sad. IIRC New Zealand (whilst in general a small and insignificant nation) has recently (ie within the last month) signed, or drawn up a free trade agreement (correct me if I'm not quite on top of the details, but this is my understanding on what was reported, I'm a scientist not a politician). Now NZ does have a fairly good standing in medal tallies for such a small country. I wonder how much political protesting our athletes would dare make... sad really!
Oh noes, we'll have to look elsewhere for those cheap plastic toys now!
Yes and no. When the athlete is within chinese borders, he or she is subject to chinese laws. I don't know this for sure, but I believe china has laws which prohibit certain political statements from being published. Stands to reason then that if an athlete breaks these laws, china is well within its rights to arrest said athlete and apply the weight of chinese law against him/her.
Of course if china did that, there would be something of an outcry. However, given the whole 'free tibet' protest around the world, does it look as if china really gives a shit about PR?
Be very careful grasshopper
A.I. Research. The peculiar science in which we know the question and we know the answer, but can't show the working
Perhaps not start a war, but I think it would be an interesting exercise in seeing how the USA responds to real issues concerning its country as opposed to the pretendy 'we'll help you out if you will just sign this document giving us cheaper oil' issues they jump on.
Would the USA do anything if the country with the worlds largest standing army which just happens to also be one of the worlds fastest growing economies, not to mention a truly large population, decided to arrest a US athlete for saying that country sucks?
I have a feeling the USs response would be to 'enter talks with the leaders of that country' then appear to be attempting to do something. In the meantime, the athlete involved could well end up staked out bottom up in a military prison somewhere in backwoods china.
Eventually the USA would broker a deal to get the athlete released, which would basically mean that the USA had been made to bend over and accept whatever china asked for, whether it be aid, technology or some sort of trade agreement. Why? Because the US political leaders would have to be seen to be doing something for their errant citizen.
That said though, there are already signs that the various countries are attempting to prevent embarrassing outbursts by their athletes. I have a feeling there will be a few more of those stories come to light and if they don't, it is because they have been hidden effectively.
In China, chinese laws prevail. The athlete who decides to make too much of a statement over there could very easily find himself in extremely hot water.
A.I. Research. The peculiar science in which we know the question and we know the answer, but can't show the working
...if you blog about the regime?
Down on the knees and shot through the head?
Amateur only is one of the most idiotic restrictions imaginable. Winning an olympic gold medal is supposed to signify that you're the best in the world. How can that be if you're not even good enough to go pro?
I can't believe how many posters -- supposed nerds -- are going to boycott watching the Olympics apparently based on some political point, implying that they have no a priori disinterest in sports.
You can all hand in your cards.
And then they get a call from the US and a load of European nations telling them to vote the other way, what do they do then? China defiantly has a big mouth, but they don't have the biggest balls yet.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
"Really? And how many guns does the IOC have? 'Cause the Chinese government has *lots*."
And?
These are Olympic athletes under the full spotlight cast by the television presence at the Olympics. What exactly do you think China is going to do with those guns? How could anyone honestly think China would use force to silence Olympic athletes.
Can you say "international pariah"?
So the answer is "Yes, really."
This should give you the freedom to describe minute details about the Olympic Games and as a bonus to criticize the government.
Maybe you can be creative and call your blog Fake Carolina Kluft while in fact being Kelly Sotherton!