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IOC Orders Blogger To Take Down Video
An anonymous reader writes "The International Olympic Committee has ordered a blogger to remove a video from his website showing the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. The IOC asserts that it owns all the rights to all images taken at the games, and only licensed broadcasters can use them. However, the blogger, Stephen Pate, points to a Canadian law that allows copyrighted images to be used in newsworthy cases."
I'm quite sure the IOC (and other major sports promoters) would like the copyright on every image taken, but I've never understood what their legal basis for making such a claim would be. Do they require that everyone attending sign an agreement assigning all rights in any recordings they make to the IOC, or something along those lines?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
If my son/father/whatever had his head broken in a million pieces (or whatever happened, I didn't see the vid), I sure would appreciate a powerful organization working to take it down.
Yeah, IOC is usually ridiculous in their claims and I almost always have an opinion against them, but in this case, I think someone's life should probably be worth a little more than goreporn. Why does such a video need to be hosted and why should someone have the right to make money off of the death of another person? If I were the family, I'd be pissed too.
Take the vid down, FFS
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
What takes this to a whole new level is that it's the death of a competitor.... so... THE IOC IS HOPING TO PROFIT FROM THE VIDEO OF THIS ATHELETE DYING?!?
I think that's not quite what's happening here. I think the IOC is afraid that the more the video is watched, the more negative associations people will have with the Olympics, and the fewer viewers they'll get. They're hoping to lose as little as possible after this tragedy.
They're still (predictably) overreaching here though.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
The IOC is above Canadian law. They are allowed to ignore Canadian human rights laws, can force venues to rescind non-smoking regulations, and are able to take over lands, streets and buildings at will.
Anyone who has worked within the VANOC orbit knows that VANOC and the IOC believe that all others must bow down before them.
Three Squirrels
Except they did change the track, whether it fixed all the possible problems or not, nobody knows. But even so, imagine a luge track with no danger at all. Yawn. What else is on the telly, Madge?
Content from the events cost $$$ so the TV networks pad the coverage out with cheap human interest crap and trolling. Its been this way for decades. We all hate it and it not getting any better.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
While we're at it, could we please have a round-up of the olympics screw-ups to date? It's hard to find such a thing between the official coverage and the unofficial coverage of the allegedly greatest olympics screw-ups of all time. It might be "too soon" to include this luge track fail (uncovered steel poles? they don't even allow those in NASCAR, where you get a crash cage and a magical carbon fiber bumper!) in those lists, but I think it qualifies. What else goes on this year's list?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Who are you, and why are you deciding what should I watch?
I'm not the IOC, nor am I trying to prevent you from watching it, so calm down, don't get your tinfoil undies in a knot. I'm just saying it's pretty tasteless to gawk at a tragedy like that. I'm also not trying to claim a moral superiority here. I was tempted to watch it myself, and I have seen other videos that were similarly tasteless. So go ahead, you'd be no worse than I am, but I do think it is tasteless, just my opinion.
The luge course has walls along its length to keep the lugers within the confines of the track. The height of the walls is higher at some points of the track. I would guess that the baseline wall height is 4-5 feet. At the point where the Georgian luger went over the wall there was 2-3 foot high extension. The Georgian luger cleared this extension just barely, allowing him to exit the relative safety of the track. [Once a luger traveling at high speed leaves the confines of the track the result is uncontrollable and quite likely catastrophic for both the luger and anyone he hits.]
The next day the walls along that portion were raised substantially higher.
My question is: How does a luge course designer determine how high the walls should be in order to ensure that lugers are kept contained to the track? Is it based on "gut feel" or some mathematical analysis?
Vancouver was supposed to do that with a portion of the village to go as low-cost housing but last I heard the new plan is to sell it as expensive condo's.
Lose a tire at 35? I've done that. Lost all - literally, not figuratively - of the skin on my chest. Still have scars from it, though it happened 30+ years ago. Skin makes a terrible brake pad. Keep the rubber side down, as they say. :-)
Truth, Justice. Or the American Way.
Sorry, not totally true. I wanted to see the accident for myself in order to judge some of what the Olympic committee was saying vs what others were saying about the track. I felt that the wall could have been done better and that the track would have been better built with those damned support beams on the INSIDE of the turn. I also tracked down a Discovery special that talked a great deal about the preparations for the Winter games to include some very insightful interview about the construction of that track in particular. they discussed the extreme elevation drop, the expected high speeds, how they cooled the track to keep it iced, and how it was constructed mostly in a factory vs on the mountain. They were quite proud of the track! Viewing the video it was a little more obvious to me why they placed the support beams for the roof in the position they did and I think that turn was even shown from the inside of the turn outside of the venue, in hindsight I still think it was poorly designed. That they limited practice times was also a mistake IMO. A perfect run would have been no problem but little margin for error was left in that design and this was a mistake - not everyone is perfect 100% of the time obviously. Had I not gotten to see that video and better understand what was going on at the time of the accident I would simply have had to take the word of a bunch of talking heads and the Olympic Committee, frankly I preferred to make my own judgment. I didn't watch this for pleasure as you assert, I'm no ghoul, but I did want to better understand what occurred from an engineering perspective. Learning from the mistakes of others is never a bad thing....
Salt Lake City managed to both make money (not a lot, but enough to maintain the Olympic facilities almost indefinitely with no taxpayer contribution) and avoid the stigma of excessive commercialization, so it can be done. It's hard, though.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Oh and lol at the Liza Minelli thing below. Well done.