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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?
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Why are the Summer Olympics being held in Brazil IN WINTER?
Using a trademark when discussion the trademarked item is what trademarks are for. You can't ban anyone from using your trademark for talking about your item.
Of course, you can sue them, but that's because you can sue for any reason at all, in the US.
This is the future of how all companies will behave under the TPP.
Here's a little piece I wrote back in 2000...
An Excerpt from NBC's Olympic coverage
BC: Hi! I'm Bob Costas, and welcome to NBC's incredibly wonderful coverage of the Olympics(tm). In fact, our coverage is so wonderful that we want you to enjoy the anticipation so much, that we wait till tomorrow! Now let's go to the events.
Cut to the 10000 meter run
Announcer1: Look! There's an American running in this race. He hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell of winning, but we're going to keep the camera trained on him, because we know you don't care about who wins if it's some foreigner.
Announcer2: That's right! Hey, look, the American guy just got lapped by some foreign dude. They should change the rules so that the Americans always come in first.
Cut to 20 minutes of commercials for Nike, IBM, and Coca-Cola
BC: Hi! I'm back. And weren't those commercials thrilling? Oh yes, here are the results of the 10,000 meter race. It was actually held yesterday, but we know you didn't want to know about them today. Some foreign guys won, so you don't care. But now we'll cut to a clip from four days ago at the pool, because we know you love to watch Americans accept their gold medals!
Cut to a clip of some US swimmer accepting their gold medal with the Star Spangled Banner playing in the background.
BC: Doesn't that just bring a tear to your eye? He managed to win a gold meal, even after he suffered a hangnail last year that almost ended his career. And we'll be showing you that clip every day!
Looks off camera for a minute...
What? Oh, I'm sorry. It appears that that athlete has been banned from the Games, and had her medal stripped because she said that she believes that Nike(tm) uses sweatshop labor. Darn. Now we'll have to find another heartwarming clip of an American accepting a medal. Meanwhile, it's off to the fencing competition.
Cut to yet another 20 minutes of commercials.
BC (showing bruises on his face): Sorry, I lost my head there for a minute. Management has "reminded" me that Americans don't care about fencing coverage, so we'll go to something else. Here's Rhythmic Gymnastic coverage...
Cut to the Rhythmic Gymnastic coverage...
Announcer1: Hi. We're just down to the part where some pre-teen girl runs around the floor holding a huge ball, and we pretend it's a sport. We know you love this coverage.
Announcer2: Oh! She dropped the ball! Darn it, and she was an American, too! Now we'll probably have to broadcast some pictures of a foreigner. They should change the rules!
Cut to 20 more minutes of commercials.
BC: Well, that wraps it up for our Olympic coverage for tonight. After your local news, we'll rerun this entire show, instead of showing other sports that WE know you don't want to watch.
Cut to 20 more minutes of commercials
Closing Credits. Includes the line: This is the property of NBC and the IOC. If you even talk to your friends about who won before we broadcast it, we'll sue your asses off!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Not necessarily. Take a look at the relevant portion of the Lantham Act. It would have to fit one of the provisions therein. It might make a false suggestion of affiliation, but it's arguable.
Bruce Perens.