I remember, back when I was a little kid, the awe the Olympics and all it stood for inspired in me, the admiration and respect I had for the athletes - the world-class athlete, something I aspired to be.
The Olympics represented true, honorable competition in a global arena. It was a field on which countries could peacefully battle for superiority, where all other conflicts are put aside and focus turns to the support of their athletes.
Now that I am older and actually pay attention to some of the stuff in this world, among the things that've most disturbed me is discovering what the olympics is really about, what it really represents - successful marketing tactics by corporations, and extensive contracts with the IOC in the interests of those corporations. The Olympics is no longer about worldy competition as much as it is about a global audience to which corporations can peddle their wares.
Yes, I did enjoy watching the competitions, but not without the realization that everything I saw - the shoes, clothing, jumbo TV's in the stadiums, even the timers - was attached to a corporate logo (Nike, Reebok, etc). I had to force myself to push aside the image of corporate puppeteers looming over the games with their controlling strings attached to every player on the ground. It depressed me and truly ruined the Olympics in my mind.
And now this - a 10-year ban on Internet reporting of the games to protect the huge sums of money pumped into the IOC by TV stations for exclusive rights to reporting on the games's events. I can't even put into words how much this disturbs me - that ligitmate news organizations are completely shut-out from a once openly accessible, non-profit, sports-oriented competition so TV, of all media outlets, could maintain its monopoly on Olympic reporting. This is just pathetic.
I have one question though. Who enforces the IOC's laws? If a web site were to report on the Olympics, what action would the IOC levy against that site? Would whatever the IOC did be truely enforceable? Would that site be protected by its local laws?
Slashdot Mirror
I remember, back when I was a little kid, the awe the Olympics and all it stood for inspired in me, the admiration and respect I had for the athletes - the world-class athlete, something I aspired to be.
The Olympics represented true, honorable competition in a global arena. It was a field on which countries could peacefully battle for superiority, where all other conflicts are put aside and focus turns to the support of their athletes.
Now that I am older and actually pay attention to some of the stuff in this world, among the things that've most disturbed me is discovering what the olympics is really about, what it really represents - successful marketing tactics by corporations, and extensive contracts with the IOC in the interests of those corporations. The Olympics is no longer about worldy competition as much as it is about a global audience to which corporations can peddle their wares.
Yes, I did enjoy watching the competitions, but not without the realization that everything I saw - the shoes, clothing, jumbo TV's in the stadiums, even the timers - was attached to a corporate logo (Nike, Reebok, etc). I had to force myself to push aside the image of corporate puppeteers looming over the games with their controlling strings attached to every player on the ground. It depressed me and truly ruined the Olympics in my mind.
And now this - a 10-year ban on Internet reporting of the games to protect the huge sums of money pumped into the IOC by TV stations for exclusive rights to reporting on the games's events. I can't even put into words how much this disturbs me - that ligitmate news organizations are completely shut-out from a once openly accessible, non-profit, sports-oriented competition so TV, of all media outlets, could maintain its monopoly on Olympic reporting. This is just pathetic.
I have one question though. Who enforces the IOC's laws? If a web site were to report on the Olympics, what action would the IOC levy against that site? Would whatever the IOC did be truely enforceable? Would that site be protected by its local laws?