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Olympics Committee Says Non-Sponsors Are Banned From Tweeting About the Olympics (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader shares a Gizmodo report:The U.S. Olympics Committee has gone off the deep end, when it comes to intellectual property. It's willing to sue anyone to protect their trademarks, even when the use is no real threat. But the committee's latest claim is an entirely new level of absurdity. What's getting the U.S. Olympics Committee in a tizzy this time? Tweets. Specifically any company that tweets about the Olympic Games and isn't a sponsor. ESPN obtained a letter from the U.S. Olympic Committee chief marketing officer Lisa Baird who outlines the absurd demands. "Commercial entities may not post about the Trials or Games on their corporate social media accounts," Baird writes, apparently in earnest. "This restriction includes the use of USOC's trademarks in hashtags such as #Rio2016 or #TeamUSA. And according to ESPN, it gets even more absurd. Apparently the letter says that any company whose primary mission isn't media is forbidden from using any pictures taken at the Olympics, sharing, and even reposting anything from the official Olympics account.
So what would happen if they held the olympics, and nobody showed up?
#CensorshipTwats #Rio2016 #TeamUSA #Olympics
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Yes. This. OMG please please PLEASE do this more USOC! Cut your own tail off and eat it until there is nothing left! Please try and force non-sponsor businesses to avoid using your marks, your copyrights, heck, tell they can;t even mention that the Olympics are even happening so that we can all fucking forget about you, watch you finally die, and then maybe, MAYBE, see something better that is actually about the athletes and not lining the pockets of greedy scum.
#tiredofyourshit #stopscrewingathletes #GFYUSOC
if only all media companies would just say "screw it" and not post anything about the Olympics. No athlete info, no sob stories, no results, nothing, nada, zip, anywhere. I'd love to see USOC's collective heads implode. Sorry guys, but I don't care enough about the games to be funneled through your approved channels. Likely the drama in Rio won't be the games, but the sad state of the host city/country anyway. Good luck squashing THOSE stories...
This is what you get when you decide to sell public space to the highest bidder. If I were paying billions of dollars for the right to advertise, I would want to own it too. Maybe this is an indication that we should stop selling our public spaces and events to such and extent.
You Deserve an Olympic Record Today!
The Ultimate Swimming Machine!
A Diamond Isn't as Good as a Gold Medal!
America Runs the 4x100 Relay on Dunkin'!
During one Olympics, the BBC world service news on the hour was replaced with the announcement:
"Due to rights restrictions we are unable to bring you this program".
I stopped listening to the BBC world service and stopped expressing any interest in the Olympics.
Whats the point in having a world news that you can't broadcast due to rights restrictions??
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
I wonder if they're more concerned about people tweeting out results or complaints.
I also wonder which they'll have more of.
She wants her 'effect' back.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
#Team[COUNTRY] isn't just for the Olympics though. Pretty much EVERY multi-national competition of any kind that has teams identify with their nation uses this generic hashtag... Is the Olympic International Comity going to start suing everyone who has ever used this term???
OH WAIT, THAT'S RIGHT! They already started suing every business around Olympia, WA and the Olympic Mountains for using "Olympic" in their name, despite the names coming from geographical location and some even being around longer than the modern Olympics... but why the hell should they care!? Suing is winning GOLD!
So do they think they are the law in the U.S.A. only or all over the world?
This affirms it. The sports aspect of the Olympics is secondary, even tertiary. The primary reason for the existence of the Olympics nowadays is to enrich those who organise it and those who use the media content for their profit.
In other news the IOC has demanded the name of the Olympic Mountains in Washington State be changed, as well as the name of the capital, Olympia.
A few years back the Olympic ISP located in Silverdale, within sight of the Olympic Mountains, was forced to change its name by the IOC.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
If they're basing this on owning the copyright to the Olympics, this isn't going to work - owning a copyright on the name of a thing doesn't mean that you can prevent anyone from talking about your thing, just that nobody else can sell it. Lawsuits like this fail often - confused people think that they can use copyright to do more than control the right to copy...
Enable 3D printed prosthetics!
Indeed. Last I checked, facts aren't copyrightable, trademarked, or otherwise protected by intellectual property rights (with the possible absurd exception of patented prime numbers), so if someone wants to report on the facts of the Olympics, such as the results or highlights, in their own words, they're entitled to do so. You can bluster and threaten as much as you want, but reporting on the facts is perfectly legal.
What a cherry on the overall sucktitude of US Olympic coverage. Instead of the actual events, we're forced to watch hour after hour of human interest stories and other "puff pieces" which are written to pluck our heartstrings -- all "Sponsored by VISA" or some other shill -- while the events are time-shifted to crazy hours. We need to stay off the Internet so we don't spoil what happened for ourselves. And when we do get the actual events, it's only the US athletes. Fuck that. I mean, that's great and I want to see them, but I want to see *all* the best athletes in the world compete -- not just the sports that have US competitors. I don't care what country they're from -- show me the best. Less crap and more sports. Oh, and the US Olympic Committee might want to hire a marketing person that actually understands things like hashtags instead of this douchebag. Yet another thing the US media has absolutely fucked up for the plebs. This is the first Olympics that I'll be illicitly streaming from another country because I already know the US coverage will blow hard.
My good taste and good judgement bans me from tweeting about anything, ever.
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
Kate Grace won the 800m Women's Final trial in a crazy finish a few weeks ago and became an Olympian for the first time. Her sponsor Oiselle posted pictures afterwards congratulating her on Instagram and their website. They were threatened by the US Olympic Committee to remove all posts and pictures of her, their own athlete. Needless to say they and her boyfriend were not happy about this. But since he was not a sponsor he re-posted the "offending" Instagram picture. After a while (and maybe some media backlash) they were allowed to post "compliant" pictures of her win. Effectively they had to censor out any logos relating to the US Olympic trials or Olympics.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
If we buy anything at all, some of that money probably goes to the IOC®, even if the path meanders a bit. I sure it's being used for a good purpose, like fixing up the slums, and cleaning the water, building the stadiums, curing zika, cancer, and mental retardation, amirite? Quit your bellyaching. If you don't buy at least two tickets when thinking about the Olympics®, you are evil, and a thief. Those that do watch are treated the flashy thingy afterwards.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
This is true - but in the case of the Olympics, I'd rather that instead of reporting the facts of who's won what, they report the facts of Olympic corruption and how the Olympics does damage to the host country. And the ongoing cheating and doping.
Or show pictures of the sh#t floating in the Olympic rowing area. And the people who have been displaced. And how only the well-to-do will benefit from the new subway extension "for the Olympics." And the funding crisis for hospitals that can't treat patients because of a lack of basics such as gloves and syringes.
While we're at it, why not have a campaign to nominate #ZikaMosquitoes as the official Olympics 2016 animal?
Only a bunch of pinheads would get excited about the actual Olympics. Maybe the IOC is secretly hoping to spread Zika to create more pinheads? #OlympicZikaConspiracy :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Commercial entities may not post about the Trials or Games on their corporate social media accounts
Good luck with that.
Apparently the letter says that any company whose primary mission isn't media is forbidden from using any pictures taken at the Olympics, sharing, and even reposting anything from the official Olympics account.
Reminds me of the time when the IOC decided the card game Legend of the Five Rings somehow infringed on their trademarks.
This from the same crowd that refuses to ban Russia in the face of clear evidence of a state sponsored doping program.
Is this an intentional Streisand Effect? Are they just trying to get their name out more by claiming they don't want you to talk about them?
You can bluster and threaten as much as you want, but reporting on the facts is perfectly legal.
That's true but the IOC and USOC don't care. They will sue you even if you did nothing illegal and I don't think this is an idle threat. They (mistakenly) think they are protecting their corporate sponsors by doing this. They sued Wizards of the Coast for using a symbol that could not possibly have been mistaken for the Olympic rings.
The IOC is obviously a corrupt organisation, so proscribe them and prosecute them under RICO. Get rid of the commercialism in the Olympics and make it an amateur contest for individuals rather than national teams.
If they're basing this on owning the copyright to the Olympics, this isn't going to work - owning a copyright on the name of a thing doesn't mean that you can prevent anyone from talking about your thing, just that nobody else can sell it.
It's not only a copyright but a trademark too. They Olympics and symbols relating to it are all trademarks so the primary argument would be trademark infringement though in many cases their argument would be a weak one. Often they don't have a solid legal leg to stand on but they have demonstrated in the past that they will no hesitate to sick their flesh eating lawyers on anyone who crosses them.
Basically they are trying to protect the (substantial) money they get from their "official sponsors".
if only all media companies would just say "screw it" and not post anything about the Olympics.
If they can't resist talking about Donald Trump and his douchebaggery they sure as heck won't resist talking about the Olympics and their corrupt douchebaggery. Even when they should...
At the next Olympics, trademark security will be even stronger! No one will be allowed to know where the Olympics is held! You will have to pay a fee to use the word "Olympics".
I would be absolutely thrilled to not have to hear about the Olympics at all, except in this kind of light - the hue that makes it look fucking stupid.
I say they should crack down even more so I can enjoy the pure silence.
I really hope this year is the year that this farce dies. Between Zika and Russia, there's a chance. Such a waste of time and money.
I should put something clever here. Maybe someday.
Not at all.
Let's them play their money games in private.
I know, it will be hard.
Totof
Starer pistols will no longer be loaded with blanks, because I can tell you the results of the race; but then I have to kill you.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
To be fair, while this latest idiocy is the USOC, the IOC is even worse about this same sort of bullshit.
Other than Trademark law, how exactly is this ban enforceable? I suspect legally companies are free to tweet anything they want as long as they don't include terms specifically trademarked by the IOC, much as advertisers referred to the Superbowl as "the big game" instead of the trademarked "Superbowl" term.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Why are the Summer Olympics being held in Brazil IN WINTER?
Please re-tweet this. It asserts your constitutional right to free speech.
Bruce Perens.
any terrorist incidents will be seen on nbc only with there editing and tape delay.
And they can block from showing any thing in rio / enforce blackouts CNN, cnn international, BBC World News America, fox news, CBC, BBC America, FOX
News Channel, FOX Business Network, ETC.
It's a big turd every year, anyway.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
The Constitution is the law above treaties. No treaty can take away your right to free speech.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
At least here in America.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
This is the future of how all companies will behave under the TPP.
You violate a trademark if you mis-represent a good or service as that of the trademark holder. And it has to be in the same trademark category that they registered. Having a trademark does not grant ownership of a word, and does not prevent anyone else from using that word. Use of a trademark in reporting and normal discussion is not a violation.
Bruce Perens.
Any company tweeting about Olympics will be ... banned ... sued ... slapped on buttocks ... deleted from any social media (whatever this means)!
We have full powers now !
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
This is not a facetious comment - I've been involved with a few things for kids over the years and the Twitter restrictions listed in the article are minor compared to what you have to put up with trying to promote *their* event with kids.
For example, you can't have any kind of media publicity without the local IOC's permission. You cannot use the terms "Olympian" or "Olympic Athlete", instead you must use "Athlete that has/is going to compete in the Olympics". You cannot display the five rings (even if it's adorably drawn by a five year old). You cannot have your own "Olympic medals".
It's amazing because you are promoting *their* event for free, for them.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
All of you (non-commercial) people on the tweetspaces ... you now need to start using those hashtags for all sorts of unsavory things. If they're going to be that way about it, make sure the tags are useless.
Did they learn nothing from the whole "Santorum" debacle?
I am sending my reporter Joe Olym to Brazil and he will be sending us photos. #OlymPics
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
"Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited,"
Obviously people talk and post pics...etc....
#include bier;
Goodness knows this one stunk before it ever started.
(If at first you don't succeed, do it different next time!)
This story from arstechnica Any use of this article without the NFL’s express written consent is prohibited is a good read, including
Attempts to alter these copyright claims have yet to produce real change, but the sports leagues have been forced to alter some of their behavior relating to copyright. Major League Baseball, for instance, has long claimed that fantasy sports leagues must take out a license in order to use real player names and stats—despite the "fact" that facts aren't copyrightable.
#include bier;
I have like one post from 4 or 5 years ago. Now I'm going to start tweeting about the olympics. Because fuck you.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
I personally expect this Olympics in brazil to be a shitstorm of epic proportions. I wouldn't be surprised if an athlete or two were abducted by one of the Favella gangs. Brazil has a poverty and law enforcement problem, they've ignored the Favellas and police corruption for decades and it's going to bite the games in the ass.
I loved the recommendation that people who are long distance swimming should keep their mouths shut while swimming.
Who in their right mind would risk their life this way?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Last Week Tonight Winter Olympics 2022
The ending here is not one of his best, but the two bits with Brian Williams are priceless. The other good bit: 7000 pages of host-nation demands.
Apart from the women's hockey finals, I can hardly recall the last minute of Olympic coverage I've watched in ten years, just because I hate IOC with the burning intensity of a thousand suns.
You might think I'm exaggerating, but consider that it's only one sun per seven pages of arrogance from geriatric gargoyles that even the French don't want.
We can't pick where we go to compete
Bullshit. Nobody is saying you have to compete in Brazil's shit-hole. You have free choice. Others are refusing to go because of the risks.
happy at the progress made to get to this level of competition and be on this stage, even if it's a stage covered in human waste
Do you realize how stupid that sounds? Even mud wrestling is more hygienic.
Considering the long history of athletes struggling to make ends meet
Big f*cking deal. Go get a real job instead of living off the sports welfare system - a system that, for most, leaves them with no marketable skills when they're done, no future, and does significant damage to the cities that host it.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Just as likely to get abducted by the police. When the best you can say is "at least it's not Venezuela ... yet" .... Of course, money and power and fame are more important than common sense when it comes to decision-making. And let's face it, for every Caitlyn Jenner who uses it as a spring board, there are thousands who end up with nothing afterwards.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
In fact, I can see the mountain range from my window and the whole National Park.
Try to stop me, greedheads!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
... everybody ignored it. No action was taken. The end.
Read the title...
Meaning they may have a trademark in the USA, but for it to be valid outside of it, it's another question altogether.
Good luck...
With regard to the Olympics' official twitter account, anything that the IOC posts can't be restricted in this manner as is very clear in clause 5 of the Twitter ToS. https://twitter.com/tos?lang=e...
So.... let's say I have a company with no agreement with the IOC to be a sponsor or any other thing. Said company can tweet what they damn well want. There is no agreement in place between IOC and said company, ergo, no agreement to either break or enforce. The IOC is firing blanks.
Considering the long history of athletes struggling to make ends ...
Did you know that as recently as the late 1980's professional athletes were barred from entering the Olympics?
They can't make ends meet? They can cry me a river and go whore themselves out on sponsorship deals like the rest. Hell, if an olympic diver can make some coin advertising laundry detergent then I've no sympathy at all.
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
I gave up when I started realising the Olympics stopped being about sportsmanship and your average sports person and all about who has the best genetic freaks and the smartest drugs and the best corporate sponsor. For example they now know that you can give enhancement drugs to an athlete withdraw them months even years before the event and the athlete will still retain some of the advantage of taking the drugs. So when you hear of past drug cheats getting back into the Olympics with times that are almost the same as when they were a drug cheat, well now you know why.
The Olympics are its own type of Intellectual Property covered under different laws than the normal copyright and trademark laws in most countries.
Indeed. Last I checked, facts aren't copyrightable, trademarked, or otherwise protected by intellectual property rights ...
There must be limits to this, otherwise I could film Olympic events and broadcast them, since it is all just facts. Those photons did in fact reflect those wavelengths at those exacts points in time...
Agreed. At some point, there's a line that gets crossed between "fact" and "representation". Representations of facts (e.g. a video, a written story, etc.) are copyrightable, yet the data itself isn't. Where that line is, I'll admit I can't say (not to mention that I still haven't dealt with the question of using someone's likeness in text/image/whatever), but we have plenty of examples to point towards the idea that textual reporting on what occurred falls well on the side of "fact".
This is the problem with technology, it makes lines disappear quite easily. eg If all I'm doing is reporting data, in extreme detail, but it's still just data, and then you have some tool that can construct that data into some sort of easily viewable format, then you're effectively doing the same thing, but off the hook from a legal standpoint. All the is being reported is data, the location and description of every photon 60 times per second.
Information wants to be free. Technology is only going to make the information laws harder and harder to enforce.