Slashdot Mirror
IOC Trademarks Part of Canadian National Anthem
gravis777 sends us to BoingBoing for news that the International Olympic Committee has trademarked a line from the Canadian National Anthem and is threatening to sue anyone who uses it. The line in question is "with glowing hearts." "The committee is so serious about protecting the Olympic brand it managed to get a landmark piece of legislation passed in the House of Commons last year that made using certain phrases related to the Games a violation of law. The list includes the number 2010 and the word 'winter,' phrases that normally couldn't be trademarked because they are so general."
Most of us Canadians don't know the words anyway.
Life is like a web application. Sometime you need cookies just to get by.
Hmm... not too keen on them trying to copyright my national anthem... but the copyright on the use of the word "winter", I like. We get too much snow as it is. Mother nature fears a lawsuit...
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
"The IOC are a bunch of fascists - with glowing hearts"
How was that? Sue me.
Coming Winter 2010.....
SNOW!
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
I hereby claim invention of the phrase 'fuck litigious international committees', and release this phrase into the public domain.
... is that this Canadian and a lot of people that I know will, with glowing hearts, ignore this piece of nonsense on the basis of prior art.
p.s. With the Conservatives in power when this was done, and the fact that they are more than likely to get back in, does anyone think that this will change?
Please will the insanity stop?
2010 2010 2010
They can kiss my ass with glowing hearts.
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
Is it 2010 base 10, or 2010 base 8? 'Cause that still leaves a lot of wiggle room.
Oh no!
2010 winter
with glowing hearts afire
I mock Olympics
Take off, eh.
Hosers!
Sig this!
so how will counting work with this new trademark in place?
2008 ...
2009
profit!
-I only code in BASIC.-
How dare they not consider the French Version on the same level as the English version. This is an insult to Quebec. Its time for revolution! Viva Quebec!
Reminds me of when they found that they could not use the phrase "Sydney Olympic Games" because Mr Syd Games -- Mr Sydney *Olympic* Games -- had registered it as his trademark.
Boy was John Clarke pissed about that.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Quick ... need to trademark all even numbers between 2012 and 2100.
I O C
Shut the fu-u-uck up!
Go fuck yourselves
You greedy heartless fucks.
With glowing hearts,
We will block your channels
Say goodbye to your ratings!
Fu-u-u-uck you,
I O C_______,
You're the Sciento-lo-gy!
Of organized
Spo-o-o-orts
Shove Winter up your ass 2010 times.
Shove the medals up your ass and go-o broke.
proud caffeine whore
.. oh wait ....
that they are able to subvert the host country's laws so effectively? I know that they have muscled around 'smaller' countries, but I would think that Canada wouldn't be so easily swayed. What am I missing that makes the IOC so powerful? Is it simply the 'investment opportunity' and business that the Olympics bring? Is national pride so easily wounded that we have to kowtow to their every whim? Its no secret that the IOC is incredibly corrupt and profit driven... how come modern democratic states aren't telling them to fuck off and clean up their act? Instead the US, Britain, Canada, etc. seem to be bowing and scraping to meet their every demand.
I thought about registering withglowinghearts.com but someone beat me to it :)
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
The estate of Sir Arthur Clarke and MGM might have a thing or two to say about attempting to claim 2010.
-- Alastair
can anyone remember when this was true? Certainly not in my lifetime... the IOC seems to be run by bigger arse hats than the RIAA... at least the RIAA haven't started trademarking phrases in lyrics... yet.
-- Sex is the antonym of pringles. Once you pop it's time to stop.
Dear IOC,
FUCK YOU.
With glowing hearts,
Canadian Citizens
We can commission him to sue Canada for infringing our dumb law patent. All we have to do is demand $700 billion, and our little banking problem is all cleared up!
JADBP
I really think it's time to just bury our heads in the sand. This world has become fucking crazy. What happened to common sense? What happened to old-fashioned business? Why can't we trust a smile and a handshake anymore?
I know this sounds a little pie-in-the-sky, but it's how I feel. I run a business. I'm honest. I make enough money for me, my business partner, and our employees. As honestly as I can. Sure, cheap, slimy people sometimes snake a customer away, but the ones to come to us are loyal. Almost crazy loyal. This world is truly getting sad.
An article I read about this last week said that the IOC would only seek to prevent people from using it in Olympic-esque aspects. You could still use the phrase for a knitting store (which there is, apparently, somewhere in Ontario), but there would be a problem if that store tried to sell sweaters with the Olympic rings on it, for example.
I don't agree that it's right, but that summary up there's a little wrong.
Clearly the Olympics isn't about games anymore, that's why I stopped paying attention. I hear more about the crap surrounding it than the games itself. It's not fun anymore.
Tagline:
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
The Olympics are for sell outs and commercialization. It baffles me why people still put such high value on this parade of stupidity. I almost feel sorry for the athletes that participate.
It's become such a joke.
Winter, winter, winter, winter, winter, 2010, winter, 2010, 2010, winter, Chicago, 2010, winter.
With glowing hearts,
Me.
P.S. IOC, I would be happy to translate this for you in case you can;t figure out my point.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
I smell a new meme with glowing hearts!
3laws: No freebies, no backsies, GTFO.
The most appropriate response to the IOC's increasing reach and commercialism is to make an effort to tune out the Olympics (TM). There are a great many amateur meets that happen throughout the world on a regular basis, and they're always in need of volunteers and spectators. If you can't do without a regular fix of Olympic (TM) patriotism, steer clear of the Olympic-branded (TM) merchandise and take a few minutes out of your life to let major sponsors of The Games( TM) know that you're avoiding their products because of the way the IOC has corrupted amateur sport (TM).
This is one instance where money really talks. A sharp downturn in funding and public opinion would work wonders.
I'm Canadian, so I'm going to take 10 minutes following the upcoming federal election to write a letter to my member of parliament complaining about the IOC's misappropriation of lines from our national anthem. The work is in the public domain, and it is quite obvious that the organizers of the Vancouver games are attempting to exploit its patriotic meaning for inappropriate commercial gain.
The Maple Leaf State
Does that mean that Spielberg is gonna get sued for E.T.? What if I watch E.T. in winter 2010... Will they have to re-release an edited version with glowing heart censored out?
Anyone else wondering if the IOC has strayed so far from the original spirit and intent of the Olympics and become such business-focused greedy rat bastards, that we need to give them the big finger and start over with a governing body that is actually focused on the athletes and the games rather than the money?
.....Would expect no less from a simple country - what with their socialized medicine, clean cities, low crime rate and tough gun-control laws. Any money-hungry conglomerate should be able to get whatever they want out of those backwards hosers.
... and like minded folks, look forward to the Winter of 2010, with glowing hearts, to ignore another two weeks of bad network TV.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Americans are generalized far too much. People from Seattle and Vancouver are more similar than Seattle and Houston. Talk to people from North Dakota and the Canadian border. You can't say ND residents are more like New Yorkers or Southerns than Canadians. Quebec is an exception, the cities are like nothing else in North America.
Did you actually READ the bill? It's intent is to stop free-loaders from slapping "Olympic" and the like on products, and making money without contributing to the Games. All the trademarks expire at the end of 2010, so it's not like they have the rights forever. And, if you have a business like "Olympia Restaurant" and you were in business before March 2007, you can continue to use the "trademarked" term. Any business with a large public profile is fairly vigilant about protecting their name and brands; why should the IOC be any different?
What was once true, is no longer so
From the government of Canada's website re: Bill C-47
Commentary
Bill C-47 enhances the protection for Olympic symbols beyond that normally afforded to trade-marks. Although existing intellectual property law in Canada could arguably be used to protect Olympic symbols and marks, the sheer volume of possible violations, within a short window of time, are presumed to be the justification for the enhanced protection.
There has been substantial debate about tactics used in connection with sporting events to discourage the use of ambush marketing. In the United Kingdom, a statute was recently passed that, among other things, will outlaw ambush marketing for the 2012 Olympics.(10) A coalition of advertisers argued that this legislation was draconian and overly restrictive. Citing one example, the legislation would not allow a business to say "come to London in 2012."(11) Advertisers in Britain viewed these restrictions as potentially damaging to the economic "halo effect" that the Olympics promises to bring, stating that "London businesses in particular will be paying for these Games but they are being deprived of benefiting from them because they will basically have to pretend they are not happening."(12)
There are also accusations that prohibitions against ambush marketing can be carried too far. In one of the more bizarre examples of an attempt to prevent ambush marketing, more than 1,000 Dutch fans at the FIFA 2006 World Cup match in Germany were forced to relinquish their orange lederhosen during a game against the Ivory Coast. The lederhosen were stamped with the name "Bavaria," although Bavaria Brewery (Netherlands) was not an official World Cup sponsor. When Dutch fans tried to enter the stadium, they were required by FIFA officials to abandon their lederhosen, and were forced to watch the game in their underwear.(13) Before this incident, Heineken, an official sponsor of the Dutch football association, had taken legal action against Bavaria Brewery in Holland but lost; the Dutch judge had ruled that fans could wear whatever they wanted.
As proposed, Bill C-47 appears to address some of these concerns. Although it clearly strengthens the ability of the COC, CPC, and Organizing Committee to seek injunctions against any marks presumed to be encroaching on the Olympic brand, it also imposes limits on the legal reach of these powers through the exceptions. Criticism, for example, is protected, as is the use of Olympic symbols in news coverage. Firms whose use of related symbols pre-dates the Games are similarly protected, as are wine and spirit makers who use any of the terms listed in schedules 1, 2, and 3 to describe the origins of their products. Similarly, the interim injunctions in which irreparable harm need not be proved, could be, under Bill C-47, made available only for a short window of time.
What was once true, is no longer so
IOC: ALL THESE WORDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT 2010. ATTEMPT NO OLYMPICS THERE.
This is going to end badly.
After the IOC got sued because some idiots "bought" tickets for the Beijing Olympics online from "beijingticketing.com"? Yes, you heard right, the IOC got sued because a lawyer claims they didn't protect their trademark. http://www.gamesbids.com/eng/other_news/1216133744.html
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Folks, quit lambasting the IOC. They didn't do this. VANOC did. Go after them if you want.
Advice to a lynch mob: Get your facts straight before lighting the torches.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban